Table of Contents for this Episode
Categories: Family Travel, Normandy & Brittany, Paris, Provence
559 Trip of a lifetime with a family of 6 with Lori Belinski (Aug 17)
[00:00:00] Introduction
Annie: This is Join Us in France, Episode 559.
Annie: Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent and Join Us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational journey through the beauty, culture, and flavors of France.
[00:00:30] Today on the podcast
Annie: Today, I bring you a conversation with Lori Belinski about her unforgettable three-week adventure across France with a family of six, spanning three generations.
Annie: From Olympic events, yes, we’ll never stop talking about those Olympics, we’re so proud of them, to lavender fields in Provence, Lori shares practical tips, heartwarming stories, and travel insights.
Annie: So you can listen in for inspiration, laughter, and advice for planning your own family trip of a lifetime.
[00:01:01] Podcast supporters
Annie: This podcast runs on chocolatine, caffeine, and the support of wonderful humans like you. You book itinerary consults, take my voice map tours, ride shotgun in my electric car, or come to the boot camp, or you slip me a few euros on Patreon, and I love you for it.
Annie: If you want to keep me going and skip the ads, there’s a link for that in the show notes as well, head to joinusinfrance.com/boutique to purchase any of my services or for more information.
Annie: For the magazine part of the podcast, after my chat with Lori, I’ll discuss La Rentrée and the strangest associations you can sign up for in France.
Annie: If you want all the links, and the full episode transcript, you’ll find everything on the page that lists all of the episodes of the podcast, joinusinfrance.com/episodes.
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Annie: It is the best way to stay in the loop.
[00:02:18] Annie, Lori and James
Annie Sargent: Bonjour, Lori Belinski and James McLaughlin, and welcome to Join Us in France.
Annie Sargent: Bonjour, Annie.
James McLaughlin: Bonjour.
Annie Sargent: Thanks for having us.
Annie Sargent: Yes, wonderful to have you. We are going to discuss a wonderful trip you took. You were all over France, really!You had a wonderful trip with six people, so that’s what I want to hear all about. Tell me when you took this trip and where you went and who all was with you.
[00:02:45] Family Trip Overview
Lori Belinsky: Yes, so, I’m Lori. This is James, my husband, and we took a just over three-week trip, around the Olympics, with my entire family.
Lori Belinsky: So it was my mom, my dad, and my brother, and then our five-year-old daughter as well. So it was three generations.
[00:03:03] Olympic Adventures
Annie Sargent: Wow, and did you go to the Olympics? Was that the occasion or it just coincided?
Lori Belinsky: Oh, no. It was… we went to the Olympics.
Annie Sargent: All right. What towns did you go to for the Olympics?
Lori Belinsky: Oh, boy. The Olympics was the second half of our trip. So the first week was in the South of France, so we could, do you want to talk about the Olympics first?
Annie: Sure.
Annie Sargent: Briefly, because that’s over and it’s not going to happen again for a while.
Lori Belinsky: Right, right. We picked our five events and then after picking the five events, then we filled the rest of the time with all the French things to see. But we did see, our favorite was probably rugby, getting to see the rugby sevens, all the different teams. And then track and field. I was a pole vaulter.Um, so saut à la perche. So this actually was my world coming together. That’s where this trip came to be. I’m a French teacher and I was a track coach. So, getting to do all this in one shot with my extended family was like a dream come true and a trip of a lifetime.
Annie: Wonderful.
Lori Belinsky: We started with rugby and then we did, we had track and field’s probably our second favorite. We got to see women’s pole vault. We were right in front of the runway, it was fantastic.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Oh, we saw beach volleyball, so that was the whole reason really was to be in front of the Eiffel Tower for beach volleyball. And we got to see the Eiffel Tower twinkle while seeing beach volleyball. It was a really cool experience, the way the French did that. We saw opening ceremonies, which we got soaked at, but it was well worth it.
Lori Belinsky: There’s a really fun picture of the whole family, like just soaked and just having a great time.
James McLaughlin: Completely soaked, yeah. But big smiles.
Lori Belinsky: And then, the last thing was the, we saw trampoline gymnastics.
Annie: Wow.
Lori Belinsky: So we knew we couldn’t get regular gymnastic in with everything, but we wanted to see something different that you would only see at the Olympics, so that was really interesting to see the trampoline gymnastics.
