Permanent Film Festivals with Associated Scriptwriting Contests Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Permanent Film Festivals and Scriptwriting Contests (Usng France as an Example) Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Many British tourists visit Northern France, because William the Conqueror and his descendants were kings and queens of both England and France. 

Ferryboats capable of bringing tour buses and cars use the harbor in Calais to bring over tourists and businessmen alike.

This region might like to hold permanent film showings of Luc Besson films that feature music, multiethnic heroes and villains, and technology from all over the world.  These films are already moneymakers in France and part of the country’s contemporary culture.

Theatres and sports bars could both show these films.  (People could wear ear buds in sports buds to watch various films and sporting events that are supposed to earn residuals for reruns.)

Also, scriptwriting contests could be run in different communities with a prize of free coverage to best determine which films to make for profit.

The French government subsidizes film production and might appreciate:

-scripts with coverage scores for production

-business plans that address distribution venues and merchandise marketing, especially of French agricultural products and useful products associated with the film

Scriptwriting festivals are a way of getting films ready for competition.  Towns around northern France might like to specialize in a particular kind of film.

The towns that might be interested in a permanent film festival with scriptwriting festival include:

-Cambrai

-Lens

-Valenciennes

-Calais

-Douai

-Béthune

-Dunkirk

-Maubege

-Boulogne

-Arras

-Saint-Omer

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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3-Country Buying Tour Game- France, Switzerland, and Germany Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

3-Country Buying Tour Game– France, Switzerland, and Germany:

 

Alsace (France)

Basel (Switzerland)

Stuttgart (Germany)

Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

In France:

Strasbourg –

Capital of the European Parliament

(The elected officials are here.  The bureaucrats are in Brussels, Belgium.)

-Beer Steins

-Moselle Glasses with green stems

Château de Haut-Koenigsbourg

-Books about Falconry and Heraldry

Riquewihr

-Kathe Wolwert Christmas Store here is open all year. 

The headquarters for this store is in Nuremberg, Germany.  They sell wooden nativity scenes, tin Christmas tree ornaments, and probably Mobil wooden toys for children.

-checked tablecloths, napkins, aprons, and placemats

Colmar

-The Issenheim Altarpiece in the Unterlinden Museum is the main reason for visiting this museum and the Madonnas carved in wood

-Canals run through town making it a Little Venice

-Colmar is the wine capital of Alsace, which is known for dry and fruity Rieslings

-Art books at the Unterlinden Museum

-Caraway Seeds to go on Muenster Cheese back in the US

Switzerland

Basel

-Group Banking Introduction to Swiss Financial Products?

-Fondue lunch with Fendant du Valais wine from Switzerland

-Cow bell souvenirs

-Rolex watches

-Mont Blanc pens with GPS

-Cartier Jewelry

Germany

Freiburg – Black Forest

-Hand carved Cuckoo Clocks

-Beer steins

Stuttgart –

Car Capital, Wine Growing Area (Riesling), and Chocolate Manufacturing Town (Ritter Sport)

-Ritter Sport can arrange factory tours

-Baltic pearls

(In the same stores sell Mont Blanc pens and Rolex Watches)

-Group Banking Introduction to German Financial Products?

-Porsche Museum

-USB-Ports with toy Porsches on the end

-Mercedes-Benz Museum

Both Porsche and Mercedes-Benz have their main manufacturing facilities here. All other German carmakers have sales rooms, too.

-Audi – luxury car brand made by VW

-VW

-BMW

-Metzingen and Brueniger Land 

Malls with Designer Clothes and Accessories

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Guigone de Salins: The Burgundy Touring Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Guigone de Salins:  The Burgundy Touring Game Created by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget 

Guigone de Salins was the wife of the Burgundian lawyer and diplomat Nicolas Rolin, who negotiated treaties on behalf of the Dukes of Burgundy.

Guigone was the descendent of an Italian family, who had been made nobility in France for the amount of money they brought into the kingdom.  Italian women had a higher literacy rate than French women to take of the trade interests of their families.

Italian women also managed several estates while their husbands were abroad.

When Guigone de Salins was widowed, she managed the Hospices de Beaune, which was a free hospital for vineyard workers.  The Hospice is in operation today.

The famous wine auction at the Hospices de Beaune is still attended by royalty and moviestars helps pay for free health care for Burgundian wine workers.

I have posted 7 blogs on this Savvy Mom Ruth Paget website about the suggested cities to visit on a tour of Burgundy below:

Burgundy Tour

-Dijon

-Vézalay

-Autun – Cathedral

-Autun – Lunch

-Hospices de Beaune

-Cluny Abbey

-Clos de Vougeot

This tour could be spread out over 1 to 2 weeks, especially during hot summer months.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting Ile-aux-Moines (Brittany, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting Ile-aux-Moines (Brittany, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

One of our friends in Paris had a family home on the Ile-aux-Moines (Monks’ Island) off the coast of Vannes in Brittany, France.

On a crisp, fall day, my husband Laurent, toddler Florence, and I set out for Vannes to pretend to be banished fishermen on the Ile-aux-Moines.

No cars are allowed on the island, so we trudged all of Florence’s toddler equipment (tricycle, helmet, multiple changes of clothing, sippy cups and so on) onto the island by making several ferryboat trips back and forth in the rain.  (It rains all the time in Brittany in the winter.)

Our friend’s family had a medieval era stone house on the island that was very chilly in the rain.  (Homes in Brittany all have very pointy roofs to let rain fly off roofs quickly and far away from homes.)

I told our friend that she needed tapestries from Aubusson to hold in heat.

“It’s never warm in here. Tapestries would hold in the cold,” she said.

Florence wore layers of little T-shirts and American sweatsuits that my University of Chicago roommate wisely bought for her when I came to show off “bébé Florence” to the good-looking Greeks in Chicago.

We forgot our chills when our friend came back with spiny lobsters for each of us.

She made a bowl of homemade mayonnaise to spread on baguette toast to go with the lobster meat.  We drank a Bourgogne Aligoté white wine with this ruddy meal.

We ignored the sheets of rain thudding on the roof and listened to rock music.  I taught Florence how to dance to the rhythm of the Rolling Stones, U2 and BB King, and Rai music from France.

We visited Ile-aux-Moines several times and even went to a wedding there.  Laurent filmed the wedding that had lots of strolling musicians playing bagpipes and harps and little girls twirling pixie baskets full of flowers.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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