French Travel Blog

Art comes alive, exploding in color and movement at the immersive Carrières de Lumières in les Baux-de-Provence and at the Atelier des Lumières in Paris. And in 2021, the experience will be very rich, as the two themes are: Gaudi, the Architect of the Imaginary Dali, the Endless Enigma Music accompanies you as you dive into the universe of these artists. Projections on the walls and floors make you feel as you are swimming in the different works by Dali and Gaudi. Atelier des Lumieres © Culturespaces / Nuit de Chine Both venues are great,...

At home, France Just For You Founder, Emilie Thyebaut, her husband Guillaume and their girls Jeanne and Pauline love to cook and bake. Pauline invented this recipe herself! The girls love to watch a TV show called "The Best Amateur Pastry-Maker" and they get lots of ideas from there. They had their grandmother take them to a pastry-making shop called Zodio, and bought some special molds and other things they would need for this recipe. Instructions For about 10 small molds (the size of a small (French-sized) muffin mold). Make a chocolate mousse You will need: - 3...

In this post, we explore one of France’s pride gourmet foods - cheese! We have listed some of our favorites, along with the regions they come from and some delicious pairings. But first, here is an amusing anecdote from our Senior Trip Planner Laura’s mother, Judy, about a cheesy faux-pas in a French restaurant while she was visiting France: My husband and I were on a driving tour of France on one of our first trips to Europe. One evening we had dinner at a nice restaurant to celebrate our anniversary. The meal was wonderful and went perfectly until the end. The waiter arrived...

In October, to mark the grape harvest season, our recipe of the month is 'Grape-Picker's Stew' - wholesome enough to keep the grape-pickers' energy levels up through the harvest! Ingredients 8 slices of streaky smoked bacon 8 large sausages (we recommend Toulouse, beef or venison) 4 onions cut up into large chunks 200g of dry green lentils (Puy) 2-4 garlic cloves 300 ml of beef stock 150 ml of red wine Fresh thyme Instructions Heat the oil in a large casserole dish and fry the bacon until it's crispy over a medium heat. Remove the bacon, then add the sausages, browning them all over. Then...

At the time of writing, we’re in the midst of the grape harvest! Farmers markets all over France are bustling all year round as locals continue to prefer fresh produce over the grocery store chains. And this is even more true during the fall harvest season, with its abondance of new winter vegetables. In this post, we spend a week exploring markets in Provence in southern France. As well as farmers’ markets, we’re including antiques, handicrafts, textiles and other markets that are wonderful for buying authentic French souvenirs . So make sure you keep this list handy the...

This gougères recipe comes from France Just For You's Senior Trip Planner, Laura. This is one of my favorite recipes. I discovered gougères when meeting my future family-in-law for the first time. They are “Bourguignon” (from Burgundy), as are gougères . While traveling in Burgundy, you may be served gougères during a wine tasting. But don’t wait until then, these are not complicated to make and I guarantee they will be a success. I like to serve them before dinner, with a glass of Chablis, also from Burgundy. This recipe makes about 40 ...

We finally have some tomatoes ripening in our garden and this Tomato Tarte Tatin is one of my favorite things to make for a light summer meal. Unfortunately, there was not quite enough tomatoes ready in the garden, so I had to add some from the market. Emptied tomatoes (Photo© France Just For You) This recipe feeds about 8 people. I like to serve it with a simple green salad with garlic croutons and a crisp and cold white wine from the Mâcon area. Ingredients: 12 medium sized tomatoes, cut into halves and emptied 5 tablespoons of tapenade, preferably made from black olives, but green will...

This delicious, garlicky sauce is a specialty from Provence. It goes very well with summer vegetables, salted cod fish, crispy bread and croutons, snails, mussels, potatoes, and eggs. We hope you enjoy this very quick and simple recipe! Ingredients 1 garlic clove 2 egg yolks 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1⁄2 cup olive oil 1⁄2 cup vegetable oil 2 pinches of salt Instructions Cut off the ends of the garlic clove, peel it, and put it through a garlic press. Put the garlic in a pestle and mortar, add the salt and grind it until you have a paste. In a glass/ceramic mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks, the...

We understand that travelers will be worried about the risks of traveling while the coronavirus pandemic continues across the globe. We will update this post with the latest information about France regarding travel, safety measures and the benefits of traveling in late 2020 and 2021. In June 2020, after lockdown had ended, we hit the road and left our home in the Loire Valley to visit some of our favorite parts of France. We felt very safe at every attraction, B&B and restaurant we visited. People are still being careful about observing the social distancing rules. And apart from seeing...