Loulabelle’s FrancoFiles

Aujourd'hui I escaped into the real world to get my Frenchy vibes fluttering at the Bendigo Art Gallery, chatting to curator Clare Needham about the current Paris: Impressions of Life exhibition.

This extraordinary exhibition was sourced from the Musée de Carnavalet in the Marais in Paris as well as fashion items from the NGV. Clare took me through all the 7 zones of the exhibition taking me through the story of the h...

Claudia Stahl is the creator of French inspired fashion brand Jac Cadeaux. Claudia lived in Paris for a number of years after inheriting a love of all things French from her mother. She went for a year and stayed for five years!

Claudia loves the language and the culture but clearly has been affected by the fashion too. Being there for 5 years, she got to learn the language, to meet and make French friends, travel a lot an...

Ruby Boukabou is an author, performer, tap dancer and Paris resident with whom I have had numerous wonderful French experiences including attending the Cannes Film Festival last year. The films selected for 2024 have now been announced with loads of Aussies set to be gracing the red carpet. (Bonjour Chris Hemsworth & Cate Blanchett!) Ruby and I are particularly impatient for the global premiere of George Miller's new Mad M...

April Pett is a breath of fresh air keeping the Frenchy vibes fluttering for many tourists in Paris. She hosts custom tours in Paris, Versailles, Chablis and Champagne and does so with such a lovely vibrant positivity!

Coming to live in Paris from a small town in Canada, April first visited France when she graduated high school and her love affair with the French capital began. After more than a decade living there, she st...

Sonja Bajic is a map illustrator living in Paris, specialising in personalised maps. We use maps so often in our lives and Sonja connects with people to tell their story on a map of their own. Sometimes she will create a map with images or pictures of a family's holiday and place it on a map for them to display at home, or perhaps an individual might have their life in two worlds, such as I would hope to have with France and A...

Easter for me has always been a time for gathering with family, for eating copious amounts of chocolate, for egg hunts and as a child for going to church with my grandmothers. This is the same in much of the English speaking world, but what goes on for Easter in France?

In this episode I chatted to Alex Ganipeau from the French Hack about her memories of Pâques when she grew up in France. There are some traditions that are...

Kate Hill has lived an extraordinary life. As a young woman she loved to travel and cook and ended up buying a barge and travelling the regional canals of France until she found her little home which back then was a ruin on the bank of the canal. So she parked the barge at the bottom of the garden gate and continued to live on the barge for her first 25 years in the area of Gascony, until the ruined 300 year old building was eventu...

Dianne McHugh loves walking through Paris. So much so that she has created 20 walks, one for each arrondissement of the French capital. Dianne has her faves, but one thing she often looks for when planning a walk, is a patch of green on the map. Tha parks and recreational spaces of Paris are food for a Francophile soul! Dianne also likes to make time to have a break and read a book somewhere as well as take in at least one museum o...

Bruce and Lisa live near Montreal in Canada and whilst Bruce's French father may have influenced his connection to France, it wasn't until a 20th wedding anniversary vacay that together they discovered their mutual love of France. When visiting the Dordogne, they stayed in Sarlat -la-Canéda and on the last day of their trip they found that an apartment on the top floor of the historic building they were staying in was for...

Claudine Hemingway is an American living in France. She has an amazing family history in Paris, with her grandparents and of course Ernest Hemingway having a significant impact on her perspective of the French capital. I have spoken with her a number of times on the podcast before and met in Paris, most recently going to one of her faves L’Avant Comptoir in Saint Germain in the Paris summer of 2023.

Claudine is an amazing story tell...

Mandy Murphy and Willo Renehan made a decision after Brexit to buy property in France. What eventuated though, was more than they imagined! After many years of renos, inspired by Dick & Angel on Escape to the Château, they now have a wonderful maison in the middle of the town of Saumur in the Loire Valley. 

La Maison Trumeau is an 1850s French period home, walking distance to restaurants and shops and not far from chat...

Alex Ganipeau runs French language school "The French Hack" in Melbourne Australia and is our go to Frenchy to chat with about loads of things to help demystify French traditions, customs and culture!

In today's chat we hear about the recently celebrated traditions of l'Ephinanie and Chandeleur, plus the ways Valentine's Day is recognised both now and historically in France.

Alex tells us ...

Do you love having French vintage bits and bobs all around to remind you of travels in France? Or do you just enjoy a gorgeous French rustic or provincial style to your home? Perhaps you have just a teeny addiction to brocante shopping... Oui? Yep, me too. If like me, you consider packing light for your vacances en France to squeeze in the French fabulousness found at some brocante markets, then this chat is for you. Jane Hotblack ...

Andrew Prior, host of Fabulously Delicious, the French Food Podcast has now released a book!

Paris: A Fabulous Food Guide To The World’s Most Delicious City is Andrew’s first book and is about so much more than just the best restaurants in Paris. 

Andrew has visited and sampled the wares of, or dined in,
all 379 venues in the book! You will find recommendations for boulangeries,
patisseries, cafes, bistros, bouillons, restaur...

The Loulabelle’s FrancoFiles has an exciting 2024 planned. Grab your beverage of choice and sit back to escape virtually to France on a road trip across the north of France through Normandy and Brittany! This is the topic of the first French Road Trip E-guide to be released soon in the new LFF online store. Also hear my chat about the wonderful intimate, boutique Normandy Retreat planned for September where listeners can join me f...

Joyeux Noel and Bonne année!

Currently I am sending you wishes for a gorgeous Chrissy from my home in the Aussie bush surrounded by the sounds of kookaburras in summer, with kangaroos joining us for our morning coffee and returning for apéro in the late arvo! A far cry from last year when I was in France on my wonderful Noël roadtrip through the French alps and the Alsace region. 

I have a number of tips for travelling in the type of...

Julia Fulford Kirby lives in a most magical place, Château Mas de Pradié in Foissac in the Aveyron region of southwest France. I first saw her story on the Escape to the Château DIY show and then chatted to her on the podcast in January 2021, but nothing prepared me for the magic before me when I visited her home in the hot summer of 2022. Mas de Pradié took my breath away. Julia has done so much work over her time there but she ha...

Texan native Molly Wilkinson moved to France to follow her dream of French pastry cooking and baking a number of years ago and since then has met her fiancé, moved to Versailles and now has an amazing business bringing the opportunity to all of us to cook like a French pastry chef, with her online French pastry cooking school.

Molly is so down to earth, patient and accessible. Perfect attributes for a teacher! She has a fabulous coo...

Rachael Coopes is an author, an actress, a yoga expert, a presenter on beloved kids show Playschool and just an all-round lovely like-minded Francophile. Recently I have been reading her book Paris For Beginners and I absolutely love it! I’m not sure why, but every time I sat down to read it, I needed to pair the reading with a glass of wine! It felt like a celebration each time and a petit escape to France for me.  

In her 20s Rach...