After months of hard work and preparation, I am delighted to introduce you all to the relaunch of AMB and its fantastic new website. Not only will you now find videos but we've added extra sections and deepened our cover of Provence too. I think you'll find AMB's new site easy to browse, incredibly informative - not to mention entertaining - but also a wonderful tool to discover and enjoy two of the most stunning regions of France.
Although I think you'll find the site quite intuitive and easy to use let me talk you through some of the goodies you're going to discover. First of all the home page is radically different and brings to the fore-front some very special features. Just below the video you'll find a neat little module that shows recently received articles, the latest entries into our A-Z Directory, French Radio and, my all time favourite - YouTube. Here you'll find a selection of videos specially related to France which I'll be updating frequently.
You'll also find two major new sections: ECO France and Destination France. Eco France was inspired to me by Carol Drinkwater when she recently explained her very exciting work with UNESCO - and thus ECO France was born. Destination France acts as a springboard to the history and culture of France - something sorely missing from our previous website. We've also introduced a short overview of both the Cote d'Azur and Provence. It's quite easy to be dazzled by some of the sights here - so I'm hoping these two sections will inspire you to explore other towns and villages when you next plan a trip here.
We've also radically improved our recipe page - in fact - it now has a whole new section: Food & Drink. It too benefits from video and a wider range of topics and is much more fun too. In addition we've also reworked our Notice Board and brought our Events Calendar up to date.
You'll still find some golden oldies such as Martin Hill's Vive La Difference and Book Reviews, and Reverend Anne's Celebrations of the Heart, and while we've tweaked the Editor's Blog, we have dropped our Forum.
Interspersed throughout the website you'll also find a number of different videos located on different pages. For those of you unable to wait to come across them - here's a list of them now:
- English Book Centre
- Gourdon
- St Paul de Vence
- Etang de Font Merle
- Jil Bartley
- Author: Carol Drinkwater
- Author: Maureen Emerson
- Magical Weddings on the Riviera
- Bastille Day 2008
- Valbonne
- KItten's First Day Out
All you have to do now is find the pages they're located on! We'll of course be adding to this list throughout the coming weeks and months as we make further videos for the website.
But it goes without saying that the website and the articles contained within, could not have been done without both the help and generosity of my contributing authors and it is to them that I offer my most heartfelt thanks. Like Nigel and I, they too have a distinct love of their region and have also put 'pen to paper' to share it with you.
So, from Nigel and I and my hard working team of contributing authors, welcome to the relaunch of AMB Cote d'Azur! May you enjoy it as much as we've had putting it all together.
Alice M. Barker
