The best autumn breaks in France
With travel picking up in autumn 2021, The Guardian asked me to select 20 ideas for autumn in France. It was a pleasure to tap into my many great experiences of autumn in France, as well as some of my favourite places to stay. Read them here While this was written for 2021, they’re not […]
Best affordable places to stay in France
It’s rare to be able to delve into your heart and pull out all your favourite places for one article, but this feature for The Guardian allowed me to do just that. And even though I’m lucky enough to have stayed in some pretty luxurious places, these easily rival them for comfort and friendliness of […]
Sawday’s Detours – how to explore France
Alistair Sawday’s forays into France for his guide books inspired many people to take it slow and see the best of France and now that his publishing empire has extended into accommodation collection, their website is a great resource for planning a trip. I love their B&Bs, hotels and self-catering properties because they always feel […]
A family road trip through France
On July 4th, 2020, the British government gave the green light for travel in France after four months of lockdown during the pandemic, so I booked the Eurotunnel and put together a trip of a lifetime through France, taking the route straight through the middle, stopping for adventures on the way that ranged from a […]
Exploring the vineyards of the Luberon and Vaucluse
Wondering which vineyards make the best wines in the Luberon but also offer an enjoyable visitor experience? My article from Decanter magazine covers this abundant area that encompasses several different wine appellations, along with hotel and restaurant recommendations. Read the pdf here: Travel-Luberon-Ventoux_draft-CB 1 This is a slightly longer version of the main article: As […]
Paris for families
In November 2019 we went to Paris en famille for a story for The Independent. Story below… For further tips not included in the story, scroll down! Paris for families The child-friendly guide to Paris – not including Disney! Strolling the elegant boulevards, dining in atmospheric brasseries and admiring world-class art in Paris can be […]
Blog: a handy list of villas and gite companies
‘Can you recommend a good gite company?’ is one of the questions I’m most frequently asked, so here is a list of the companies and individual gites and villas I most often mention to people: BUDGET Sawday’s If you’ve never heard of Sawday’s, then they’re a great place to start your search. They list characterful […]
Blog: 7 reasons to love self-catering in France
Some of the best trips we’ve had in France have been when we’ve been based at a gite or villa and this style of holiday works perfectly for France. Yet you don’t often find recommendations for individual rental properties in the press. This tends to be because editors prefer to recommend accommodation that will have […]
About the France Traveller newsletter
This newsletter, what’s all that about then? As you’ll have seen from this website, I write about France travel, food and drink for national newspapers and magazines (and a few websites too!), but as there are always more tips, ideas, photos and videos than I could ever cram into my articles, I’ve given them a […]
Best stopovers en route south
“Where do you stop when you drive south?” is possibly the number one question I get asked… and it’s so good to have dozens of suggestions up my sleeve. Whether you want to just enjoy a bit of luxury and switch off at a beautiful boutique hotel, or have a more adventurous stay in a […]