French Travel Blog

Monet at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris

Monet's water lilies at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris

By Naomi Dalton As many visitors to France are only in Paris for a few days, they arrive with a ‘bucket-list’ of attractions they want to see. The most popular include the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, The Musée D’Orsay , Notre Dame Cathedral and one or two places that are more specialized, relating to their interests, such as the Centre Pompidou Modern Art museum , or the Paris Botanical Gardens. One museum that is really worth a visit is the Musée de l’Orangerie . It’s only a 15-minute walk through the Tuilerie Gardens from the Louvre, so it’s convenient to visit...

France's wine regions and our favorite wineries

France's wine country, south of France vineyard

Many of our travelers ask to include a wine tour, wine-tasting or vineyard tour in their self-drive trips. Therefore, we wanted to write a post on some of the famous French wine regions, including some top tips on the best wineries and wines. Bordeaux Bordeaux, in the French region of Aquitaine, is one of the most famous French wine regions, along with Champagne and Burgundy. This is partly due to Bordeaux being next to the coast, which led to it becoming a major wine exporting region for centuries. Bordeaux became the main wine supplying region to England in the 12th century, when King Henry...

Pistou Soup recipe

As we write this, France is slowly coming out of lockdown following the Covid-19 pandemic. During this time, we have enjoyed spending more time with our family at home and in our gardens. Our Senior Trip Planner Laura and her husband Jean-François have been working on a garden project which involved dismantling their outdoor swimming pool and recycling the wood to make a vegetable garden. With so many fresh, homegrown vegetables soon to be harvested, this inspired Laura to share this vegetable pistou soup recipe. This is a delicious, comforting meal when it's cold outside or when you're...

Apple and Pear Crumble recipe

Serves 6 people Ingredients 6 apples 2 pears a small packet of vanilla-flavored sugar 120g butter 160g all-purpose flour 125g granulated brown sugar Emilie preparing the apple and pear crumbles. Photo © France Just For You Instructions Cut the apples into pieces and cook them in a pan until they get quite dry. Add the pears, without cooking them, cut into smaller pieces In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar and soft (not melted) butter by hand Put the fruit at the bottom of a dish and spread the paste across the top. Cook at 190°C for about 15 minutes, until they...

Smoked sausages and green peas recipe

Serves 4 people INGREDIENTS 4 smoked sausages (not too big, if possible). If you can find a Morteau sausage, then buy for 1 for 2-3 people 400g of podded green peas (fresh peas are a much, much better option than frozen) Smoked pork chest which you cut into big “lardons” bacon strings 2 red oinons 2 carrots 3-4 bay leaves Garlic INSTRUCTIONS In your cast iron cocotte dish, brown the onions, the sausages, bacon and carrots until it has a nice smell and color. Add the bay leaves, peas and about ½ liter of water, salt and pepper. Let it cook on the stove half-...

Chocolate profiteroles recipe

Both Guillaume and I and our girls love cooking together when we’re at home, and this week we were making yummy profiteroles! This popular dessert is normally a popular option among dinner guests, so we invite you to try our recipe at home. Guillaume helping Jeanne and Pauline with the chocolate sauce... mmmm! ( Photo © France Just For You) INGREDIENTS For about 8 to 10 profiteroles (we usually serve 3-4 profiteroles per person) choux buns: 50cl of milk 7cl water 1 small teaspoon of salt 2 small teaspoons of sugar 2 eggs 75g of all-purpose...

Places to Visit in France during the Fall

Many of you will have had to cancel the vacations you had planned for 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Like us, you probably can’t wait for life to return to something close to normality so you can enjoy doing the things you love - seeing friends, going out for dinner, and starting to make travel plans again. In this post, we’re going to fast-forward to offer you some inspiration for future Fall vacations. Depending on where you want to go and what you want to do, the fall can be an ideal time to visit France. September is often still warm but not as overwhelmingly hot...

Baked Camembert in a box recipe

How about this for a cheesy treat? This recipe will give you a taste of Normandy - if you're in Normandy, look for some Camembert cheese in its box so you can try it out! This is a nice light lunch option and normally goes down well with anyone who enjoys cheese! Ingredients Camembert cheese in a wooden box Salt & pepper A side salad Crusty bread Endives Cooking instructions Take your Camembert cheese out of its wooden box, and leave the box to soak in some water. This helps prevent it from burning in the oven/over the fire. Remove and throw away the wrapping from the cheese. Cut a cross...

Leg of Lamb Easter Dinner recipe

As Easter approaches, it is also the lambing season, thus we wanted to share this delicious lamb recipe for you to try. Lamb can be a delicious meat when it is slow-cooked to bring out all the finest flavors. This traditional recipe should leave you with a plate of lamb that is so melt-in-your-mouth tender you’ll almost be able to eat it with a spoon! Don’t be put off by the 7-hour cooking time; once you have prepared your ingredients and have the lamb in the oven, the idea is to leave it there to slow-cook for seven hours - you won’t be cooking the whole day! If you try this recipe, please...

Your France Road Trip Playlist

A fun way to prepare for your road trip around France is to compile a playlist of French music to listen to on your drives between stops. You can also listen to these before you travel, and choose your favorite songs. Immerse yourself in the French lyrics, melodies and rhythms, as you look forward to your vacation! Search for the following songs on iTunes, Spotify, and Deezer. You can also listen to them on YouTube, just to see if you like the style! Oldies Yves Montand A Bicyclette Edith Piaf Edith Piaf was one of France's most famous international starts of all time. A...

