Happy Holidays from Perfectly Provence

Holiday Wishes!

It’s time to wish everyone all the best for this joyful season – Happy, Healthy Holidays! However, before we head out on a little technology break, it’s time to acknowledge all our terrific contributors.

Inspired by Provence

Lynne launched Aixcentric with the goal to post current events happening in and around Aix-en-Provence. Aixcentric is the go-to resource whether you are interested in the latest art exhibit or need to find out why the roads are under construction. Discover Lynne’s two books where she dives into the historic details about Aix-en-Provence and the artists who have lived (and created) in the region. Please read our reviews of Aix-en-Provence, The Inside Story and Art in the South of France, The Inside Story.

@Culturespaces

Ashley Tinker is a Canadian transplant, who readily admits that Provence is an inspiration for her photography. Curious Provence is the name of her blog and where she highlights current events, Provencal market finds and of course her great photos. Join Ashley on a market tour or photoshoot for holiday experiences you won’t forget.

Renata Haidle is a Romanian-American photographer, writer, and book author. She credits Paris for sparking her photography career after her first visit there in 2014. Her first photo book, French Riviera, was published in July 2019. She is currently working on a Paris-inspired poetry collection.

Living in the South of France

Audrey Archambault is a Nutrition and Health Coach based in Aix-en-Provence. Born and raised in France, Audrey is bilingual French / English. She moved to Provence in late 2019 after 12 years in London and South East Asia.

Rebecca Ronane is combining her career experience and professional goals into building a networking and personal development business based in Provence.

Deborah Bine aka The Barefoot Blogger can be found scouring markets from the Mediterranean to Alsace. Our solo traveller is happy to visit the Cote d’Azur or spending a few days in the Pays Basque or hanging out on a beach chair.

Gayle Padgett and her husband Ralph are American transplants who after working in Heidelberg, Germany for two decades decided to retire to Provence. Hardly out of the blue, their move was the result of several vacation forays (she calls it flirting) to the South of France over those years. Her memoir Passion for Provence: 22 Keys to La Belle Vie, begins on the tennis courts in Arlington, Virginia where the couple first met and ends in France.

Phil Chandler is the writer behind – An Englishman in Avignon. He and his wife are exploring the region from their home-base in Avignon.

Our Vaucluse Dreamer, Julie, is discovering Provence one kilometre at a time from the seat of her bike. When Julie is not pedalling, she is busy turning antique silver market finds into gorgeous jewellery.

Victoria and Marcel Koning came to Provence for a 4-month sabbatical in 2013 and have grown roots! Having grown up in South Africa, the landscape, lifestyle and sunshine felt more like home than their 12-year sojourn in the Netherlands. Their life motto is “Work to live, not live to work.” They work with small businesses developing their web presence.

Exploring Provence

Martine Bertin-Peterson runs small group tours with a culinary focus. Her company Gout et Voyage brings food and travel together. Look for her recipes and travel stories.

Laura and her family live in Switzerland, but take full advantage of living in Europe to explore. The adventures of this multi-cultural family are captured in Laura’s blog Let’s Explore, where she provides travel tips and encouragement to see the world with your family.

Marina Depoorter is the founder of Learn French in France with Franci Discendum a language school that offers the ultimate bespoke learning experience. Based in Viens a charming village in the Luberon, students are invited to spend their holiday in an immersion environment of their own choosing. Marina and her fellow instructors offer a fun, stress-free language learning at-your-own-pace.

When Nikki Edwards is not working for corporate clients or managing her villa rental website, Rent Our Home, she builds websites for others through her creative agency, Hot Chilli Box.

Franco-American Girl Gone Gallic is a Francophile to the core, she is happy to provide details on shopping tips, how to dress like a French woman and the best places for hiking on the Mediterranean coast.

Marti Schmidt is a seasoned traveller and an artist for over 30 years. Let her be your guide through one of the most beautiful parts of Southern France.

Michel and Shirley are exploring the culinary trails in Provence from Sablet. Their home in this charming Vaucluse village is their base when they are visiting and available for rent the rest of the time. These “Our House in Provence” posts are indispensable guides for new restaurants you need to try.

Biking, hiking and running accommodation in Provence David and Karen have a three-bedroom villa with a private pool, two gites and a chambre d’hôte room with a shared pool.

Mary Kay Seales was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest in Washington State, where she also teaches writing to international students at the University of Washington. When she is not working, she is travelling and often to the South of France. She is the author of The Beginner’s Guide to the French Riviera: Stop Dreaming & Start Packing.

Photographer and passionate traveller Paul Shawcross heads up the European Acquisitions for Bindu Trips a travel planning website that features Provence along with many other European destinations.

Giant hand sculpture with grapes at Beaumes de Venise in the Vaucluse Provence-Côte-d’Azur France

Mary Jane Deeb is an enthusiastic reader and an author herself. Watch for her book reviews.

