Is this a weird holiday?
bringing back more than we arrived with
I’m back in London after two weeks away in France. It was a holiday, but I’ve come to realise that our holidays are quite different to what some would consider a holiday to be.
We didn’t eat any meals out.
We didn’t go on a plane.
We didn’t go to the sea.
And we came back with a lot more ‘stuff’ than we left with.
Despite the above, it was a wonderfully relaxing break.
In today’s piece I’m going to write about the reasons why my ideal trip has evolved into something quite different to the stereotypical holiday image and why that works for me. It’s also a celebration of the artisans and producers we met on our travels up and down France. At the bottom of the post you will find links to all of the Airbnbs, producers and artisans mentioned.
Quality, hand-made and sustainably produced goods are something I’m passionate about in my work as an interior designer because it’s how I live myself.
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I’ve become something of a Francophile over the past 5 years. I studied French at A Level but dropped the course after one year due to doing better in my other subjects (it was the time of AS Levels 🙄). I always loved learning about the culture as well as the language, but back then I was seeking something different to now - some kind of mastery or perfection. I now know that in language terms, it’s impossible. I mean, have I mastered English? No!
Fast forward 20 years and post-pandemic, something clicked in me that the only way I was going to improve my French was through regular practice. Like with a musical instrument, languages need to be used daily.
And so I set about taking my French more seriously. I didn’t sign up for an intensive course, or spend lots of money on reading materials. Instead, I asked my fluent-French speaking friend Judith what I should do.
“Watch French TV, listen to French radio, speak to J in French, find a native speaker to chat with occasionally…”
All completely sensible suggestions and also very possible.
This was in 2021, and since then we’ve watched countless French TV series (with subtitles), started listening to FIP on Radio France instead of BBC 6Music, attempted to do Duolingo reasonably regularly, and while I was still teaching I had lunch with one of the French teachers every Monday. This has also been combined with following some French social media accounts and visiting the country several times per year (3 trips so far in 2026).
I’m by no means fluent, but my understanding has come on hugely, and while we were away on the most recent trip my husband said to me “I think you may have reached conversational level” after we’d just spent an hour tasting wine with a French vineyard owner and I was chatting to her about our mutual love of liquorice.
It was quite a revelation that I was no longer feeling slightly anxious in advance of an interaction with someone new.
And all of this has meant that aspects of France that may have felt ‘off-limits’ previously as largely non-French speaking travellers, have suddenly opened up to us and made me fall even more deeply in love with the country.
Travels South
This trip was by car and we opted to take Le Shuttle to cross the channel. This is a train that you drive your car onto and it takes just 35 minutes to get from Folkestone to Calais.
Driving is our favourite way to travel on holiday because we can take specific items with us like kitchen utensils (J takes his kitchen knives with him…) and piles of books (including a few cookbooks). And better still, we have space in the car to bring things home. I love driving and in France it’s easy - wide, straight roads and much less traffic than the UK. Though don’t get me started on péage costs (motorway tolls).
We arrived in France around 10am and headed towards our first stop: Chablis - around 4 and a half hours from Calais. It’s a town we’ve visited a few times, but had never stayed there. This time we had a beautiful Airbnb booked for 2 nights (link at the bottom of this post) and once the car was parked we didn’t have to drive anywhere for 48 hours, which was nice after a long day of driving. There was a market on Sunday morning which was the perfect re-introduction to French culture and we visited the wine cooperative La Chablisienne to taste and buy some Chablis wines to take home with us.
We spent around half an hour tasting delicious, cool Chablis and chatted with the woman serving us, asking her about the stories of the wine names (one was called L’Homme Mort) as well as what her favourite wines were. We bought a couple of cases to take home with us and were presented with a free corkscrew and bottle stopper wrapped up in a nice little bag.
Arriving Home (ish)
The main destination for our trip was to La Drôme region which is in Northern Provence. We were staying in the same house we’d spent a month in during the summer of 2024 and were very excited to be back.
The benefit of returning was that we arrived with a list of places we knew we wanted to visit, as well as being open to new discoveries. It did feel a little like returning home.
On my list was to return to the tiny village of Aiguèze which overlooks the Ardèche river. Partially to enjoy the views, but also to go back to a little shop La grange des producteurs which sold local food, wine and lavender products. I use a few drops of lavender oil in the bath and this can be expensive in the UK. At this shop I bought 250ml of lavender oil for €18 along with some garrigues scented foot balm for €5. All locally produced and excellent quality.
The next day we returned to another favourite from the previous trip, the beautiful hillside town of Dieulefit, most famous for pottery, but also full of talented artisans and makers. We bought two new tea mugs and side plates from Poterie Dieulefit and I got a super cute pen pot made by ceramicist Corine Lavalle. It made me smile.
J was in the market for a new leather belt and we found a fantastic leather goods shop - Atelier Atout-Cuir run by Emma Gregoire - where he had a belt made to measure while we waited. I bought a cute pair of colourful earrings also made by Emma which were made from leather offcuts.