What happens when two scientists with a love of wine, food, family, and adventure decide they don't want to experience the world from a hotel room?
On Episode 27 of the Frenchitivity Podcast, Kent and Michelle sit down with Megan Hall—a wife, mother of two, wine scientist, professor, lifelong traveler, and founder of Terroir Adventure Travel.
Megan and her husband Alex met while studying wine at Cornell University, and travel has been woven into their relationship ever since. Just six months after getting married, they packed up and moved to Tasmania for six months. After becoming parents, the adventures didn't stop—they simply evolved.
When their oldest child was two, they bought a pop-up camper. Since then, their family has camped through more than 40 national, state, and county parks and national forests. And their love of camping doesn't stop at the U.S. border.
One of their favorite adventures took them on a 1,200-mile camping trip through five of France's major wine regions with their two kids. More recently, the family explored Egypt and traveled down the Nile.
For Megan and Alex, where they stay is an important part of how they travel. Whether it's a campground or a local guesthouse, they intentionally seek experiences that bring them closer to the people, food, landscape, and culture of a destination. Megan says camping has a unique ability to reset their family and reconnect them with one another.
We also dive into Megan and Alex's fascinating careers in wine science—from vineyards and winemaking to microbiology, plant pathology and grapevine disease research. Today, they teach wine studies together, bringing the science, history, agriculture, and culture of wine into the classroom.
And yes...we also learn how two food and wine scientists approach a BLT. Let's just say Alex's homemade BELTinvolves home-smoked bacon, eggs from their own chickens, and lettuce and tomatoes from the garden. 🥓🍳🍅
Finally, Megan shares the next chapter of her journey: Terroir Adventure Travel.
In the wine world, terroir describes the relationship between land, soil, climate, history, culture, people, and food. Megan is taking that same philosophy and applying it to travel—creating intimate, immersive small-group experiences designed to help travelers truly understand the places they're visiting.
She personally experiences every itinerary before offering it, partners with local guides, and limits each group to just eight travelers—creating space for curiosity, conversation, connection, and community.
This conversation is about family travel, camping abroad, wine, food, science, entrepreneurship, and choosing to experience a destination rather than simply pass through it.
Because sometimes traveling deeper doesn't mean going farther.
It means getting closer.
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