Annie: Wonderful. Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Was that it, James? Did I get everything?
James McLaughlin: It sounds like it, which was plenty. That there was a lot going on.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, yeah. And the Olympics were wonderful. The ambiance was great. I mean, I assume you had a good time with the ambiance, the public, and all of that.
Lori Belinsky: Yes. That was probably one of my favorite things about it, and I think I wrote this about what I learned about France, is that the French can throw a big event.
Lori Belinsky: Not only was it, like, well organized and well run, it was just amazingly well done. And also it was so fun to see how happy the French were to be hosting, the actual public. They were so supportive of their athletes, when their boat showed up on the opening ceremonies, how excited everybody was to see them. It was just really fun to see that, especially as a French teacher.
Annie Sargent: Right, and so what, so tell me about your French teaching, what level do you teach?
Lori Belinsky: I’m currently teaching privately actually.
Lori Belinsky: So I teach all ages, more elementary right now. I’m about to teach adults for the first time and I’m really excited about that. I’m doing a community class in the area, so I’m really excited to get to see how it is to teach adults. I know it’s going to be a lot of fun. But most of my career has been middle school, little bit of high school, but pretty much everybody, and a little bit of teacher training as well.
[00:06:20] Exploring the South of France
Annie Sargent: Wonderful. Okay.
Annie Sargent: So let’s then talk about the places you visited while you were in France and some insights that you want to share. Maybe James, can you tell us more or less all the towns you went to and all that?
[00:06:32] Fly Fishing Excursion
James McLaughlin: We started, we flew into the South of France, we flew into Nice first. And as Lori said, we spent about a week there,seeing all the major sights there. One of the most fun things that I got to do is I went fly fishing by myself. l left the family in Nice and I was able to book a fly fishing guide, about two hours from Nice, on the Verdon River, which is a wild trout stream. I’m a lifelong fly fisherman so I was able to book this crazy trip.
Annie Sargent: And not to get too in the weeds about it, it was an amazing experience where I found myself in pristine parts of France, fishing for wild trout. I just happened to make it happen in this crazy trip where we’re, you know, seeing the sights of Nice and getting ready to go to the games in Paris and then I’m on a trout stream. It was a fantastic trip. Yeah. I must say, if you have a passion like that and you can experience it in a different country, it really is wonderful, right? I mean, if you like, like, I like to watch birds. Well, if you do that abroad, you get to experience it, and it’s the same activity just in a different way, isn’t it? And it’s a wonderful thing to do.
James McLaughlin: Sort of a different facet. And I learned so much from the French guide, and just getting there was like a kind of wild thing, in the rental car driving on, I guess it was Route D6 coming out of Nice. And I had no idea, I’m just following Google Maps and it was like the windiest, most treacherous two-lane road that was carved out of limestone, getting back to this stream.
James McLaughlin: And bikers were everywhere and what normally would take me, I don’t know, half an hour took me two hours just going really slow and being super cautious. And meanwhile, you’re looking out and the scenery is wild.
Annie Sargent: That’s an excellent point is on French D roads, you’re not going to go bloody fast, okay? Just, it’s… You can’t. Even if it’s not windy, there is going to be people in front of you that are not going very fast. There’s going to be trucks, there’s going to be bikes, there’s going to be all sorts of things. Just plan on a lot of slow traffic.
James McLaughlin: Yeah. I was happy to go slow. There were some Frenchmen behind me trying to get to work. They were not so happy.
Annie Sargent: Oh, they’re used to it.
James McLaughlin:
James McLaughlin: Lots of bikes and lots of just breathtaking scenery, so…
Annie Sargent: Well, that’s wonderful.
[00:08:53] Driving in France
Annie Sargent: Was that your first time driving in France, James?
James McLaughlin: No. We had been to France prior to this for one of Lori’sFrench teaching groups. We were in… Where were we, Lori?
Lori Belinsky: We were in, oh gosh, Southwest. It is… Oh, what’s the name of it?
Lori Belinsky: Oh, the Calanques.
Lori Belinsky: Calanques. Merci.
Lori Belinsky: Yep. We had drove.
James McLaughlin: And we were in La Ciotat.
Annie Sargent: Okay. La Ciotat. Okay. Very nice.
James McLaughlin: All the names are starting to come back to me now.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. And you can say them correctly. That’s great. That’s wonderful.
