Emilie & Laura on a wine adventure in the Loire Valley!
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Dear Travelers,
Spring and summer are a wonderful time to visit France. In fact, the summer sun is already shining here, and Emilie and I have been busy planning tours and welcoming the same number of travelers as we did in 2019!
Another important part of our job is to try out all the experiences we recommend to our travelers.
Recently, a wine guide we’ve been working with for a long time invited us to experience one of his new ‘wine adventures’.
Daniel’s specialty is very old vintages, and he offers wine tours in exceptional places across the Loire Valley.
On this particular wine adventure, Emilie and I embarked on a “toue” – a traditional wooden flat-bottomed boat used by fishermen on the Loire river.
After a relaxing and interesting tour, the captain anchored the boat on a small island in the middle of the river, where a wine-tasting was awaiting us! I couldn’t even check this off my bucket list, because I never even thought this was possible!
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We even tasted a local white wine that had been aged for over 30 years… it was delicious and a great surprise.
This is the type of unique experience we select for our travelers: personalized, unexpected... and unforgettable.
What's more, as we come out of the pandemic, our self-drive tours mean you can travel at your own pace, stay with French hosts in lovely Bed & Breakfast accommodations, and avoid the tourist crowds.
It's a beautiful time to be in France. If you have any questions about our tours, we would love to hear from you!
Warmest regards,
Laura
Laura Crotet
Trip Planner at France Just For You
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Tap on the photo to find out what your tour of France could look like!
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France For Wine Lovers
Many of our travelers are wine lovers and ask to visit vineyards around France, where they enjoy wine-tastings and tours of the vineyards and wineries.
Since this is such a popular request, we created an itinerary for gourmet travelers who want to experience and learn more about French wine.
This tour includes stays at wineries (like the one in the photo) or within walking distance of vineyards. You'll also be able to explore some of the lovely wine towns, such as St Emilion and Medoc (Bordeaux), Chinon, Vouvray and Amboise (Loire Valley), Beaune and Dijon (Burgundy) and not forgetting, of course, Reims in Champagne!
We'll also introduce you to some French heritage, culture, gardens and suggest some scenic walks, based on your preferences.
If you're a fan of French wine, we know you'll love this tour.
To find out more, click on the button below.
A stunning wine estate in St Emilion, Bordeaux
© Nicolas Claris
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Mita and Bip's Golden Wedding Anniversary in France
Our travelers Mita and Bip from the USA recently went on one of our self-drive tours of the Basque Country, Provence and Carcassonne to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. They sent us some photos from their trip and we love this one, taken while they were truffle hunting with local experts (and their owners!) in Provence.
Mita & Bip with their findings after a truffle hunt in Provence with the experts!
Mita and Bip left us this lovely review on TripAdvisor:
"Without a doubt France Just For You is the best company to use if you want to do a self guided customized driving tour in France.
We used them in May 2017 for a 16-day tour of Normandy, Burgundy and the Loire Valley. We were so happy with the trip that we decided to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary by using them again.
We just finished our 16-day trip to the Basque Country, Carcassonne and Provence area. Emilie and Laura meticulously planned an amazing trip again the second time around. They are both excellent and responsive communicators.
The tour was tailored to our needs starting from reserving the rental car and the bed and breakfasts (wonderful places with wonderful hosts), setting up private tours, and giving us many options of things to do each day of our trip, restaurant suggestions in each place, and the list goes on!!
The guidebook was filled with a wealth of information that we will treasure. If I could give them more than five stars I would."
Mita and Bip in Saint Jean Pied de Port in the Basque Country
With special thanks to Mita and Bip for the photos and the wonderful review, and congratulations on celebrating your golden wedding anniversary!
If you have a photo or a story from your trip to France, email us so that we can share it in a future newsletter!
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Some of our favorite places to stay in the Loire Valley
In this blog post we talk about where you may like to stay if you visit the Loire Valley. Of course, if you're traveling with France Just For You, we'll take care of all the trip-planning for you, plan your itinerary based on your preferences, and make sure you're staying in a central location, where you can easily visit the nicest parts of this region (and some of our favorite hidden gems!).
But you may find this post interesting, as it tells you a bit about some of the cities and towns in the Loire Valley, and has some nice photos to inspire you!
Amboise, Loire Valley
© W. Bulach CC-BY SA 4.0
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Cheese & Shallot Pastry bites - perfect with an apéritif
This month I’d like to share with you a very easy recipe that I like to prepare in the summer to accompany the 'apéritif'.
You might already know that for French people, l’apéritif – also called l’apéro – is a very important time of the day, especially during vacation time.
Between around 6pm and 9pm, we usually drink some wine, beer, a local spirit like Pastis from southern France, or homemade spirits like walnut wine or orange wine). And what we eat with our “apéro” is also very important to us.
If you have guests, in our experience, these homemade bite-sized pastries (bouchées – like vol-au-vents) go down a real treat. And so I bring you a recipe for Feuilletés au échalottes et au chèvre - cheese and shallot pastries.
Everybody likes it and it’s very easy to prepare quickly. Visit our blog to see the full recipe and instructions!
Bon Appétit!
- Emilie
Emilie preparing the pastries in her kitchen
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...there are around 300 castles in the Loire Valley?
In fact, the Loire river played an important role in the development of the 175-mile stretch of the Loire Valley.
The Celts used to trade with the Greeks along the river, and once France became a nation, the first chateaux were fortresses to defend against invading armies, including the Umayyad forces in the 8th century and the Vikings in the 9th century. During the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) every town in the Loire Valley was a fortress as the French battled the English.
After the war, the chateaux were used for leisure by kings and their courtiers, leading to a century of intense chateau construction. The Italian wars of the late 15th century brought a wealth of inspiration to the Loire Valley, including Italian art and Renaissance architecture styles. Leonardo da Vinci was invited to Château d'Amboise as the guest of King François I in December 1515, and lived and worked in the nearby Château du Clos Lucé.
Later on, many French nobles moved closer to Paris, but some remained in the Loire Valley, and a few castles are still lived in today – including the one we're standing in front of below.
Trip Planners Emilie and Laura in front of the enchanting Chateau de l'Islette
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Next month, we will visit Normandy and the Verdun and Somme regions of northern France. We would like to show you some of the World War battle sites as we mark the anniversary of D-Day, coming up on June 6th.
We believe we all have a duty of memory to those who fought and gave their lives for our freedom. Some of you will have had relatives who fought in the wars, maybe even in France.
We will explain how our tours can help you learn more about the historic events of the wars in France, including trips to places your ancestors' or fellow countrymen would have been. We'll also share some stories and photos from travelers who were able to retrace their ancestors' footsteps in France, and in some cases, visit their graves.
Warmest regards from France,
Emilie
Founder of France Just For You
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