What a milestone! 200 episodes! And what a great way to celebrate by chatting about the Cannes Film Festival, both this year's event as well as the times Loulabelle has attended with Ruby Boukabou in the past. 

Lou and Ruby have had a number of Cannes highlights over the years, walking the red carpet, meeting iconic actors, or just immersing in the Cannes craziness! We chat about the memorable moments we have experienced there including an amazing speech by Robert De Niro, as well as a beautiful escape from Cannes to the islands off the coast which are full of history and charming calmness.

Ruby Boukabou is an accomplished author as well as a tap dancer extraordinaire, a journalist, a photographer, just a wonderful creative soul. We chat about the ways listeners can connect with Ruby in Australia as well as back in France with her new book The Movie Lovers Guide to Paris.

Head to the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website for the links discussed in this ep.

Come and escape to France with us momentarily x

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Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
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Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website

People often say that Paris left a mark on them, even after one visit. Sometimes that mark can be a healing one, especially after the not-so-long-ago Covid years. 

Tune into this beautiful chat with artist Kerry Lucas and uncover how she found a way to connect to other creatives like her whilst connecting to the place she loves, Paris and also healing her creative soul within.

Come and escape to France momentarily with us xx

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Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
**
Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website

Katherine Burns loves Paris and shares her love of all things French through her Insta account @rue.dauphine.paris. She chatted for the second time on the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles in this episode, about how she keeps connected to France. 

Katherine first found that France was definitely the place for her when she discovered French food and cooking. We chatted about where she likes to visit when in Paris to get her foodie fix as well as some other iconic places from her last French trip which was only a few weeks ago for the Foire de Chatou brocante fair and a pop in to Château de Chantilly where she happened upon a polo match.

If you like travelling slowly where there's time to allow for magic memories to happen, then you'll love to escape to France virtually with us in this chat. 

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Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
**
Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website

Mandy Murphy has chatted with me on the Loulabelle’s FrancoFiles previously with her husband Willo Renehan to talk all about her gorgeous home La Maison Trumeau in Saumur in the Loire Valley. Mandy and Willo were inspired by Dick & Angel on Escape to the Château, and made the decision after Brexit to buy property in France, which they are making their permanent home.

Mandy introduced me in this podcast episode to her colleague Camilla Degerth who has made 12 international relocations (so far). Camilla shares her knowledge of what it takes to move from one part of the globe to another. She shares a global mindset, but she also brought up some of the main issues that relocation can bring, and it's not all about the French bureaucracy.

This year Mandy and Camilla are hosting a coaching retreat for those thinking about or already making the move to Europe to work through the issues that intended relocators face. Camilla says one of the hardest challenges people face when moving internationally is loneliness, especially if there's a language barrier. In their retreat that focuses on landing in France successfully, attendees will delve deeply to find what they really want and they can do that in France. 

Sometimes what we truly want isn't clear until we start making the dream a reality. So come and dream away with us as we escape to France momentarily.

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Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
**
Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website

Paris is a city that lives in the hearts of people from around the world and has so many movies set there. I've also found loads of movies or shows that use Paris as a backdrop and I love searching as I watch for glimpses of places I've been in the French capital. 

If you love Paris and love films, Ruby Boukabou has a new book out The Movie Lover's Guide to Paris, which takes the reader on a journey through Paris, exploring the city through the lens of over 200 movies. Discovering Paris with this book, you'll find cafés, cinemas, streets, iconic landmarks, as well as the hidden corners that have appeared on the silver screen for over a century. In this episode of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles, Ruby takes us on a petit meander through Paris along the Seine, highlighting the sites that have appeared in a number of well-known movies.

Go to the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website to blogpost 196 to find the link for Ruby's dedicated Google map, then follow along as you listen to the chat! 

Join us and escape to France momentarily...

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Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
**
Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website

Elisabeth Perotin is French, having grown up in the Champagne region and still currently living in Reims. Elisabeth is a photographer specialising in travel and food photography, with only French themed pics on her Instagram @frenchglimpses. Tapping into Elisabeth's local knowledge during this chat uncovered a number of places in Paris and France that I'd not heard of, but I am now adding to my list! If you want to find quirky but yet authentic places to add to your itinerary when planning a French visit then tune into this episode for lots of inspiration!

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Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
**
Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website

Catherine Berry is an author who has chatted on the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast previously (eps 39 & 112) about the life changing decision to move her family to the French village of Annecy for a year when her children were young. 

We come back to chat again to Catherine to hear how that stay has made a positive impact of the lives of her whole family, but also about a new experience she had staying in the Italian village of Lucca for 3 months. Loulabelle and Catherine chat about the experience of being non-fluent in a foreign country, about the cultural similarities and differences of Italy and France, as well as how Catherine made arrangements to stay and live like a local in Italy for 12 weeks. 

Hear about Catherine's new books (she now has four!) including one about how to play with your child (or grandchild) in French.

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Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
**
Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website

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Donna Guest is the Co-Founder, CEO & Creative Director
of fashion house Blue Illusion, which is a French inspired brand bringing fashion, homewares and all sorts of French connections to their customers everywhere.

In this chat Loulabelle delves underneath the brand to find the woman and uncover what inspires her and keeps her connected to France. We find out about her fave experiences in France including a surprise stay in a medieval chateau, attending Le Diner en Blanc with 30,000 other diners and even getting into a sold-out Beyonce concert in Paris! Donna tells us her go-to French food whenever she's over there, plus her way to keep her Frenchy vibes fluttering here in Australia.

Come and float away to France momentarily with us xx

**
Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
**
Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website

On 19 October 2025, thieves wearing high-vis work wear, used a stolen furniture removals truck to get into a top floor of the Louvre in Paris, stealing pieces of the French Crown Jewels from the Galerie d'Apollon ('Apollo's Gallery'). The amazingly swift robbery took place at around 9.30am on what seemed to be a regular Sunday morning.  

In this podcast chat, hear Loulabelle discuss the situation with historian and Paris resident Claudine Hemingway who knows the Louvre like the back of her hand! Claudine was interviewed on USA Today the day after the heist and gives us the low down on all the details from a local perspective: what happened on the day, what is the impact on the Louvre, what's happened since and how George Clooney is involved! 

**Chat recorded - Sunday 2 November.

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Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
**
Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website

Canadian author Patricia Sands is so connected to France, through her novels which are most often set there in Provence. Coming out on 15 November, 2025 is her latest book The French Effect, set in Paris with the story heading down to Nice on the Cote d'Azur as well.

I loved my "petit papotage" with Patricia about her experiences in France. We chatted whilst she was in Antibes in the South of France, this time road-tripping with friends, but over the past few decades she and her husband have done 17 house-exchanges to live like a local in France and Patricia has also taken tours of women to Provence to follow the paths of her wonderful characters in her stories. Listening to Patricia talk about her travels took me straight back to France, so come and join us for a tres beau momentary virtual escape!

Head to the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles instagram page to comment on the post announcing this episode, to win an ebook copy of The French Effect once it's released on 15 November.

**
Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
**
Other Loulabelle's links:
FrancoFile Fix on YouTube
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Spotify Playlist
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website