Loulabelle’s FrancoFiles

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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

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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

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.
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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

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.

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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

Pierrick Boyer is a celebrated French pastry chef who has earned the French highest honour of the Chevalier Merite Agricole for his services to France and French culture through his pastry work and he has called Melbourne home for over 20 years.

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Paula Nikita has come to call Melbourne home for the last 5 years and is now being mentored by Pierrick to succeed as the inaugural Viennoiserie World Cup winner ad the first to represent Australia!

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I was fascinated to hear their stories and to chat about how scientific the process is when creating the perfect croissant! Tune into to this chat to hear what makes the perfect croissant, but even more interestingly to hear about Paula's Aussie influence with the upcoming competition, including VEGEMITE!

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Anyone wishing to assist the Go-Fund-Me to cover half the costs of competing in France, click here: Support the Aussie team's Go-Fund-Me to head to France

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To attend a gala event this coming weekend on 18 October 2025 at Reverie Café Prahran, click here: Tix for the Pastry Party at Reverie Cafe, Prahran - 18 October, 2025

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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

Earlier this year I road tripped around France and spent a couple of weeks in Burgundy with friends of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast, Kate and Nathan Veach.

Kate and Nathan had a French restaurant in Melbourne prior to making the permanent move to France just after Covid after buying a place on the internet during the Aussie lockdowns. Since that time I have stayed in the cottage they renovated originally which was a wonderful experience. Kate and Nathan exude a warmth that makes every day with them a joy. I'm thrilled to see that they now have sold up and bought a bigger project still in Burgundy, an historic house dating to the 1870s which was in a state of severe disrepair, in Paris l'Hôpital.

Chatting to Kate about my recent time in their village made me just want to go back. They were still renovating during my visit but have now reached a point in the project that they can start to share it with others. The house looks incredible, decorated as only the French can, from brocante markets and eclectic pieces found in exotic places! The colours and sights of Burgundy now in autumn with the harvest are amazing. I have visited the region previously at this time of year and found there were less crowds, less heat and much more opportunity for life time memories!

Tune into this chat to hear the exquisite life that guests can share with Kate and Nathan, to find out all about what the tastes, scents and sights of Burgundy have to offer. From market visits, to cooking classes in their own kitchen, to wine tasting as well as authentic Burgundian life, there is so much gorgeousness to look forward to when heading for a stay with this beautiful couple in their French home.

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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

I love road tripping in France and I aim to get there and meander the roads less travelled as often as I can! In the April/May of 2025 I took a "vacances" in France for a couple of months and embarked on 3 separate road trips with separate groups or individual friends. 

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Author Katherine Watt and I became great friends after she was interviewed on the Loulabelle's podcast a number of years ago and I have spent much time with her on previous visits to France where she now lives in Saint-Malo, Bretagne. Both Katherine and I were excited to road trip through a part of Provence that neither of us had been to before. We agreed on a rough outline of the route we might take, but importantly we both were happy not to lock in too much of the detail and just go with the flow! I normally plan much more than this, so it was oddly refreshing or even freeing to make decisions about where we would stay and what we would do at the last minute! I had a car for the full 6 weeks of the road trips I took, which made the last minute decisions a bit easier as we didn't need to factor in public transport.

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Our journey started in Lyon, with the first day comprising a 5 hour drive to Aix-en-Provence to commence the road trip. After this day though, we stayed off the motorways and took only the back roads. We also opted to stay in Airbnb style accommodation so we could cook in our own kitchen sometimes and we would have the capacity to store and enjoy local produce we bought along the way. We also decided that we wouldn't drive for more than an hour or so each day to allow time to immerse in the local area we found ourselves in.

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Tune into this episode and escape to Provence momentarily with us. Head to the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website for more info on some of the places mentioned in this papotage de podcast aussi.

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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

Eva Bonnet knew from a very early age growing up in France, that Australia was going to be a very special place for her! Eva didn't plan to come to Australia directly, but as she says, "life brought her here".

Eva chatted to me about how she ended up living a French life in Melbourne. Since making the permanent move down under, Eva has found love, had a cancer diagnosis and beaten it, brought two bubbas into the world and most recently taken the socials by storm with now almost half a million followers joining in the French connection she shares with everyone.

