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Did you know French police can check your home when you are away?
Here is how to sign up for the service, as well as a special check for elderly people. Plus, advice on how to avoid ‘fake police’ scams
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MAP: Which areas of Paris have had the biggest property price drops?
Drops of around 10% (up to €1,100 less per m2 in real terms) have been seen in several arrondissements. Only one has not seen a significant drop
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Our life aboard a barge near Bordeaux
Yann and Ombline Romanson transformed a 1930s péniche into a family home and thriving business on the Garonne river
Land-locked liner becomes museum
Lying on the Grand Plage at Port-Barcarès for the past 50 years, the former cruise liner Lydia, one of the oldest in the world, is being steered away from its former life as a tourist attraction plus disco, casino and restaurant to be made into a museum.
![](https://image.connexionfrance.com/100649.webp?imageId=100649&width=960&height=646&format=jpg)
Called the ‘Eiffel Tower’ of the Pyrénées-Orientales coastline, the liner has been restored and new decks opened to give visitors a taste of the high-life when it was a favourite of honeymooners in Australia.
Built in 1931 and called the Moonta, she sailed the southern seas and was sold after the war for Mediterranean cruises and renamed Lydia before being bought for the seaside resort as a new attraction.
Tugs took her from Marseille and beached her on bare sand where she had several lives being a ‘must’ for the jet-set and showbiz stars with a casino, disco and restaurant but also as a filming location.
Now called the Paquebot des Sables (Liner of the Sands) the restoration features her monumental staircase, the oak-lined salons and even her original teak deck, 8cm thick, with visitors able to see the officers’ cabins in the museum of a bygone age.