Welcome the release of Beaujolais Nouveau in style in France! French river cruise operator, CroisiEurope, is giving guests the opportunity to greet the annual release of the famous Beaujolais Nouveau on a five-day river cruise that has been specially designed for wine lovers.

The wine-themed cruise follows the Saône River from Lyon through Burgundy includes visits to the prestigious city of Beaune, one of the key wine centres in France. Famous for the 15^th century former hospital, now the Hotel-Dieu Museum with its impressive colourful tiled roof. The cruise also takes in the impressive partial ruins of the Cluny Abbey and the Beaujolais Route. And it includes the Parc du Hameau Duboeuf, a theme park dedicated to vineyards and vine. Yes you did read that right! A wine-themed, theme park! It’s unique in Europe.

However, the highlight of the cruise is a visit to medieval Beaujeau medieval capital of Beaujolais. There, guests can discover the 12 appellations of Beaujolais. There’s also a chance to enjoy a lovely soiree in the town centre with cabaret entertainment and food, a torch-lit stroll and a fireworks display to welcome Beaujolais Nouveau Day.

The cruise, which is a round trip from Lyon onboard the MS Rhone Princess, departs on 13^th November 2022 and stops at Chalon-Sur-Saône, Mâcon and Belleville. The cruise includes all meals and drinks, excursions, port fees and repatriation insurance.

The cruise takes place each year – a must for wine lovers and Beaujolais fans.

For more information and reservations see: https://www.croisieurope.co.uk/cruise/exceptional

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The Good Life France Magazine Summer 2022 is out. It’s totally free to read and utterly fabulous:

The Good Life France Magazine Summer 2022

Discover the intoxicating island of Corsica, a well-kept secret island of beauty where 80% of visitors are from France. Head south to arty Arles, once a Roman colony, adored by artists and now a cultural hotspot, and the wetlands of the Camargue where wild white horses and pink flamingoes roam. We explore gorgeous Antibes on the Mediterranean coast, nothing like its more well known neighbours Nice and Cannes where we also go to find out more about this bucket list beauty. In the north, discover the historic department of Aisne in Picardy – the ancient cradle of France, and Agincourt, a land of glorious countryside and a super museum dedicated to its famous battle.

We meet the artisan gin makers of Cognac, expats who make the most incredible liqueurs, find out about France’s green wines and follow the famous prune route – yes prunes, forget the horror of school dinners featuring cold custard and watery dried plums, French prunes are cool!

Find out about Burgundy and Franche-Comté’s UNESCO treasures. What it’s really like to live in a grand chateau. And discover the work of one of the world’s most brilliant floral artists.

Guides, language lessons and wine tips from our new wine expert. Scrumptious recipes, the best tours and what’s new in France and more…

Click here to read our totally free, utterly brilliant magazine written by some of the best travel writers there are. It’s also free to share:

The Good Life France Magazine – Summer 2022

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It’s not every day that one gets to be privy to observing a sculptor at work, but until June 5, 202, renowned Beijing-born artist Wang Keping will be putting his touches on four monumental sculptures in an enchanting forested area just off the gardens of the magnificent Musée Rodin. For much of his life in Mao’s China where art was strictly controlled. Keping had no idea that sculptures even existed as an art form, only paintings. His discovery of Rodin’s sculptures with their sensual forms, in particular of the female body, was life-changing. As the first artist ever to be welcomed by the museum to use its grounds as his personal open-air atelier, Keping, who works exclusively in wood, could not be in a better setting.

The Wood Whisperer

On a recent visit I found Keping to be relaxed and accessible. Watching the artist at work was a delight in itself. He seemed to be sanding down an enormous off-white form that at first glance reminded me of an extracted molar. I was told that the dark cocoa-brown piece nearby used to be the same colour, but had been transformed with a blow torch. As Keping worked away, visitors ambled among masterpieces-in-development in a sun-dappled setting. Sculptures by Rodin appeared to gaze over the artist at work- and surely approvingly. Personally, I loved the entire experience, and plan to return.

Details: Wood sculptor Wang Keping will take over the sculpture garden at Musée Rodin which has been transformed into an open-air workshop. He will work on four monumental sculptures in front of visitors, using whole tree trunks as his source material. Wood, the artist’s favourite material, is at the heart of his work. Wang Keping searches the countryside and sawmills for trunks of different essences. Once debarked, the block suggests the shapes that the sculpture will take. With his chainsaw, and then with increasingly fine tools, the artist makes the wood speak. He sands and re-sands it, until the right shape emerges and reveals the spirit that the material imposes: rounded, soft, sensual female forms, smooth as skin.

