Loulabelle’s FrancoFiles

There's no way to lead into this gently... Jane Bertch inspires me!

Jane has lived for decades in Paris. She left Chicago until work brought her to Europe in 2000. After not naturally having Paris on her radar, Jane eventually found her way there and almost by accident she started her cooking school. The success of La Cuisine Paris is no accident though! Hard work and determination has got it to the amazing place it is today. Years ago I did a class at La Cuisine Paris and absolutely loved it, so it is no surprise to me that it is a raging success!

Speaking to Jane in this episode uncovered some great musings about Paris, France, how we get to where we are and considering the big decisions in our life! Even so, it's the little things in France that can make a difference. An invitation for coffee is sometimes not just a request to join for a cuppa!

As well as discussing cooking in Paris, Jane and I touch on how we can be tolerant and understanding, how we as women can lift each other up and how we can find joy in our own lives, which at my place involves fun times in our Shenanigans Shed! "This is not the waiting room for death!"

Tune in and escape to France 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

Chiara Benedetto came to live in Paris with an internship in a science field and has now built a life there. Growing up in a simple Italian town, Chiara always felt connected to French culture and language, so it felt a natural progression to head to a Francophone country like Canada, Belgium or France for her work. In this Loulabelle's chat, I was fascinated to hear about Chiara's work, as well as her Parisian life - from the practicalities of sharing in university accommodation, to her own apartment, to having a "melting-pot" group of friends coming to live in Paris from all around the globe.

Chiara helps others now with the paperwork required when migrating to France. Her assistance is not based just on her own experience, but on the needs of each individual, as everyone's situation can be different. Chiara doesn't sugar coat the immigrant experience in Paris, but she describes how those who move and stay in France develop a "grit that no filter can capture".

Tune into this chat and escape to France 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

Elise McLeod is a film director and acting coach who has called France home for over 30 years. After travelling there as an exchange student in her high school years, Elise made a decision: once she knew what she wanted to do with her life, she was going to return to Paris to live it there!

Elise has a film Reclaim the Night in competition this week (on 6 June)  in the St Kilda Film Festival. The film is set in Paris telling the fictional story of two best friends, one had the best night of her life and one experienced the worst. Reclaim the Night was originally a movement that started in the UK in the 1970s, protesting about safety for women. 

Elise also has another film she made in the late 1990s, Last Drinks which is playing this Friday night (5 June) at The Astor Theatre in St Kilda, Melbourne. Last drinks is a doco telling the story of the 90s closure of the iconic Prince of Wales Hotel in St Kilda, a landmark many Melbourne people will know of.

Elise and I have been to the Cannes Film Festival together and this chat gives us a little insight into the amount of work that goes into her industry. To escape the busy-ness of her professional world, Elise and her husband Charles have bought a rundown property in the Burgundy region of France. They have now renovated and soon will open for guests to stay, also transforming a huge old shed into a party room, a salle de fête. Elise and I chatted about finding brocantes, connecting with nature in Bourgogne, taking the back roads through France as well as our fave regions and the wonderful quirkiness of those pockets of the French countryside.

So pour a cuppa, or a glass of something French and close your eyes as you sit back and escape to France with us, to hear all about Elise's beautiful French life.

**
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

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

**
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

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

**
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. 

**
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.

**
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...

**
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!

**
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.

**
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