I don’t know about you, but I’m like a moth to a flame when it comes to French related bits and pieces. It doesn’t matter if it is a book, a seminar, a podcast or a YouTube video. If I stumble across it, you can guarantee that my curiosity will get the better of me […]
The Distant Francophile Blog
445 posts
I am a big reader. I always have been. From my earliest days, I’ve loved books. As a result, our house is full of books. My devices are full of books. And I honestly can’t imagine my life without reading at least a few pages of a book every single day. These days, I mostly […]
Long time readers will know how much I adore French style. There’s nothing more fun for me than setting myself up for a little bit of style spotting. And this trip was no exception. Thankfully I had plenty of opportunities to watch the world go by – and I was very excited by what I […]
Well, it probably goes without saying that our recent trip to the Côte d’Azur was the best fun. We ate all of the food, caught up with friends and visited some fabulous places. I can’t wait to share all of the things – style, accommodation, insights and even the books I read – with you […]
So, it’s now less than four weeks until Scotty and I head back to France. We’re headed back to the French Riviera and it’s safe to say that I’m super excited. I’ve been in full scale planning mode. Thoughts of what to pack have obviously been on my mind. I’m thinking there will be lots […]
Thanks to Distant Francophile, I get lots of emails from all over the world. Sometimes these emails are from fellow francophiles wanting to say hello. But most of the time the emails come from humans who are in the middle of planning a trip to France. I get questions on what to pack and where […]
Regular readers will know just how much I love answering questions from this awesome community. As with my day job, and my coaching, I prefer sharing things you’d actually like to know, rather than just guessing what you’d like to read about. So you’ll know that I was very happy to write this post, given […]
Is there anything more French than the plat du jour? It’s my favourite thing to order when we’re eating out in France. I love the fact that restaurants advertise their dish of the day on blackboards out the front of the restaurants. I also love how the plat or menu du jour can stretch your […]
So, Scotty left me to my own devices the other day and I managed to book us a trip to the French Riviera! Like so many of us, we’ve not travelled to France since 2019 – back in the pre-pandemic times. I would never have thought that when we flew home from France that last […]
I’ll never forget the meal I ate the first time we visited Marseille way back in 2008. We were novice travellers at the time, and spent most days delighted and intimidated by the food choices on offer. We’d wander around French towns and villages, trying to decide what and where to eat. Some days we […]
Whether I was ready or not, whether I actually wanted them or not, I was about to learn two lessons. One would be a lesson in French style and the other in the French understanding of appropriateness. The sales assistant wouldn’t have had it any other way. I’d come to the obvious conclusion that I […]
I’ve really been looking forward to writing this blog post. Why? Because I love it when the Distant Francophile community reach out with a specific question for me to play with. And I had a super question come up recently in the comments of My Top French Travel Tip post. Denise is a long time […]
The thing I love the most about creating Distant Francophile is all the fabulous francophiles I’ve met over the years. And one of my favourite fellow francophiles is the very fabulous Jo Karnaghan. I first introduced you to Jo in episode two of The Franco-Files. Jo is the very clever founder of frugal first class travel. […]
The world moves in mysterious ways sometimes. Recently I launched a podcast for my coaching practice titled Self.Styled.Life. The feedback on it has been fabulous. And interestingly, because I’ve been sharing how Distant Francophile has been such a part of my own self-styled life, I’ve been getting a stack of questions about my love of […]
Bonjour and happy new year to you. We hope things are fabulous in your world, and that 2022 has started exactly the way you wanted it to. Having said that, we know that so many of us around the world suddenly find ourselves more impacted by the pandemic than ever before. So if your 2022 […]
It’s time for my next book review. I know that because another book was dropped at our front door yesterday. And that means that my ‘to be reviewed’ book pile is now officially two piles, because the original tower was starting to get ridiculously high. And today, I thought I’d share my thoughts on a […]
And before we can turn around it’s that time of year again! As unbelievable as it seems, Scotty attended his first Christmas function yesterday. His afternoon out prompted me to look at a calendar. Which lead to my sudden realisation that it’s now less than five weeks until Christmas. Seriously, how is that even a […]
Ok, so this one comes under the heading of: ‘And now, for something completely different…’ Long time readers might remember that Scotty (the principal photographer here on DF and my awesome hubby for anyone who hasn’t been here for a long time) is a rail enthusiast. He’s loved trains since he was kid. He’s built […]
If you’d been staking out our Melbourne home over the past month or so, apart from being extremely bored, you would likely have come to two realisations. Firstly, Scotty and I have led very dull lives during lockdown. And secondly we’ve recently had lots and lots of books delivered. I’ve always loved anything to do […]
‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’ So went the classic and much quoted line from Monty Python’s Life of Brian. The characters went on to name any number of things the Romans had done. But I feel like they missed one of the more important things the ancient Romans delivered. And that’s the […]