At the moment Eva is giving away a trip to Paris for a lucky subscriber to her Bonjour Mate French classes (subscribe before 31st August to be in the draw which will be announced at the end of September!)** Bonjour Mate is open to all countries, so not just for an Aussie community, with current subscribers hailing from all around the globe. 

Chatting with Eva so frankly about her story, put the priorities of life into perspective for me. Her beautiful rawness and honesty are quiet an inspiration.

I often wonder for French people not living in France, what do they miss, what things do they try and recreate in their new homeland. Throughout our chat, Eva described her thoughts of France so clearly, that I felt I had been on a lovely petit sojourn to my fave place. Her description of the road trips she took with her maman as a child especially helped me to float away.   

Find all the details from this chat on the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles website, including the current Bonjour Mate Paris giveaway.

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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

Harriet Churchill and her husband Henry are originally from England, but spent many years living in Australia based in Melbourne originally, working in the area of sustainability, but eventually moved to regional Victoria right near me! I first heard of their story and their vineyard in the Macedon Ranges Zig Zag wines, when I was hanging out with other locals around the fire during happy hour at my local pub!  I'm thrilled that I followed her up for a chat as I found our discussion about her life thoroughly inspirational! If you're wondering about making a change in your life, whatever that change may be, have a listen to Harriet and you will just want to grab life with both hands and shake it up!

Harriet described their life in Australia, which seems to me to be quite "French country" in the manner in which they operated. I also got a beautiful insight into their life now in France. It was fascinating to hear Harriet talk about the difference in the way the winemaking successes, as well as the challenges can pop up in Australia and now France. She also talked about the difference between being "good" or "fluent" with her French, as she can get by with most exchanges, until she gets to the other mums with the school gate gossip and she's got no idea what's going on!  

This is such a wonderfully warm and heart-filled chat about immersing in life's experiences as they present themselves. 

In this episode I was introduced to a new concept when Harriet talked about what the heart needs and what the heart wants. Her heart wanted to stay in Australia, but it needed to move back closer to her family in the UK and the Languedoc region in France was the perfect fit for them all. 

Come and escape to France with us through our chat 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

Italian born Vittoria Busetti had a dream for many years of moving to Paris, so she worked a way around the obstacles in her path, packed up her Milan apartment a few years ago and took the leap to her new Parisian life!

Moving all alone to a new city with a new job is not without its challenges, so after navigating through loads of situations where she struggled to find helpful info, Vittoria put together a guide for people moving to Paris as well as an Insta group which has become like a little community for people to connect about current Paris events like the recent Fete de la Musique.

Vittoria has loads of tips for surviving alone in Paris either as a traveller or as a new resident as well as ways she found to make friends.

Chatting to Vittoria about the various arrondissements and lots of our Paris faves made me feel like I'd had a momentary Parisian sojourn.      

Come and escape to France 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

Alexandra Ganipeau runs the French Language school in Melbourne "The French Hack". She has connected people in Australia to France over many years, through organising cafe catch ups as well teaching French to people of all ages.

Recently I chatted to her about how she is now connecting people to France with a weekly dose of Frenchy vibes via her Weekly French Bites. Over 52 weeks Francophiles can experience a "bite" of French culture, language and fabulousness with different themes such as French ordering at restaurants, how to enjoy apèro, the French art of wearing scarves or even tips to navigate the Paris Metro or French market etiquette. I found when I had a sneak preview of the Weekly French Bites, it stayed in my head long after I'd finished reading and brought back memories of travels there as well as sparking ideas for my next adventure!

Alex and I chatted about our connections to France, how we maintain slow and deep connections when we travel as well as when home in Australia. When Alex chats in this episode about her visits back "home" to Bordeaux and the south west of France, I felt like I had escapes there with her momentarily. I also learned from her about some ways I can be a little bit French everyday, such as picking herbs straight from the garden and adding to a teapot rather than loose leaf or tea bags! This is a French way of connecting garden to the kitchen that I had never even considered!

Alex has a giveaway to a lucky Loulabelle's FrancoFiles listener... 52 weeks of French Inspo with a 12 month membership to Weekly French Bites! Follow through to the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles Instagram to enter and to let the joie de vivre begin! As Alex says Paris isn't just a place, it's a feeling.

Join us for a chat and escape to France 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