One of the sculptures will be exhibited in the museum once completed. The artist will be present for four afternoons each week to work on his sculptures. Find out more at: musee-rodin.fr

Barbara Pasquet James is a U.S. lifestyle editor, speaker, and urban explorer who writes about food fashion and culture, from Paris. She is known for helping launch, write and edit USA Today’s City Guide To Paris and can be contacted via her photo blog FocusOnParis.com

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The last couple of years have been tough in the travel industry and at The Good Life France, we put our quarterly magazine on hold as we also held our breath and hoped things would get better.

Meanwhile we continued to publish great content on our website, where we reach circa 1.5million readers per month, and aimed to help our audience to keep dreaming of the chance to travel and to visit France once more.

On 18 March 2022 we relaunched The Good Life France Magazine. We moved to a new platform to make it easier to collect analytics and we worked with a new designer. What didn’t change was the great content about France, and fabulous photos that our readers have always loved.

We’re absolutely thrilled to have reached more than one million readers for this newly relaunched issue – within 6 weeks. And the number is climbing.

Our platform host, which includes some of the biggest names in the publishing world including the Guardian, Time, BBC magazines etc., has confirmed that no other magazine about France has as wide a reach as The Good Life France Magazine.

We’d like to thank our partners/advertisers who have helped make this possible and stuck with us through the tough times or joined up with us more recently, believing in our vision to provide a high quality, professional magazine to reach a highly targeted, engaged audience – for free: magazine.thegoodlifefrance.com

The magazine is digital and though we considered print, we feel that this is a more sustainable and ecological way to reach readers of this volume.

We’re always keen to chat about opportunities to reach our audience and to know about wonderful places to visit and great stories we know our readers will love…

May, 2022

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Rouen, Normandy’s principal city, has been named ‘UNESCO City of Gastronomy’.

It is the first city in France to be recognised for its creativity in the field of gastronomy. Alongside 48 other cities around the world, in November 2021, Rouen was awarded for its outstanding gastronomy as well as creativity and progress in sustainable urban development.

With its historic old town, museums and glorious cathedral which Claude Monet revered, capturing its beauty on canvas over and over, Rouen has long attracted tourists. But it’s also famous for its culinary heritage, great chefs, Michelin starred restaurants, culinary specialities such as Rouen-style duck. It was in Rouen at La Couronne, the oldest Inn in France that the great American cook Julia Child had her first French dish and fell head over heels for French cuisine. There’s even a shop dedicated entirely to raclette. And of course, Normandy is world famous for its cheeses and cider, Calvados and seafood, dairy and apple tart. The UNESCO award also recognises the city’s efforts to educate the benefits of healthy eating, plus support for gender equality amongst other qualities.

‘Thanks to this distinction, the creativity of the city of Rouen will now be recognised internationally,’ says Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, Mayor of Rouen. ‘… Rouen’s new status as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy represents an opportunity for the city’s economic, tourist and international attractiveness… and showcases the excellence of Normandy cuisine.’

Visit Rouen’s dedicated Creative City webpage rouen.fr/ville-creative-unesco

Discover all about Normandy’s cuisine: https://normandyfoodie.wordpress.com/

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For sixteen days in the autumn of 2021 the Arc de Triomphe in Paris got new clothes.

Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude had dreamed of wrapping the Arc de Triomphe. But sadly the couple died before their dream project came true. Nevertheless, the plan was fulfilled when in September 2021 25,000m² of recyclable polypropylene fabric in silvery blue, and 3,000m of red rope of the same fabric covered the entire Arc in a shimmering hug.

Christo left sufficient funding to fulfil his dream art installation some 60 years after he first had the idea to temporarily transform it. Around 1200 people worked to wrap the Arc and the sight didn’t please everyone. But Christo’s ethos when creating his monumental artworks was to enable people to see art in a different way, to change how we views objects and spaces. And he certainly succeeded.

Bulgarian-born Christo and his wife and collaborator Jeanne-Claude rented a small room with a view of the Arc de Triomphe in 1961. It was here that he first created wrapped sculptures.

Christo died in May 2020 aged 84 having meticulously worked out every last detail of the Arc de Triomphe project which was delayed from the previous year because of Coronavirus. Further delays were caused by a falcon known to nest there each spring. Throughout the sixteen days of the project, the nightly ceremony of the Unknown Soldier continued.

The artist’s posthumous draping of the Arc de Triomphe is nothing if not provocative.

Christo once said of his work: ‘Nobody can own this project, nobody can sell this work… all of these projects are about freedom’. For him art was alive and he felt that it must also die. For the Arc de Triomphe – it’s a wrap.

