600,000 hotel rooms from £26 - only six days to book

Something odd is happening in France. The former most popular holiday destination in the world appears to be having trouble attracting tourists.

It doesn't take a qualified head doctor to work out that it may have something to do with it now being one of the most wretchedly expensive holiday destinations out there. But it does seem as if the problem is being remedied somewhat.

The Accor Group, behind such names as Formule 1, Mercure, Etap, Novotel and Ibis, has slashed prices for bookings made until 1 June. It is offering 600,000 rooms across France and the rest of Europe from £26 a night but bookings must be made within a six-day window, which began yesterday.

Check out Accor's Happy Nights promotions here

Eurotunnel is at it too, offering 70% off hotels in the north of France.

Check out Eurotunnel's hotels offers here

In Paris, big, smart hotels are also having to take a ride down the discount route. The Meridien Montparnasse, for example, is dolling out rooms down from mega bucks to 111€ a night.

And Active Hotels is offering Paris hotels for 30€ a night, and even London rooms for just £5  - although I couldn't find any so not such a great offer as it makes out.

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French sales coming early

Here's one for Francophiles with spare euros in the drawer.

To help maintain healthy competition and to protect small business in France, the government only permits shops to hold sales twice a year - at the same time.

The next sales will take place on 24 June until 28 July, useless for anyone heading cross-Channel for the school holidays but ideal for anyone thinking about using this Daily Mail France day trip offer with P&O, which is valid until the end of June.

I'd expect big discounts this time round with potential savings easily offsetting the punitive pound-euro exchange rate.

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Probably the most useful page on the internet - Ryanair's list of charges

People love to knock Ryanair and with the ever-more imaginative ways of finding things to charge for I can't help but feel the company is getting harder to defend. Oh, yeah, it's still cheap sometimes and pretty reliable.

But with latest ruse which means you cannot now fly with Ryanair without paying to check in - £5 to check in online, £40 if you show up at the airport without having checked in online - it struck me that the most useful page on the whole of the world wide web is probably Ryanair's list of charges.

At least if would be if it was a bit clearer. For example, the 'Not Checked in Online Fine £40' is referred to as the 'Airport Boarding Card Re-issue - Booked via a Call Centre or Airport £40.'

Anyway, here's the page. Bookmark it, print it, check it regularly, memorise it or click on the image to admire it in full pop-up glory.

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/faqs.php?sect=CHARGES

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25% off one of those trampolines that everyone seems to have

If you want to watch your kid jumping up an down in a cage in the garden this summer, and you're the, now I'm guessing here, only other family apart from mine in the country without a trampoline, Argos has knocked 25% of one of theirs this week. It's around £75, down from £100.

Kid Active trampoline at Argos

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Legoland annual pass for just £10

It's true. Although it is only for children. But if you buy and collect your pass before the end of May you'll pay but a tenner. A saving of £43 on the annual children's pass at Legoland, a park suited to younger children. The adult's pass costs £71. Day tickets for adults cost £22.

For this and more Legoland offers visit Lastminute.com

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Richard Browning

Take it away - interest free loans for musical instruments

Ever fancied yourself as the next Noel Gallagher or, I don't know, world's best band The Toy Dolls, the man who saved country, Waylon Jennings, or one of the more interesting pop acts, Katy Perry, here's something worth checking out.

Take it away is an Arts Council initiative designed to help more people get involved in learning and playing music. The scheme allows individuals to apply for a loan of up to £2,000 for the purchase of any kind of musical instrument, and pay it back in nine monthly instalments, completely interest free.

Find out more about Take it away

The scheme is open to everyone (over the age of 18), but primarily designed to help those who might otherwise be unable to afford an instrument appropriate for their needs.

Its aims are:

• to encourage children and young people to develop their interests and skills in music making
• to inspire new players of all ages to begin learning an instrument
• to enable those on lower incomes to acquire an instrument appropriate to their needs (or the needs of their children)

Noel Gallagher talks about Take it away

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Late deals, cheap flights and money off hotels, villas and holidays

'The TravelMail editorial team is in the privileged position of receiving the very latest holiday deals direct to our inbox. If a tour operator, airline or holiday company has an offer they want to shout about then we're often lucky enough to be the first to know about it.'

Check out the latest deals on flights, hotels, villas and holidays

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Impress your children with Club Penguin coin cheats

The evolution of 21st century children goes something like this.

Teletubbies > Chuckle Brothers > Tracy Beaker > Club Penguin

If yours have reached stage four and are part of the global Arctic phenomenon - a gaming world populated by Disney's penguins - then now may be the time to learn some of the secret helpful tips (cheats) to show you're not completely out of touch. In turn, you could help your children's penguins earn coins to buy virtual rubbish for their cartoon igloos.

Ok, it's not a great way to learn about money. In fact, it's probably how our bankers learned about money. But you can't ignore progress.

Here's one site worth checking out.

