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Wheelchair accessible holidays in France. Enabling the disabled traveller to holiday in France in style and comfort.
Carl and Jacqui Alban welcome you to I Need A Holiday Too, the new concept in accessible wheelchair holidays for disabled people. Based on the banks of the River Jaudy in La Roche Derrien, the north coast of Brittany in France we offer the comfort of modern living in a rural traditional setting, yet we are only ten minutes away from the beaches, several towns and all the other attractions you would expect on a holiday.
The Old Cotton Mill was transformed during 2006 into six luxury apartments, which are all accessible for a disabled traveller. Purpose built within strict guidelines we have transformed the inside of the Mill. We decided quite early on in the project that there was such a great need for wheelchair accessible and disabled accessible accommodation in this area to install a passenger lift to ensure everyone can get to all the apartments. This allows us to accept group bookings and large family bookings without hesitation. Yet it maintains an air of independence, everyone has their own apartment with all the facilities and there are communal areas for socialising during their French holiday.
Apart from the accommodation, we have several other services on offer which can work alongside you. Support workers, accessible adapted transport and also several pieces of equipment.
Ensuring all of the disabled holiday properties are wheelchair friendly makes them accessible to everyone. Not only have we met all local regulations, we have tried to meet regulations under the Disability Discrimination Act in the UK, plus we have used our own personal experience of disability for additional touches. All of our apartments have tiled floors, wide doors, turning circles, level access showers, shower chairs, raised toilets with grab rails as standard, plus many more features.
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Following hundreds of entries to the Able Magazine 'win a holiday in France' competition. The lucky winner was Susan from Bedfordshire. Congratulations and see you in the summer. |
Jacqui had a car accident in 1995 and used a wheelchair for eight years, this has meant that she has a unique insight into the "disabled world" and what it all means.
The whole ethos of the business revolves around giving disabled people the choice and control over their holiday. We don't need to know what your condition is, your disease, whether or not you use a wheelchair, have a sensory or physical impairment those are not important, we try not to label you, we try not to ask, all we need to know is that you want to go on holiday! You won't find certain words or phrases on our website such as handicap, suffers from, or wheelchair bound. his is beacuse we believe and work to the Social Model of Disability. Saying this the general term in French is handicape so we sometimes do have to use it!
What we can offer is a complete accessible holiday package to meet your needs and the needs of anyone who supports you. What we don't agree with is that you may have support whilst at home but your husband, wife, friends or family are expected to meet all of your care whilst on holiday - surely it is their holiday too? Also just because we have said accessible, disabled friendly, support packages doesn't mean to say that we are charging you any more, experience shows that some travel agents and accommodation owners put a little wheelchair symbol on their website and it gives them the right to charge an extra £500.00. Our prices are in line with everywhere else around the area, that isn't disabled friendly! YES, you have to pay for a care/support package, but we can accept a direct payment and NO you don't have to pay for any equipment that we have in stock - this includes hoists, pressure mattresses, shower chairs for example.
On our accommodation pages you will find lots of photographs, information with measurements, layouts, whats included in the price. We hope that we have included all the facts that you may need. If there are any additional pieces of information then please don't hesitate to ask. We can now offer discounted Ferry Crossings with Brittany Ferries, which can be substantial discounts, especially when booking early. We have an availability calendar and price list, plus you can download our booking pack. Please do check with us that we do have availability, as the calender is updated regularly.
When we initially started with two apartments in July 2006, we faced a fair few sceptics, as to whether the concept would work. We on the other hand, were completely convinced that there was a need for this. Not only had we been on supposedly "accessible" holidays, to find that the word accessible takes on many different guises of understanding and my definition of the word is completely different to what people think is accessible, but also we felt that good, clean, accessible accommodation was not only sadly lacking in this area, but throughout the world. Admittedly things are improving, but very slowly, and when you have a choice of thousands of holiday properties and hotels you will only find one or two that state they are accessible, and even then you are on a wing and a prayer! So here we are with a New Year in front of us, hoping beyond all hope that the sceptics will finally be proved wrong. With 123 weeks booked last year, we are hoping for more this year.
The influx of new guests has started, which is lovely as Easter was just so early this year, and school holidays didn't seem to tie in with Easter at all we have to admit to being a bit worried. But it is now the start of May and the sun is shining, leaves are out, flowers starting to come up and we are feeling far more confident. Over the winter we spent many hours repainting, repairing and just re-invorating all the apartments. You will notice on the calender that apartment 5 is completely blocked out for the year - this we have made now our permanent/temporary home. For those who have already visited us you will remeber the barn, well yes that is still the barn, ok it will be my house some day but just not yet!!Hence we are living in number 5. For new visitors this gives you the added security of us being on site, we are about to answer questions, chat to, generally socialise with, fix any problems, etc, etc.
The garden is looking greener, and more plants have been put in, which appear to be doing very well. Anyone who fancies a bit of gardening whilst they are here, there is always lots to be done - so you're more than welcome......well you can't blame a girl for trying! We have made the terrace a really inviting area, and are just in the middle of finishing the BBQ area, and planting more containers.
There is a new swimming pool in Lannion that has just opened and although I haven't actually tried it out myself just yet, it is wheelchair friendly and the best bit is that you don't freeze when getting out of the pool, the air temperature and water temperature are the same, plus also no chlorine is used at all.....watch this spae I will find the time to get there at some stage.
So now its back to work, we are seeing lots of visitors to the website, which is really confidence boosting, but if you have any comments or you think we can improve it in any way, drop us a line and let us know.
If you have any questions, no matter how daft you think they may be, again ask away, we can be contacted in a variety of ways and will always try and answer any queries. Just as a word of warning to anybody thinking about holidays, especially for this summer, do book earlier rather than later - in 2007 the majority of the school hols were booked by the end of january!
Read the comments on the customer feedback page - some are emails and letters and others I have taken directly out of the visitors book.You will also see lots of photographs that our guests have kindly given us permission to put on the website.
Also - you don't have to be disabled to come and stay here! Come anyway - we're a great fun loving bunch, love entertaining, welcoming travellers from all walks of life and love our little piece of France!
Happy Holidays and don't forget our telephone number - 0800 949 6801 - is FREEPHONE so it doesn't cost a bean to call.
Jacqui
1st May 2008
Now for a non-accessible gite/B&B just down the road from us. Handy as an overflow for those large groups wanting to use our accommodation may I recommend the following:
Rivoallan holiday gite and B&B
or
www.my-holiday-in-brittany.com
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