Annie Sargent: So do you also drive when you go to France, Lori, or is James the driver usually?
Annie Sargent: The last time we switched back and forth, we shared driving when we drove from Bordeaux to Les Calanques. But this time it was all James. This three weeks was James as the pilot of our trip.
Annie Sargent: Well, and you had a large vehicle, I suppose.
James McLaughlin: Right. Yeah. Large SUV slash like the French version of a minivan.
Annie Sargent: So what car was it? Do you remember?
James McLaughlin: We started with a… I think it was a three row,it was a three row SUV. And I should have written all this down, I don’t recall.
James McLaughlin: My car is kind of on the larger side, so yeah, being there, driving there was fine, felt comfortable most of the time. And… I was able to handle parking most times. I don’t think I had to do too much crazy parallel parking or, you know, other side of the street wrong way parking. We planned things kind of accordingly, to the point where I’m looking at Google Maps, you know, zoomed way in like, “Okay, I can park right there and if that doesn’t work out, I’ll go over here,” you know?
Annie Sargent: Right. So you had a plan. Yeah.
James McLaughlin: There was lots of, like, navigating prior to. Right.
James McLaughlin: Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: And just real quick, the conference was Agen. It’s in Agen.
Lori Belinsky: Agen. Okay. Okay.
Lori Belinsky: Shout out to my teacher friends in Agen.
[00:10:46] Driving in France is Easy
Annie Sargent: Yes. Bonjour les professeurs de Francais à Agen. Going from Bordeaux to La Ciotat, that’s a long way. To Marseilles even. That’s a long drive.
Lori Belinsky: But it’s so nice to drive in France. In France, it’s so much better than here. At least here… we’re right outside Philadelphia, so we’re kind of known for some aggressive driving in the States. And I just longed for being in France when everybody knew how you pass on the left and then you get over, you get over again, and that’s just… there’s the rules in France and everybody follows them. So that’s what’s really nice about driving in France.
Annie Sargent: Not everybody, but most people, yes.
Lori Belinsky: More than here.
Annie Sargent: I’ve never driven around Philadelphia, but it’s true that in some places in the US, yeah, you feel like people are going to push you right off the road, man.
James McLaughlin: Limited following of rules on the major highways here, specifically in Pennsylvania, maybe not specifically, but…
Lori Belinsky: New Jersey.
James McLaughlin: … New Jersey, sure. But in France, literally, people tend to follow the rules a little bit more. There is less, you know, hanging out in the left lane going 50 miles an hour when you should be going 70 miles an hour. For the most part, I felt safer in France sometimes, and definitely, the quality of the roads, that’s the one thing, is when you’re on the larger roads, they’re just, they’re pristine.
Annie Sargent: The toll roads?!
James McLaughlin: Toll roads are very well kept. It’s sometimes not the way here in the States, right? So…
Annie Sargent: Okay. Okay. All right. What did you like best of this trip, and also, what did you learn about France? Perhaps you, Lori, what did you learn about France? Because you’ve been many times, is there some stuff that you enjoyed particularly much?
Lori Belinsky: It’s really, gosh, it was so hard to narrow things down about what we liked the most.
[00:12:36] Lavender Fields and Local Guides
Lori Belinsky: Of course, the Olympics, you know, all those experience was amazing, but after that, I think probably our trip to Provence and the lavender fields.
Annie Sargent: Oh, you went with Jean-Francois.
Lori Belinsky: Yes, we went with Jean-Francois. Yes.
Lori Belinsky: Ah.
Lori Belinsky: So, I purged your podcast for these four things. I’ve got two guides from your podcast and a photographer.
Lori Belinsky: Nice. Nice.
Lori Belinsky: They were all fantastic. And our experience with Jean-Francois was absolutely amazing.
Annie Sargent: I had a chat with him a few weeks ago. Next time I publish something with him, it’ll be about Corsica. Because he also does Corsica. But this is Jean-Francois Sénéchal. I don’t remember what episode it was, but it was a long time ago.
Annie Sargent: Yes, early on.
James McLaughlin: Lori was scouring your podcast, literally listening, and writing things down.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. So years ago, I talked to him, and he still emails me frequently saying, “Oh, somebody booked with me through your podcast. Thank you so much.” And this was not like a financial arrangement at all. I just thought he was a lovely person, and, you know, and obviously you did too. That’s great.