Club penguin coin cheats

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Free certificates of achievement for your children

Kids love stickers and certificates to reward their work and achievements. And now you can make your own.

Thanks to Resource Shelf, which highlighted the site myawardsmaker, we can now make all kinds of certificates to say well done in sports, school, general and special occasions - in about the time it takes to type your child's name. Try these:

School certificates

Sports certificates

Blank templates

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Beach towels 2 for £5 and other deals from the Webless wonders

It's always interesting to see that some of our more successful low-cost High Street stores don't bother spending (wasting?) money only fancy online presence.

Take Primark: Profits up | Website rubbish

Or TK Maxx (parent company TJX): sales up | you can't buy stuff online

And Bon Marche (Peacock Group):  Sales up | Nothing to buy online

If such cod analysis offered any kind of insight into retailing, which is probably doesn't, you could argue that maybe Woolworths should never have bothered with a website. Although those in the know clearly disagree as the brand is already back up and running on line at Woolworths.co.uk.

More interesting still are the High Street stores that have a strong presence in the real world with only a half-hearted online store.

One such is QS, which is currently offering a brilliant deal for beach towels at 2 for £5 in store. But you'll hear none of this on its website, which has a small collection of shoes, hoodies and, yes, towels but, no, no sizes so it's unlikely they'll sell any of them online.

Oh and QS stores are doing rather well too.

Could this really mean the High Street is finally winning the battle against cyberspace? Only way to find out is to go shopping in town and see for yourself.

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Elvis tractor | Debenhams sale

Fans of tractors and fans of Elvis and particularly fans of Elvis's tractors will be delighted to learn that an Elvis tractor is now fully restored and on show at Graceland.

Learn more about Elvis's tractor

Back over here in the slightly more real world, fans of saving money and fans of Debenhams may be interested to learn of another mid-season 4-day mini-sale at the department store from Wednesday.

http://debenhams.maymegaday.ibrochures.co.uk/default.asp

Neither of these snippets are particularly interesting, I fear. Suffice to say that Debenhams seems to have survived all kinds of debt troubles to become the profitable darling of the High Street. And Elivs died yet is  making more money than ever. How weird can business get?

Here's some footage of Elvis driving a tractor.

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>> Check out the £7.75 Lego tractor

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Call France or Australia from a mobile for 1p a minute

So, John Humphrys was wrong. Mobile phones are something to love and cherish.

I beg to differ, of course.

But if you are of the Humphrys way of thinking then get over to the Alpha Telecom website as you may find their tariffs for certain countries are worth checking out.

Use the rate finder to see if it's for you.

Calls to much of Europe, the USA and Australia are just 1p a minute from your mobile. You need to pre-load your account then dial a prefix or register your number for automatic savings.

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The man in Seat Sixty-One: affordable rail traffic across the UK and Europe

If, like me, you find the reality of trying to get a family from A to B on a train a jaw-droppingly expensive and therefore an almost always abandoned experience, check out The man in Seat Sixty-One.

One of the train ticketing websites, Trainline.com, has today been pushing its latest brilliant offer of tickets for just £9 in June and July. But as ever when I try to book I find it would cost a family of four more than £300 to visit Newcastle from London for the weekend. Not bad, you may argue. But not £9 each way each either. Not on the days and times I want to go and not as cheap as jumping in the car.

But help is here. There are alternatives to Trainline.com and there is a world of affordable rail travel out there if only you can work out the fares and the timetables. And that is where the man in seat sixty-one comes in.

Seat sixty-one is 'The Man's' favourite seat on the Eurostar trains between London and the Continent. He's done it a few times, you see. And he argues that the Eurostar has opened up Britain to a network of railway freedom that previously we could only oggle at from the cliffs of Dover.

Whether you can find the affordable fares he promises is something I have not been able to do. But it doesn't really matter because spending a lunch hour studying the possiblities is a wonderful bit of escapism. Check out...

http://www.seat61.com/

http://www.seat61.com/UKtravel.htm

And once you're hooked: buy the book

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First ever British Airways business class sale

For the first time ever, British Airways has launched a 2-for-1 promotion on all Club World flights from Gatwick and Heathrow for travel throughout the summer.

According to Travelzoo, the specialist travel offers website: 'When we checked this morning, we found return fares to New York from £1,666 for two people - by far the cheapest price we could find for flights of this calibre.'

The discount applies to all return routes in Club World, including the following (prices are for two people and include all taxes):

Mumbai from £1,604
Miami International from £1,959
Antigua from £2,000
Hong Kong from £2,633
Cape Town International from £2,996
Rio de Janeiro International from £3,022

This offer must be booked before midnight, 5 May, for travel between 1 June and 31 October, but dates vary by route.

Yeah, OK, it's still expensive. But..

...on board you'll enjoy individual flat beds, touch-screen telly and menus designed by some of the world's top chefs. You'll also have access to an exclusive lounge with complimentary food and drinks before boarding. Check out...

BA's business class sale

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