As an ex-pat American living in Germany Dorothy Garabedian looks at Europe through a different lens. Here, is what she has to say about France’s second-largest city, “Marseille is a fascinating place that holds many secrets waiting to be unearthed.”

We understand that a successful holiday means finding the right mix of activity, sightseeing, and relaxation to suit everyone’s taste. Finding suitable accommodation should be at the top of your planning list. These Perfectly Provence holiday listings include bed and breakfasts (B&Bs), boutique hotels, cottages (gîtes) and self-contained apartments in Southern France and the French Riviera.

Côte d’Azur Living

Our contributors tempt us to visit with their travel tips, family holiday ideas, and how to get away from the French Riviera crowds. Read posts from;

Becks at Access Riviera for family-friendly travel tips that won’t break the bank.

Phoebe Thomas about running a self-catered apartment and managing a growing family.

Chef and sommelier Viktorija Todorovska is enjoying life on the Cote d’Azur.

We can hardly wait for Jemma’s dispatches from Antibes each summer. Her French Lessons Blog is about language, expat living and cultural discoveries.

Published author Margo Lestz no longer calls Nice home base, but we continue to read her amusing and informative Curious Rambler posts on interesting historical facts about France.

Wines of Provence

The team at Mirabeau Wine is producing lovely wines that have garnered the attention of many industry experts. In the spare moments when Stephen and Jeany are not managing a growing business, they enjoy family time and tasty meals (with their wine of course).

Susan Manfull Newman juggles many wine glasses with her e-magazine Provence WineZine informative, funny and all about the wines of Provence.

Master of Wine Elizabeth Gabay has been hard at work on a book that is certain to be THE rosé resource guide.

Jill Barth is writing a book when she is not tasting wine, visiting vineyards, talking to winemakers around the world, and writing her informative blog l’Occasion.

Provence Part-Time

After a work assignment in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Keith and Val Van Sickle decided that they loved living in Europe. How? They changed their work focus so that they can spend at least three (3) months a year in Provence. But, they needed to learn the language. Keith describes their adventures in his first book One Sip at a Time: Learning to Live in Provence and his second Are We French Yet? Keith & Val’s Adventures in Provence.

Shutters and Sunflowers a blog name that evokes Provence, and Caroline Longstaffe (and her hubby) are now officially living part of the time in Lourmarin. Read her stories here.

Cheryl named her blog Cobblestones and Vineyards, neither of which are found in significant quantities in upstate New York…so they travel often to France.

Sommelier, chef, cyclist and a Canadian Paula Kane cannot get Provence out of her blood. She returns each summer and dreams about the South of France for the rest of the year. Follow her A Table en Provence posts.

Author Deborah Lawrenson is busy at work on her latest novel, inspired by Provence and its history.

Tastes of Provence

David delights us with festive Cocoa & Lavender-tested recipes all year round. Here are a few Christmas holiday sweets:

Croquants are a crunchy cookie that is the French version of the Italian Biscotti.

Galette des Rois (King’s cake) is a classic Christmas cake made with puff pastry and filled with frangipane.

Chocolate Delight Mendiant Tart is a flaky, sweet pastry tart filled with decadent chocolate ganache and topped with candied fruits, flowers and fleur de sel. Discover why this pie is a Christmas tradition.

Anne Challier and her twin sister Véronique (Vero) are a team who offers culinary services in the comfort of your home. In 2009, the two sisters decided to combine their skills and warm personalities to offer homemade and healthy food for their clients. They launched Un air de famille (Cuisine à Domicile). The menus are completely flexible based on your tastes, the number in your party, the occasion, and the budget.

Originally from Scotland, Fiona Leishman is a lifelong lover of France. She graduated with a degree in French and Marketing (which included a summer of study in Nice), followed by a spell working in Lyon.

Petra Carter is the smiling face behind the cooking school Le Pistou. The cookery school is centrally located in Uzès, right next to the tourist office and steps away from the main boulevard.

Tasha Powell is a chef, photographer, food stylist and writer who specializes in working with celebrity chefs and leaders in the hospitality industry. Just a word of warning, her images are so beautiful that they are almost edible.

Chef François de Mélogue grew up in a very French household in Chicago. His earliest attempts at cookery began with the filleting of his sister’s goldfish at age two and a braised rabbit dish made with his pet rabbits by age seven. He eventually stopped cooking his pets and went to the highly esteemed New England Culinary Institute where he graduated top of his class in 1985. Follow his blog Pistou and Pastis for mouthwatering recipes and order a copy of Cuisine of the Sun: A Ray of Sunshine on Your Plate Cuisine of the Sun: A Ray of Sunshine on Your Plate. In François de Mélogue’s second cookbook, French Cooking for Beginners, 75+ Classic Recipes to Cook like a Parisian, he invites you on a culinary journey through France.

Cook’n with Class is a cooking school with locations in Paris and Uzès. The founders, Chef Eric Fraudeau and his wife Yetunde Oshodi-Fraudeau (the marketing-guru), invite you to explore delicious French recipes.

Wishing everyone happy and healthy holidays!

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