It’s only a couple of weeks now until Scotty and I head off on our two month adventure in France. It has been one very long countdown. It’s over 15 months since we were last in France – and to say we’re excited for our trip to arrive is a massive understatement. We simply can’t wait to get back on French soil.
Our itinerary is locked down. We’ll be covering a real mix of French villages and cities. When we originally started planning this trip we thought we might spend all of our time in one location. But in the end, we couldn’t choose just one! So instead we decided to tick off a number of sites on our must visit list. And we’ll also be revisiting several ‘old favourites’ as well.
We’ll basically be heading south to north on this trip. We fly into the south of France and will spend time in Nice, Montpellier and Carcassonne before we head up into central France. After visiting the Loire Valley, we’ll head to St Malo and Rouen. And of course, it makes sense to round things out with a few nights in Paris before we fly home.
We have a number of day trips on the agenda including a perfume making workshop in Grasse and a return visit to the Champagne region. Our Do-It-Yourself tour of Champagne is the most popular post ever on DF and I’m keen give it a refresh to ensure it is still relevant today. Of course, the chance to taste the delicious local beverage always holds a certain level of appeal. We’ll also be checking out a number of French tourist railways (Scotty loves them), finally making our way to Giverny and I’m looking into a knife making workshop in Thiers.
Like Postcards From France, But Different
With so much to share I’m planning to write more regularly while we’re away. (France is so great for my creativity.) And I can’t wait to share information on the topics you want to learn about most. Recently I asked the DF community for their feedback on what they wanted me to write about while we’re travelling around France. I received a fabulous response. I love how curious everyone is about France in general and about how Scott and I travel. Suggestions for post topics included everything from how we save and plan through to advice on French restrooms. I’ll be doing my best to cover as many requests as possible, as well as sharing my observations on French culture and style.
I’ll also be posting daily on social media. I’m keen to do some videos of the towns we visit. And I thought video might be an entertaining way to share some French accommodation options with you. Feel free to join us on our French adventure through Instagram and Facebook – we can’t wait to share the fun with you.
Is there anything specific you’d like us to share as we travel around France? Be sure to us know in the comment section below.
And until next time – au revoir.
12 thoughts on “An Update On Our Upcoming Visit To France”
Hi Janelle,
Since you’ll be coming to our area (35 min from Carcassonne), I’d love to show you our village of La Livinière in the Minervois, nestled in the middle of vineyards and olive orchards. It’s where the A.O.C. Minervois La Livinière was born in 1999, and I can introduce you to a few of our organic wine makers if you’d like. A little walk through our magnificent “garrigue” to check out a 400 year old Cade tree and looking at the Pyrenees mountains and its sacred Canigo on a clear day. A little visit to two of the largest dolmens (3000 years old) can also be scheduled. Let me know
Thank you so much Chris for offering to introduce us to La Livinière. It sounds like an intriguing part of France. I’ll have a look at our itinerary and reach out via email if we think we can squeeze in a visit. Thanks again.
There’s a tourist train south of here, le Train Rouge, that runs between Axat and Rivesaltes, with some amazing views.
A knife-making workshop sounds incredible!
Do you listen to the Earful Tower podcast? Oliver Gee, the host, hails from Perth but now lives in Paris. He has lots of travel tips. (Or was it here that I learned about the Earful Tower?)
Thank you for the recommendation Catherine. Scotty has us booked on the Rouge Train and the yellow one too!! We normally travel a little later in the year when most of the tourist railways have closed. He is absolutely making the most of our September visit and has booked us onto 4 trains so far! I’m not a huge fan of trains, but I can’t complain. A large percentage of our days in France are centred around my interests! And yes, I am a fan of Oliver’s Earful Tower…but I would have said that I discovered him via your interview with him rather than the other way around 🙂
Hi Janelle,
I see you’re going to spend time in Rouen, which is a couple of hours or so from Lille. Don’t know what you have planned, but if you have some free time and if our diaries allow, perhaps we could meet you in Rouen for lunch or dinner?
Graham x
Graham I would be so great to catch up with the two of you while we are in that part of France. I really hope we can make it happen. Stay tuned – I’ll shoot you an email xx.
Your trip sounds wonderful Janelle! We’ve done a few road trips through France the last one being through Normandy and Brittany which was amazing. We loved St Malo, (we had 5 days), as I’m sure you will & I’d like to recommend the Bergamot Tea Rooms for lunch. If you can get to the beautiful village of Dinan which is not too far from St Malo please do you’ll adore it. We are back in Paris in about 6 weeks , (after a Baltic cruise & island hopping through the Saronic Islands Greece) and I cant wait !!! Enjoy your trip I’ll be watching with much interest your journey.
Thank you for the kind wishes Denise. We have a week in St Malo, so I will definitely check out Tea Rooms, and Dinan as well. Thanks so much for the recommendations. Your trip sounds amazing too – be sure to travel safe and enjoy every moment.
Hello Janelle,
Looking forward to hearing about your trip and of course seeing all of the pics!
Thank you so much Andrea. We look forward to sharing our adventures with you!!
Just found you..Very Good Website…. I don’t have one….yet…
Thank you Sylvia – I’m glad you are enjoying Distant Francophile.