10 French series to watch on Netflix

At the time of writing this post, 1.5 billion people around the world are in some form of enforced confinement due to the Covid-19 epidemic. As many of our readers had plans to travel to France this year, we want to help keep your travel dreams alive. Our wishes for all our readers and travelers is for you to be immersed in French culture, and really understand what it means to be French - from the humor, to the food, to the sceneries and our traditions. Here we have selected a variety of French-language series of diverse genres. We have tried to include something for everyone, and many of...

How to Plan a Road Trip Through France

A Step-by-Step Guide Photo © : Robbie Shade As expert trip-planners, of course we would love to craft a personalized self drive tour of France - just for you! Trip-planning is hard work and time-consuming, especially when you don’t know the country or the language. The advantage of using a local trip-planner is that you can let us do all the hard work, and all you need to do is look forward to your trip. The other way of looking at it is that trip-planning can be part of your adventure! That’s why we’ve put together this step-by-step guide for planning a road trip. This is based on our...

Travelers' story: our love affair with France

Last month, Ben and Jane Lintott from South West England, UK, reached out to us to share their France Just For You travel story in our newsletter. As they have such a lovely story about their relationship with France and their travels through the country over many years, we wanted to share it here on our blog. As told by Ben and Jane Lintott, UK From childhood caravan/RV holidays to buying a house in Dordogne, we really have come full circle in our love affair with France! Childhood holidays in France Before our trip with France Just...

Our Guide to French etiquette

Many travellers are nervous about inadvertently offending local people, or committing a ‘ faux pas’ , while they’re visiting another country. That’s why we only work with local people who we know will offer our travelers a warm welcome and be patient, helpful, and understanding as they learn about and adapt to the culture around them. The French may appear to be closed, indifferent or inattentive sometimes (particularly in restaurants and stores); but sometimes there’s a good reason for this. Like any nationality, we have characteristics and ‘quirks’ that are very particular to our...

10 Unusual Things to Do in France

At France Just For You, we proudly specialize in the unusual! Our goal is to send our travelers off the beaten track to see France’s hidden gems and to try things they’ve never tried before. Whether it’s the food, the activities, the wine or the scenery you're excited about, here are some unusual things you can do on your trip to France, which you may never have done before (or do again!). And of course, if you book a tour with France Just For You, we can arrange for all of these unique experiences to be included in your self drive itinerary. GO ON A ‘MAMMOTH’ JOURNEY BY TRAIN THROUGH A...

Chocolate macarons recipe

Here Emilie Thyebaut, Founder of France Just For You , shares her favorite recipe for making Chocolate Macarons! These normally turn out better if you're baking them on a dry day rather than on a rainy day. Homemade chocolate French macarons (Photo © : France Just For You) Ingredients For about 20-25 macarons Biscuit: 3 egg whites 200g powered sugar 125g almond powder (grounded very thin) 30g sugar 15g bitter cacao (French brand Van Houten) 20 drops of red food coloring Ganache filling: 120g baking chocolate 80g butter...

Crêpe Suzette recipe

As Lent and 'Pancake Day' approaches, we would like to share with you our favorite recipe for making a Crêpe Suzette. Ingredients: 110g/4oz plain flour sifted 2 eggs 200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water 50g/2oz butter 1 medium orange, grated zest only 1 tbsp caster sugar 150ml/5fl oz orange juice (from 3-4 medium oranges) 1 medium orange, grated zest only 1 small lemon, grated rind and juice 1 tbsp caster sugar 3 tbsp Grand Marnier or Cointreau 50g/2oz unsalted butter RECIPE FOR ABOUT 15 CREPES - INSTRUCTIONS Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl...

A Guide to Nice Carnival 2020

The Nice Carnival will run from 15-29 February in 2020 . It’s the most important event on the French Riviera, indeed, in the whole of France. Every February for two weeks , over a million people from all over the region, the country, and the world flock to the festival to enjoy and participate in the events and soak up the buzzing Carnival atmosphere. The Carnival’s theme for 2020 is “ King of Fashion ”. Expect flamboyant floats, colorful costumes and stunning parades reflecting a theme that is such a strong part of French culture. There will...

Movies to watch before you visit France

movie theater - best movies about france

By Naomi Dalton A great way to start immersing yourself in French culture and language before visiting France is to watch a few French movies or movies set in France. The first French-language film I ever watched was Les Visiteurs with actor Jean Reno (of Leon fame). We were in French class at school and our teacher let us watch the film as it was the last double lesson before we finished for the holidays. Prior to that, I’d always been too lazy to watch foreign language films - reading the subtitles seemed like too much work! But we all found Les...

Brioche des Rois Recipe

The Brioche des Rois (the Kings' Brioche) is a popular sweet treat in the Provence region of France, traditionally eaten in celebration of Epiphany, on January 6th. Its name refers to the three Kings' arrival to visit the baby Jesus. Nowadays, this bread-like sweet loaf is eaten throughout January to celebrate the new year with family and friends, regardless of religious background. Here is a delicious recipe for you to try at home: Ingredients: 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 cup warm milk 1 tablespoon dry yeast 5 oz flour 3 eggs 4 1/2 oz soft butter 4 oz small, diced candied fruit 1 tablespoon...

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