The Distant Francophile Blog

445 posts

Love of France Ultimate Paris Address Book

New French Inspired Things To Share With You

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 […]

Winter in Paris Jacqueline in Paris

Jacqueline in Paris – A Book Review

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 […]

Packing for the south of France

Packing For The South Of France – Some Wins & A Big Fail

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 […]

Visiting Eze

Visiting Èze – My Full Review

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 […]

Day Trips From Nice

What would you like me to share from our upcoming trip?

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 […]

planning a trip to France

Planning A Trip To France – Why Less Is More

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 […]

Quotes about Paris Flying to France

Flying To France In Comfort

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 […]

Plat Du Jour

Plat Du Jour – A Book Review

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 […]

Why We’re Choosing To Head Back To The French Riviera

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 […]

Soupe de poisson

Master A French Classic – Soupe de Poisson

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 […]

Lesson in French Style French inspiration is everywhere

A Lesson In French Style And Standards

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 […]

Effortless packing Travelling Light In France With Toiletries And Cosmetics

Travelling Light In France – Toiletries And Cosmetics Edition

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 […]

Ultimate Paris Address Book

The Ultimate Paris Address Book – A Book Review

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. […]

French Travel Tips

My Top French Travel Tip

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 […]

French pharmacy favourites

My Current French Pharmacy Favourites

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 […]

Missing France How To French Country

How To French Country – A Book Review

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 […]

Best gifts for francophiles

Best Gifts For Francophiles – 2021 Edition

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 […]

A Railway Life

Introducing A Railway Life

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 […]

À Table

À Table – A Book Review

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 […]

Roman sites in France

Travel Planning – Roman Sites In France

‘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 […]