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Alas the Covid situation means that the legendary Cannes film festival is postponed (hopefully) until July in 2021…crossing those fingers…

But TV5MONDE – the International French-language TV channel is stepping into the gap with a schedule of Cannes-inspired films and much more to enjoy for free.

TV5MONDE – the live TV channel can be accessed via Amazon Fire / Android / Samsung Smart TVs and more, just look in your TV App store, or for free via the TV5MONDE website or TVPlayer.com AND also you can watch 1000’s of hours of FREE on-demand programmes at your leisure via TV5MONDEPlus.com (a sort of Netflix service).

What’s on TV5MONDE and TV5MONDEPlus.com

Films, old and new, series, live news, cooking shows, documentaries, language shows, kid’s programmes – there’s a huge range to watch on TV5MONDE & even more on TV5MONDEPlus. And almost everything has English subtitles. If you’re a Francophile, learning French or just want a change from the same old same old, then switch on to TV5MONDE and watch and browse the hundreds of programmes available from French-speaking countries around the world.

In the UK and Ireland, you can enjoy both the live channel and TV5MONDEPlus for free, elsewhere it depends on rights but TV5MONDEPlus is free in almost all countries (except for China, US and the Netherlands).

So if you’re missing your Cannes fix in 2021, take a look at TV5MONDE range of films – drama, romance, comedy, thriller… it’s all there. Several films have appeared at Cannes or features Cannes award winning actors.

And each month TV5MONDEPlus add more programme content to the catalogue, more films, more shows, more series. There are theme months such as a focus on fashion or a popular French actor or even the Tour de France.

Sign up to the newsletter to receive regular details or head to the website to get your Cannes and French fix: TV5MONDE for the live TV channel and TV5MONDEPlus for the on-demand platform.

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On the sun-soaked Côte d’Azur, a local food specialty reigns. Socca is just four simple ingredients: chickpea flour, water, salt, and olive oil. But what it lacks in complexity, it makes up for in rusticity, history, cultural significance, and, most importantly an incomparable crispy, fluffy, and delicious flavor.

Socca – a true taste of Nice

For generations, socca has been a mainstay of Nice and the French Riviera. Most likely arriving with immigrants from Genoa in the 19th Century, Niçois children and adults alike savor socca at restaurants that are closing in on their centennial celebrations. Tradition is still supreme. Chez Thérésa’s Jean-Luc Mekersi still cuts socca with the knife that socca pioneer Thérésa used in the early 1900s.

We Eat Socca Here is a film by Scott Petersen which tells the story of socca through the lens of the restaurateurs and entrepreneurs who keep the wood-fired flame burning. Meet Steeve Bernardo (Chez Pipo), Stephane Pentolini (René Socca) & Jean-Luc Mekersi (Chez Thérésa). From its early days being produced on makeshift food carts serving fishermen to current-day restaurants feeding locals and tourists alike from 200 year-old ovens, socca is an indelible part of Nice’s cultural fabric.

See the trailer for a taste of Socca:

Los Angeles based Petersen is an award-winning film-maker whose résumé includes work on multiple networks as well as several feature films and commercials (including Hitchhiking to the Edge of Sanity). His short film We Eat Socca captures the joy and the reverence that the people of Nice hold for their favourite dish. You’ll be whisked away to the French Riviera, feel the warmth of the friendly locals, the heat of the sun and the sound of life in the vibrant south of France.

Petersen suggests watching The film which has English subtitles with a Socca Bièra or a glass of Provençal Rosé – catch it on Amazon Prime worldwide from 30 March 2021. It’s lovely film, and in just under ten minutes gives you an experience of authentic southern France – a feel good film.

Warning: this movie will make you hungry.

Scott Petersen (Producer/Director/Editor) can  be found on Facebook at SoccaMovie

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Capturing the imagination of over 100,000 students to date, the Irish-born start-up Junk Kouture was formed in 2010. It aims to empower young people with its primary offering, a Recycled Fashion Competition for all young people aged 13-18. Aspiring artists, budding designers, and engineers are challenged to envision, design, create and model wearable haute couture styled from everyday junk.

Sustainable fashion

Incorporating elements of sustainability, fashion, art, design, engineering, and performing arts, a Junk Kouture creation can be inspired by anything, but the golden rule is that the outfit must be made from 100% recycled materials.

The highly anticipated competition is now opening its doors to France. Everything from Nespresso capsules, sea glass, milk bottles, and much more have been used to create beautiful haute-couture inspired pieces.

