Trudy Walker traveled all over France in her recent epic journey. From campervan tours, to the wine in Provence and the history around every corner, each day was a magical experience!
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles episode 120 - click here to listen
Guest: Trudy Walker
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Many Aussies dream of travelling through Europe. Some as young adults possibly backpacking, some with kids in tow and others are patient enough to wait until they can travel solo après children with friends in the same situation or a spouse/partner. My recent guest did both! Trudy Walker travelled first with a girl friend for 3 weeks and then when her friend Fiona went home her husband Dave arrived. So much fun was had by all! So much organisation was completed before the trip by Trudy which probably had a significant impact on the success of the whole experience.
The route for Trudy’s travels
Initially with her girlfriend Trudy went straight from Paris to the Champagne region for a weekend, then travelled to the Alsace region including Colmar, Strasbourg and Enguisheim. They left there by train directly returning to Paris and then a few days later caught another train to Bordeaux. After a few days in Bordeaux with a walking tour and wine tour, Trudy returned to Paris with her friend Fiona, said “Hooroo!” and met up with her husband Dave as he arrived from Australia.
Dave and Trudy made their way by train to Avignon to collect a car and stayed in Uzes for a week enabling them to explore that surrounding region of Provence. They even snuck in a day trip to Marseille and another to Lyon! Departing Provence they drove to stay with Lo9ulabelle’s FrancoFiles podcast guest Julia Fulford-Kirby at Mas de Pradie and then continued up through the Dordogne to end up in the Loire staying in Chinon for a week. I adore Chinon and like Trudy, I found it a terrific place for a base to explore the Loire Valley.
Trudy and Dave then travelled north to Brittany to Dinan and Saint Malo before heading east to Mont Saint Michel. (Tune into the next podcast episode where I will detail the amazing experience that can be had when visiting this historic and awe-inspiring monument.) They continued east to Omaha beach and other war memorials before going all the way to Belgium and eventually back down to Villers Bretonneux and a final return to Paris en route home to Australia.
Are you exhausted reading through all those places? I’m actually energised and can’t wait to get back to them all!
Trudy’s recommendations
I had numerous chats to Trudy in the lead up to her epic voyage. There were a number of recommendations that I had previously tested out, plus some others which Trudy highly recommends:
* My Vintage Tour Company – campervan/kombi tours in the Champagne region
* Provence Wine Tours with Romain Gouvernet in Chateauneuf du Pape
* French Cottages weekly rentals in various regions of France
* Mas de Pradie – Julia Fulford Kirby
Musique
La Vie en Rose and other famous French songs from the 20th century
(much nicer than listening to Siri telling her to get off at the second exit according to Trudy!)
Recette
