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Monet’s Garden, Giverny – 28 Stunning Photos

Monet's Garden in Photos

After its long winter closure, Claude Monet's garden and home re-open each April for the French warmer months. Gardens have been planted and trimmed, paths primed, prepped and everything made ready for the expectant admiring crowds. The gardens and home complex are open from April to November each year and are operated by Foundation Claude Monet.

Monet's Garden, Giverny -  28 Stunning Photos

To celebrate the re-opening of the garden I've created this photo gallery post from photos taken during my visits over the years. Photos are divided into the two gardens, the top garden surrounding the house - The Clos Normand Garden and the lower garden, The Water Garden.

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Easter Decor and Family Gift Ideas

Easter Decor and Family Gift Ideas

Easter Decor and Family Gift Ideas 

Easter in France, or Pâques, is an important holiday. It's religious, but also a great time for family gatherings, and of course time off work with a three day weekend. It's all about delicious food around the family table, egg hunting and relaxing on the long weekend.

Easter fun also means decorating your home and adding little personal touches to welcome family and friends around the dinner table, or to their guest bedrooms during the holiday. Hiding eggs for kids' egg hunts is one of the best parts of Easter I think. My children are older now so we don't have 'hunts', but I remember them well, especially on the occasions we invited their friends to join in on the hunt!

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Traveling to France? Here’s My Checklist

Traveling to France Checklist

Traveling to France? Here's My Travel Checklist

Are you traveling to France soon? Depending on the length of time you plan to be away can make a big difference to how you approach your trip. Here's my checklist on preparing to go away that I hope will help you for your next trip to France, or indeed anytime you travel away from home. 

I've taken groups of ladies to France for holidays and have helped friends plan trips to France and other countries and found that their questions were often similar. After offering recommendations based on what I do, it led me to think that a checklist would be helpful recourse for you.

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Valentine’s Day Gift Guide

Valentines Day Gift Guide

Valentine's Day Gift Guide / Gift Guide for Her

Who loves Valentine's Day? I do and lots of you must also because for the last few years I've been asked for gift guides for Valentine's Day and other important days of celebration. I promised myself and some of you, that this year would be the year for beautifully curated and French inspired gift guides full of products that you could easily purchase. 

So kicking off 2023's first gift guide is our Valentine's Gift Guide with selected products from Amazon. Easy to purchase, with a super delivery network and selected for the discerning Francophile femme,  I'm sure there'll be something for everyone! Many ideas would also work well for Mother's Day and birthdays, so save this post to help your gift shopping go effortlessly this year. 

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Marie Curie – Polish French Physicist

Marie Curie

Marie Curie - Polish French Physicist

There are some people that are just simply extraordinary and who change the course of history. Marie Curie is one of these people. Marie Curie was a Polish French Physicist who changed the course of medicine and is one of France's honoured scientists. Marie Curie was born Marie Sklodowska but is mostly known as Marie Curie. 

Life Story of Marie Curie

Marie Curie was born on 7 November 1867 and died on 4 July 1934. Marie was the daughter of a secondary-school teacher and gained a general education in local schools. Her father also taught her scientific procedures. After becoming involved in a students’ revolutionary organisation she thought it best to leave Warsaw (which was dominated by Russia at the time). She moved to Cracow which was under Austrian rule at the time to study physics and chemistry and then later moved to France. 

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Thanksgiving Day and Feeling Grateful

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

As my American friends are celebrating their Thanksgiving, I am celebrating my life and all that I feel grateful for too. Who says we cannot adopt a different country's celebration and tweak it for ourselves?!

Thanksgiving is not originally an Australian or French tradition but it is growing in popularity because being grateful is always in style and worth celebrating. American Thanksgiving is celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of November.

The Pumpkin and Thanksgiving

If Thanksgiving is not one of your traditions maybe you don't know why the pumpkin is associated with the day? Northeastern Native American tribes grew squash and pumpkins and gave them as gifts to the first settlers and taught them all the different uses for pumpkins.

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Where to Stay in Paris – My Recommendations

Where to Stay in Paris? It's a question that I get asked each week by readers and social followers asking 'where to stay in Paris' and more specifically, 'where do you stay in Paris' and 'what hotels do you recommend'. After answering numerous emails and helping loads of travellers with my personal Paris hotel recommendations, I thought it made sense to put my suggestions all in one place and share it with everyone. Honestly, I don't know why I haven't already done this!

The timing is perfect to share this blog post because I've just come back from a couple of pleasant Autumn days in Paris and stayed at my usual hotel, and I have a number of emails from readers waiting for my reply on 'where to stay in Paris'. 

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