Annie Sargent: Oh, yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Yes. Totally agree. He was so down to earth, and he was so invested. It was the end of the lavender season, he had his fields ready, there was a couple that had already been harvested, and he was like, “Okay, we’re going to go to the next one. We’re going to make this happen.” And he found fantastic places, and there’s some really great pictures that we sent to you, and we both saw lavender fields and sunflower fields. And we went to the city of Valensole, I think it is. Yeah. Valensole? Mm-hmm.
Lori Belinsky: Valensole. Yeah, that’s it. Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Yep, and it was really pretty, a little touristy trappy, but still worth seeing. So he drove our van. And that was the way we worked it out.
James McLaughlin: Which was a Peugeot 5008. Yeah.
Annie Sargent: Peugeot 5008. Okay. Okay. Yeah. That’s a three-row SUV. Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: And he took us, basically, when we drove home, we drove, I think, the same route that James drove when he went fly-fishing, and it was just beautiful, and having him get to tell us everything, and show us the lakes, and we saw a walled city really quick, and it was beautiful.
Lori Belinsky: It was a great one day, like, when I messaged him and said it was, like, going to be one day, and not, like, staying over, he was like, “That’s a little cutting it close, but we’ll make it happen,” and I was just- … really thankful.
Lori Belinsky: I kind of stayed in touch with him as well, like he’s a track and field person.
Lori Belinsky: He was a hurdler and a hurdler coach, I believe.
Lori Belinsky: Mm-hmm.
Lori Belinsky: Or at least maybe just a hurdler. Yeah. So we bonded talking about that, and talking about teaching and being obviously very invested in Francophone culture and language, and he was just a really great person, and it was a great experience.
Annie Sargent: That’s fantastic. And I want to mention also the guide for your fly-fishing was Guillaume Durand. It’s Riviera Fly-Fishing. So I’ll put a link in the show notes for him as well.
James McLaughlin: Highly recommend, even if you don’t fly-fish. He’s so knowledgeable about not only that river, but the surrounding region, and he was telling me stories about, you know, taking families out. So even if fly-fishing isn’t your thing, he’ll get you on fish, as we say, and he’s just a super knowledgeable man, really, really nice guy.
Annie Sargent: Speaks English well, I assume?
James McLaughlin: Very well, written and spoken. I mean, we had some, like, philosophical conversations on, you know, stream side, about life. So he’s really, really nice guy.
Annie Sargent: Excellent. Okay.
[00:16:12] Monaco Aquarium Visit
Annie Sargent: You spent a day at Monaco, but mostly at the aquarium. I want to hear about that because I love that place.
Lori Belinsky: Oh, we got… It was amazing. I think James being the fish person, will support this, but I think it was probably the best aquarium that we’ve ever been to. We’ve been to a bunch on the East Coast that are, you know, they claim to be, like, the best and this was hands down amazing.
James McLaughlin: Yeah. The quality of the fish, the quality of the coral. I’ve had coral reef tanks in our house for years, and I was blown away by the how the life was just thriving in their tanks. But they’ve got the Mediterranean right there and they’re obviously just taking water right out of that and it’s essentially just a reef in the building. It was outstanding.
Lori Belinsky: And that was just the first floor. There’s the, all the different floors.They had a virtual visit there, that was about the poles, about the life on the North and South Pole.
James McLaughlin: Right. Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: And that was really cool. It was a big room and it was just… You could, like, walk up and touch things and interact with it. And then there was a museum floor, and on the very top was the restaurant and a little playground. And that was… Yeah, we spent most of the day.
James McLaughlin: Our five-year-old at that point when it was lunchtime was like, “Hey, playground.” It was very hot. Things were very hot up there. But she loved it.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, that’s the other thing that it was definitely a hot time to be there.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. Well, but then you got drenched in Paris, so ha ha.
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes. Yes, we did.
[00:17:44] Accommodation Experiences
Annie Sargent: But we did have, is that okay to talk about the houses?
Lori Belinsky: Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Being six people, we had to be in houses, and with a child, it just didn’t… It was not going to work to be in, like, a tiny apartment in Paris, so… In Nice, we were about 25 minutes on the tram from like, the old city.
Lori Belinsky: And we had a house on the first floor of an apartment building and we had a pool.
Lori Belinsky: Oh.
Lori Belinsky: Yes. And it was clutch because there’s no air conditioning, everybody just know that, be prepared for no air conditioning.
