The Alpilles: Little Alps in Provence

When planning my 60th birthday celebration, my sister and I stumbled upon France Just For You, which saved us from the potential nightmare of traveling with 40 strangers on a bus. As a result, my sister and I, along with our husbands, experienced a trip of a lifetime! From the beginning, Emilie was extraordinarily responsive, informative, and more than accommodating to our wishes, both before and during the trip. For example, my sister and her husband experienced travel delays, and Emilie immediately offered to arrange alternative travel from Paris to our first destination in the Loire Valley. Before our travels began, Emilie sent us keepsake book, detailing our daily itineraries, replete with scheduled activities, restaurant suggestions, and optional excursions.Traveling through the Loire Valley, Normandy, and Paris for 12 days, each day was more spectacular than the previous one. The B&B near Chenonceau was a fantastic introduction to quintessentially French hospitality, charm, food, wine, and culture. From there we experienced true luxury in a serene setting in a chateau, where unexpectedly dinner was served (complete with vegetables from the castle's organic gardens). The B&B in Normandy was most memorable for the genteel hospitality of our host, Comte, who shared tales of his family through the centuries, including the arrest of his father in the foyer of the chateau due to his resistance activities against the Gestapo during WWII. The Count's son and his girlfriend served us a lovely meal around a stone fireplace in their charming apartment on the gorgeous chateau grounds. Thinking we had already experienced the best that France had to offer, we were blown away when we arrived at the B&B near Bayeux, warmly and creatively appointed. Finally, while less extravagant, the Hotel in Paris was equally as charming as our previous accommodations, located in a neighborhood teaming with cafes and shops in close proximity to all of the amazing sites that Paris has to offer! All of our hosts were extraordinarily gracious, serving us homemade French delicacies each morning and offering us helpful suggestions for making the most of each day. All in all, due to Emilie's fastidious planning, the trip was beyond perfect and exceeded our wildest dreams of a French vacation.

We had a wonderful experience with Laura and Emilie- they were very responsive to all of our questions and needs and helped us plan a fabulous trip!
While we were there, they were also very helpful when we needed assistance with reservations or had questions about processes during COVID.

There are not enough superlatives, or kind words, to describe the level of service Emilie, with France Just for You, provided us from the moment we contacted her, throughout our trip, and even her thoughtful emails upon our return. We contacted Emilie with a list of all the places we wished to go, the things we hoped to do, and our budget. We exchanged several emails (Emilie’s response time was always immediate) and, within a couple of days, Emilie created an amazing itinerary for our 2 week stay in France that allowed us to do everything we hoped for and several things we would not have thought about on our own. Emilie is an incredible listener which was very evident when we received our itinerary. She had arranged for everything including a French Smartphone with Google Maps, a rental car, skip-the-line tickets, a stay in a castle, wine tastings, etc. All of our accommodations were superb with hosts that spoke fluent English, were very knowledgeable about their area, and had great suggestions from restaurants to local “must do’s” and everything in-between. When Emilie says she has visited all of the accommodations in person, she means it. Each host talked very highly of Emilie and reminisced about her visits. From the moment we stepped off the plane in Paris, we knew we were in for a great experience. Emilie’s detailed notes (all in a spiral bound, 400+ page book with our itinerary, addresses, suggestions,etc.) on where to pick up our French Smart Phone (an absolute must and one of our best friends during our visit - loaded with our tailored book and several other great programs) and then our rental car, made the start to our journey very easy - relatively important to us since neither one of us spoke more than 10 words of French. We had the privilege of meeting up with Emilie in her hometown and she was just as delightful in person as we experienced with our email exchanges over the last few months. While the trains were sporadically on strike, depending on the day, Emilie was there to follow the schedule and be ready to make an alternative plan for us if needed. When we hit a small snag turning in our rental car, Emilie was right there to figure things out and get us on our way. We’ve traveled quite a bit, yet we both thought this to be our Best Trip Ever. Thank you Emilie and France Just for You!