Celebrity judge Michelle Visage of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame, was clearly blown away by the student’s work stating: “milk cartons? I’m never going to look at a milk carton in the same way. I could be wearing it instead of drinking from it. That is unbelievable”

France loves fashion that’s not fast

Junk Kouture is not alone in its quest to promote sustainability in fashion. France is leading the way in Europe when it comes to ending fast fashion. Government officials have put together a bold new plan to make France the sustainable capital of the world by 2024. Coined the “Paris Good Fashion” initiative, it will bring designers and experts together to make fashion in France Greener.

Leading fashion sustainability consultant in France and founder of Fair game Studio, Laura Hayes says “France is leading impressive examples in sustainability including President Emmanuel Macron hiring Kering CEO Francois-Henri Pinault in 2019 to create a ‘coalition’ of CEOs and top brands in the fashion industry who join forces and set ambitious sustainability targets together.

“Kering is the parent company to some of the world’s most iconic fashion brands and that role, a first-of-its-kind, marks a new era of collaboration and open-source cooperation across the fashion industry and possibly other industries down the line. The idea of sharing ideas and resources in the fashion industry had traditionally been hush-hush until that point.”

Fashion competition

France’s goals align with the competition perfectly and that is why there is no better time for Junk Kouture to arrive and help transform the fashion industry through the creativity of young people. Later this year, young creators across six countries will have the opportunity to participate in Junk Kouture. Submissions will be made on the new Junk Kouture app, with the top designers from each country qualifying for the Digital World Final.

Junk Kouture offers incredible prizes for winners. Such as attendance at prestigious events, memorable experiences, bursaries and scholarships, and a monetary prize for the winning school! 2021 is no different with an amazing list of prizes up for grabs in the digital competition.

French brands have proven they are ready to promote sustainability in fashion by shifting their designs to inspire the same young people competing in the competition. Brands like H&M, Vejas, Sezane, and large department stores like Galleries Lafayette have all shown they want to bring more sustainability to their products. Maybe these young budding students can inspire their next designs and sustainable textiles.

Visit www.junkkouture.com to find out more and register your interest in the upcoming competition. You can also stay inspired, gather tips, and keep up to date with the latest news and updates on social media @junkkouture.

By Krystal Kenny, author of Paris, A Life less Ordinary: A Memoir, and photographer at MissParisPhoto.com  

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Everything you need to know about the new rules to enjoy a holiday in France during the Coronavirus pandemic.

I’ve had so many questions about France holiday travel and Coronavirus rule, and indeed what life is like here under Covid-19 for visitors So here is a summary that’s up to date as at spring 2021. I’ll try to keep this regularly updated.

British travellers to France from UK

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office website contains official information about travel. https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france/coronavirus

In France there are rules and requirements that may differ from the rest of the world.

Bars, restaurants, attractions and sites from major museums to Loire Valley chateaux are closed. But they are due to open (outdoors only for bars etc) from May 19 2021.

Masks must be worn in all enclosed public building, in places where social distancing isn’t possible and most towns outside. You may be turned away if you don’t wear a mask, or you may face a fine. This applies to all over the age of 11.

Masks must be worn at all times on public transport. Some airlines have specified that fabric masks are not acceptable and you must wear surgical masks. Check with the airline you’re flying with to see if that requirement affects you.

Social distancing (one metre) is practised everywhere.

Hand sanitiser/antibacterial gel is freely available for use of the public in the majority of public buildings including shops.

Travelling to France from UK

Eurostar are running infrequent trains to Lille and Paris.

Eurotunnel are running regular trains.

Ferries are regularly running to France but some routes may be limited or subject to cancellation (Brittany Ferries for instance).

Ferry foot passenger services to France have been suspended at the time of publication. (Check direct with the ferry line for up to date information if you require this service).

You will be required to complete an online form giving contact details when you travel to the UK. You may be required by the UK Government to quarantine on your return from France. This is subject to change – please check the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website (above).

When can I go on holiday to France?

According to government updates, foreign visitors will be allowed to visit France from June 9 2021. Visitors will be required to have a “health pass” – yet to be defined but showing evidence of a negative PCR test, or full covid vaccination or possibly proof of recover from Covid.

When will everything open in France?

The schedule for reopening is subject to change but currently:

May 19 2021 – bars and restaurants will reopen for terraced seating only. reopening of all commercial activities, cultural venues, cinemas and theatres. But there will be restrictions on how many people may enter venues. A curfew will be in place from 9pm to 6am.

9 June 2021 – Curfew from 11pm to 6am. Reopening of all bars and terraces indoors but with restrictions on numbers. Overseas tourists allowed to visit France with a “health pass”.

30 June 2021 – Curfew ends. Social distance to be maintained, plus hand gel made available.

For those unable to travel to France right now, there’s much hope that you’ll be able to be welcomed one day soon.

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