James McLaughlin: No matter what they say, there actually is no AC anywhere. Yeah.
James McLaughlin: Yes.
Lori Belinsky: Even if they tell you there is.
Annie Sargent: And that was a very big thing.
Annie Sargent: Well, the thing is sometimes they say there’s AC because there’s one room in the apartment that has AC.
James McLaughlin: Right.
Annie Sargent: Oh.
Annie Sargent: That only works when it feels like it or something, you know?
James McLaughlin: Right.
Annie Sargent: But you have to understand French mentality. If you have a pool, then obviously you don’t need AC, because you’re going to go dip in the pool and cool off in the pool. Voila.
Lori Belinsky: I was just going to say that. And that’s what we did. And it was very… It was kind of strange. It was a small pool and you look up and it’s just all these apartment buildings looking down at you with a pool.
James McLaughlin: We were basically on a stage. We were like with something down. Everyone’s looking down at us like, “Oh, they’re back and they’re swimming.” So…
James McLaughlin: Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: But we don’t care, and our five-year-old sure did not care, you know?
Lori Belinsky: Uh-huh.
Lori Belinsky: And it was really nice. We would eat dinner out there,several nights. And then we would… Everybody had a dip in the pool before you went to bed because that’s how you cooled down before you went to sleep, was having a pool.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: Beach bod. No body. Beach bod. It’s okay. Go to the pool.
Annie Sargent: Whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: My father, who I have not seen in a pool in probably a decade was in that pool I think every day.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
James McLaughlin: He was, yeah.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, so tell me about your folks who went with you. Are they as familiar with France as you are?
Annie Sargent: Not at all.
Lori Belinsky: My mom had visited me in France actually when I was an English assistant. I was an English assistant in France in like 2018.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Not 2018. 2008. I’m sorry. 2008.
Lori Belinsky: Okay.
Lori Belinsky: I’m like, “Wait a minute.” Wait… No, it was longer than that. And she came and visited me for a couple of weeks and I was in Normandy and that was a really great experience. She came and just, like, lived with me for a couple of weeks. So she’s seen it, but doesn’t speak any French.
Lori Belinsky: And then this was my dad’s first time basically out of the country, besides, like, Cancun. So this was a big deal for him. My brother works for IKEA, so he’s been to Sweden a couple times. But again, the longest time of being out.
Lori Belinsky: And I think my mom wanted to stress that it’s very helpful to have somebody who speaks French. That’s endlessly helpful when you’re going to be there for a long time. But it was just… It was just so important to me.
[00:20:39] Health Snags
Annie Sargent: Yeah. So did you run in to any snags? Like, were there health things? Did you have to…
Lori Belinsky: Oh, we did have some health things.
Lori Belinsky: Yep.
Lori Belinsky: I forgot about that.
Annie Sargent: Okay.
Annie Sargent: What happened?
Lori Belinsky: My brother got a sty in his eye.
Lori Belinsky: He thought it would go away and it didn’t and we wound up in Paris. He did… I think he did, like a virtual call with a doctor, and then we wound up getting a prescription that sent to a pharmacy and that was a whole experience getting that.
Annie Sargent: And you got some Maxidrol.
Lori Belinsky: It was not helpful. I don’t know what it was. No, it did not work. I mean, he also needed to take care of it quicker but it didn’t go away for a long time, even when he came home. That was… But that was really, really it. Do we have any other…
James McLaughlin: No, there was no other health things that popped up. It was just trying to get Eric some attention because his eye just was not getting better, so…
James McLaughlin: Yeah.
James McLaughlin: I mean, I think the service that he got in France kind of, like, held it off, and then he was able to see someone when he was home. But yeah, luckily, no other major incidents happened.
[00:21:49] Boat Tour in Nice
Annie Sargent: Okay. Very good. All right. So, you went for a boat tour in Nice. Was that like a city boat tour? Was that a private boat tour?
Lori Belinsky: Oh. No, it was the city tour. It was the one where you go to the marina.
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm.
Lori Belinsky: And you get on it. And it was short, but it was beautiful. That was what we did the day that James went fishing. The rest of us went on the boat tour, and we kind of wandered around the port area. My dad is very interested in the world wars, so we can talk about it. We did a overnight stay in Normandy area, so we can talk about that in a little bit, but we also visited the Monument aux Morts at the Nice port. Which was very beautiful, very moving, seeing that like carved into the side of the mountain there.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, all along the promenade, the beach front, there are many monuments to different themes.
