Property in France has fallen in price by as much as 20% in some areas over the last five years.

The recent hikes in property taxes and a continuing uncertainty about the market mean that prices could drop still more.

Wine experts in France have been surprise at the rocketing sales experienced of rosé wine.

Sales have tripled in the last 10 years, despite connoisseurs long having placed rosé at the bottom of the barrel.

The Socialist opposition party has demanded a parliamentary hearing on the privatisation of Portugal's airports operator ANA.

The formal request was lodged last week after an earlier request for a grilling of the members of the Monitoring Committee of Privatization of ANA was rejected by the government.

Nine out of ten young drivers stopped and breathalised over the Easter weekend in Lisbon and Vilamoura were found to have a 0% or negligible blood alcohol level.

The 100% Cool campaign took place under the supervision of the GNR supported by the National Association of Spirits to promote road safety.

A last minute burst of activity from home-grown Portuguese tourists has filled the Algarve’s hotels this Easter weekend bringing relief to many businesses reliant on good Easter takings to kick off the season.

Hotel occupancy in the Algarve has grown by 4% over last year, mainly due to increased demand from Portuguese visitors who join the Spanish, British, German and Irish, according to an unusually buoyant Elidérico Viegas, President of the Association of Hotels and Resorts in the Algarve.

Not only has Portugal entered into deflation, but it has been joined by seven other nations within the EU.

In Portugal, prices fell 0.4% in March from a year earlier. The same drop also hit Sweden, making it the first and only state in northern Europe to slide into deflation.

In the rapid approach to the best day of the year for chocolate, research has shown that one in six Britons indulge in chocolate every day.

Some eight million throughout the land admit to enjoying some chocolate daily while a further 17% say they consume it between four and six times a week.

Venetians are being encouraged to cough up €99 each to keep developers away from a lonely local island deemed to be one of the most haunted in the world.

Poveglia lies uninhabited in the Venice lagoon. In the 18th century, it had been used to quarantine people who were suffering from infectious diseases. By the 20th century, a nursing home on the island was beset by rumours that experiments were carried out on the mentally ill.