France + All Things French
Château de Kergrist is a hidden gem in the Trégor Valley close to Ploubezre in the Côtes-d’Armor department of Brittany. It was on a warm summer’s day that I took a day trip to visit the beautiful and lovingly preserved Château de Kergrist and garden complex. Château de Kergrist at Ploubezre is just 8 kilometres from Lannion and tucked into a sheltered area near the River Léguer.
Susan McDonald, author of The Lost Children, loves visiting France for research for her books. Just earlier this year, Susan once again spent time in the South of France researching for her next book and enjoying the best of France mid-year. Her travels during summer followed in the footsteps of F Scott Fitzgerald, and lucky for us, Susan has shared this summer travel adventure with us.
It was one hundred years ago, May 1926 when Sarah Murphy, wife to the heir of a leather manufacturing company, convinced Cap Eden Roc Hotel to remain open for the summer for their friends.
The summer season in La Côte d’Azur was born. To commemorate this little known fact, I took a small apartment on Cap d’Antibes for the weekend this May, 2026.
Notre Dame de Paris - Repair work - Photo taken August 2017 from Arab World Institute rooftop balcony
Notre-Dame de Paris is one of those places you dream of visiting and standing in front of when planning a trip to the city of Paris. No trip to Paris should be without a visit to this show-stopping medieval wonder. Often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, it's a Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité, in the 4th arrondissement (one of the two islands in the middle of the Seine River in the centre of the city).
Unless you've been living on another planet, you'll have heard about the catastrophic fire that destroyed the cathedral in April 2019. On my visits into Paris I've watched the repair work that was being carried out in 2017 with the scaffolding engulfing part of the cathedral, then I was personally visiting the cathedral just one hour prior to the breakout of the April 2019 fire, and also over the next five years on different occasions I've walked as close as possible to the worksite as the major fire-damaged cathedral was undergoing its major restoration.
There is a world beneath the city of Paris and it includes the Paris Catacombs which houses one of the world's largest ossuaries. An ossuary can be a small chest or box, a building, or a dedicated site used as the final resting place for human skeletal remains. The Paris Catacombs are just part of the underground world of Paris which includes subterranean Métro tunnels, sewers, and the deepest of all, a network of abandoned quarries. It is part of the these underground quarries that contain the famous ossuary, Le Catacombes de Paris (the Paris Catacombs).
France is a country of extraordinary diverse landscapes, cuisine, architecture, and accents of character. That diversity has been organised, since 2016, into 18 regions. 13 regions are in metropolitan France and 5 are overseas regions. Our post will easily explain why the regions changed in 2016 and how each region is different and what makes them so adored by their inhabitants and also by the millions of tourists that visit France each year.
While the regions are organised into administrative areas, the regions themselves are distinctive and wonderfully different. Each region is a world unto itself, and for the traveller who wants to go beyond postcard France, and understand and experience the country more deeply, knowing a bit about the regions is the best possible starting point.
The French region of Centre-Val de Loire boasts some of the world's most spectacular Renaissance architecture and its historic châteaux are known around the world for their fairytale elegance. Château de Chambord is the largest and most extravagant, famous for its elaborate roofline and a double-helix staircase inspired by Leonardo da Vinci. Equally unforgettable is Château de Chenonceau, gracefully arched directly across the River Cher and historically shaped by powerful women like Catherine de Medici. For spectacular greenery, the meticulously designed, multi-tiered Renaissance gardens at Château de Villandry are a masterpiece of geometric hedges and water features. Château de Blois is another remarkable château of the region.
Check out our post Discover Stunning French Châteaux with Photos to view photos and read more on the majesty of these French châteaux.
Gevrey-Chambertin Castle, Burgundy
In our discovery of France series, today we are sharing the best of Burgundy-Franche-Comté. Burgundy (Bourgogne in French) was a standalone region of France, but since 2016 when it merged with Franche-Comté, it has been officially Burgundy-Franche-Comté.
Louhans is an ancient market town where the strangest event takes place, the Glorieuses de Bresse, a celebration of the country's only AOC poultry, the Poulet de Bresse. Louhans is famous for its vaulted walkways which once housed traders and artisans.
Burgundy is often referred to as the gastronomic heart of France and local architecture incorporates the magnificent coloured roof tiles that the capital of Dijon is well-known for. Dijon is also where Burgundy's famed mustard is made with producers including Maille and Edmond Fallot.
Courtyard between the street and the entrance to the café and hammam
After years of visits to Paris and wanting to visit the Grande Mosquée de Paris (Grand Mosque of Paris), I was delighted to make my way there last summer. It was a particularly hot day and after wandering around the Jardin des Plantes (opposite the Grand Mosque) and exploring the large garden maze, I found it a refreshing place to escape the heat. Found in the 5th arrondissement, this significant landmark built in 1926 to honour Muslim soldiers from French colonies who fought in WWI, also served a vital role during World War II as a refuge for Jews, with its rector providing certificates of Muslim identity to help them escape Nazi persecution.
Designed in Moorish style, it features intricate tile work, a beautiful courtyard with sculpted arcades, and a 33 metre minaret, mostly all hidden behind its high walls. The Grand Mosque expands into prayer rooms, gardens, hammam, library, a North African restaurant and other facilities behind its tall walls.