Annie Sargent: Nice does a very nice job with memorials of different sorts, some of them quite recent, as a matter of fact, because they had the guy with the crazy truck or whatever it was, few years back, anyway.
[00:22:53] Exploring the Wooden Playground
Annie Sargent: Oh, your daughter liked the Promenade du Paillon in Nice?
Lori Belinsky: Yes. That was definitely a selling point. So it’s basically like a long playground of all like wooden things to climb on.
James McLaughlin: There was like, yeah, like a whale, you know, things like that. Loved it, loved it.
Annie Sargent: You can climb on, onto things, and it’s totally free, so it’s a really a nice… And it walks you from the beach front to the city center, really, if you take it the whole way.
Lori Belinsky: Yes. We didn’t do that whole, that whole long thing. But it also it was very, very hot, and there was a lot of sprinkling, like, water and misters there, so that was really… That was great for her to get to run around and not be overheated. She really liked that.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: That’s wonderful.
(Mid-roll ad spot)
Annie Sargent: Let’s see.
[00:23:41] Monaco: The Drink of the Trip
Annie Sargent: Oh, you enjoyed drinking Monacos with your mom.
James McLaughlin: That turned into the drink of the trip. We were trying to get them everywhere.
Annie Sargent: So Monaco… Let me think, let me think if I can remember. Monaco is orange juice with grenadine?
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, and beer.
Annie Sargent: And beer. Oh, beer, okay. Very good. Yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Beer, a little bit of orange juice, and grenadine. Yep.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, so it’d be like, when I’m in Spain, I like to order, oh, what do you call this? A caña is a regular beer and a Clarita is a beer with some sort of soda in it, like, some 7-Up or something. It just makes beer better. I don’t know.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, it was just refreshing. It was just refreshing, and it was just worked out because it was, again, so hot.
[00:24:30] Dog Sled Adventure in Fontainebleau
Annie Sargent: All right. So, now we’re going to jump to later. After the Olympics, you did a dog sled adventure in Fontainebleau. It was called Evasion Canine. I want to hear about that because I haven’t heard about that very… I think somebody else mentioned it, but I can’t remember how long ago.
Lori Belinsky: I think… Did I… I feel like I couldn’t find it on the podcast. So it was Christian is his name, Christian, also speaks really good English, the owner. And so yes, it is dog sled experience in the summer. So what it is, is that it’s not on, it’s not sleds, it’s on wheels. So it is a full dog sled, James, how many dogs was it? 16?
James McLaughlin: It was upwards of 16 dogs, yeah. Thereabouts, yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Yes. And he’s got this, like, crazy contraption of a, like what you sit in, and it can fit three people plus him. So me, James and my brother went, and it was crazy. So actually, he almost canceled on us because it was so hot. He’s very, very cautious about the heat for the dogs. It was really early. We had to be there at 8:00 AM, like on the dot, had to be there. And actually, he almost would have canceled if we didn’t have like a miscommunication, … our phones weren’t working. It was strange. But we got there and he’s like, “It’s okay.” Like, “We’re going to just… we’ll do a tour around the forest and the dogs will get their break. I’ll stop when they need it. And we’ll do…” It was really quick. It was probably like a 20 minutes of the actual trip. But it was… You were fine with that because you were moving fast.
James McLaughlin: When Lori said tour, you weren’t looking at anything but a blur of bushes and branches flying by you. It was exhilarating. It was a lot of fun. Yeah.
Annie Sargent: It was high-energy kind of thing.
James McLaughlin: No, it was not a little sled ride through the forest. It was like, “Hold on to something. Here we go.”
Lori Belinsky: Yeah. I forget how fast they went, but it was… It had to be like…
James McLaughlin: You could tell me anything. You could tell me 30 miles an hour, I’d be like, “Yup.” It was really fast, and it was fun. Like, you’re taking these corners. He, at one point, told us, who we were… we had Lori in the middle, Eric is on one side, I’m on the other, and he said, “put your wrist up, watch out for your face because there’s going to be branches on this corner.” And sure enough, we come around and whack, and Eric gets hit, but he was laughing and, you know…
James McLaughlin: Everything worked out, but it was something else.
Annie Sargent: You have to be a little bit fearless to do this one.
Annie Sargent: A little fearless, it’s not for the faint of heart. Yeah.
James McLaughlin: But if you’re into, like, adventure, and dogs really, that was the big thing, was learning about all the dogs, all the different dog breeds. It wasn’t just huskies. Matter of fact, he was saying that he had, like, specific dog breeds that he looked for that were actually better for his purpose.
James McLaughlin: And he took time and kind of, like, talked about each dog, which was really fun.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, we got to know, like, the one that’s the leader and her personality. And then at the end, he had us take them off the harness. And then they just, like, laid around and they like… it was really cool. It was definitely different. Can’t do it if you had, like, any injuries, like back injuries or anything, and he says that flat out.
Lori Belinsky: But it’s definitely something different and adventurous. And it was… so we were… our house that we stayed in Paris was on the last stop of the regional rail. So probably, oh, was it, like, a 40-minute ride into Paris or less?
James McLaughlin: It was about 40 minutes. It was solid, yeah, 40 minutes.
Lori Belinsky: And then from there, so we drove to the dog sled. It was probably a half-hour?
James McLaughlin: Longer than that. No, it was, like, an hour and a half.
Annie Sargent: So it’s mostly for people who have a car. You couldn’t do that without a car.
James McLaughlin: No, there is no way to take public transit there.
Lori Belinsky: And that was something that we discovered, you know, we had a car in kind of strange situation, but you couldn’t do the things that we did without a car. The trip to the Provence fields, you couldn’t do without a car.
James McLaughlin: Couldn’t do it, right. Fly fishing, couldn’t do it. Couldn’t do the dog sleds without it.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, right. And then we also drove to Normandy, so…
[00:28:42] Journey to Normandy
Annie Sargent: We should talk about Normandy, your visit there and your dad wanting to see this. How did that go?
Lori Belinsky: All right. So we were in the south of France for a week, and we flew from Nice to Paris, landed in Orly, got the car in Orly, drove to our new house. The very next day, we drove to Normandy, which was how many hours, James? We went to Bayeux. We stayed four hours?
James McLaughlin: In my head, I was like, “Three hours,” but I don’t know.
Annie Sargent: Maybe it was three from Orly, yeah, if you were south of Paris.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, we were south, like, east of Paris, so that would make sense that it was, like, three, maybe a little more.
James McLaughlin: It was probably two and a half, but there was a lot of traffic just getting out of Paris because of the game setting up. There was a lot of traffic. And we satfor probably half an hour, you know, just waiting. So yeah, anyway.
Annie Sargent: Par for the course. Yup.
Lori Belinsky: So we went… I got my notes pulled up. We went… I think this was based off of a recommendation somewhere in your podcast. We went to Port-en-Bessin-Huppain?
Lori Belinsky: Oosh.
Annie Sargent: Yep, yep. Port-en-Bessin-Huppain or something like that.
Lori Belinsky: Yes. And I did some random research on that town, and I found this little, like, restaurant. This is the only restaurant that I like… We weren’t… That wasn’t a big focus of our trip, but this is the only one that I think I would recommend. And it’s small, and it was called La Marina.
Lori Belinsky: And it was a creperie/pizzeria, and we drove straight to there first for dinner. And, you know, my family, which is a little, like, more traditional, just they got their pizzas, and I got, like, a Norman creperie. It was, like, goat cheese and mushrooms crêpe, thebuckwheat, you know?
Lori Belinsky: And I was just, like… it took me back to when I lived there, and I was so happy to have that with my cider. Andthat just made me really happy.
James McLaughlin: The greatest fried fish I’ve ever had in my life there.
Annie Sargent: Oh, yeah.
Annie Sargent: Yeah?
James McLaughlin: Remember that? It was… I don’t know if it was cod or what it was, but it was outstan-… I mean, like, fish and chips, right? You’re right there. So it was outstanding, yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Very good. Very good.
Lori Belinsky: So that was a nice little random stop for that. And actually, that was lunch. And we actually went back, and we went to the Museum of the Battle of Normandy and the British cemeteries that day in Bayeux. and then our apartment was in the heart of Bayeux, so this is the only place that we actually had a spot that was right in the center of everything…. and it was just… It was so beautiful. It was so cool.
Lori Belinsky: The stone and being in this apartment that was built into this, you know, incredibly old building. And then the next morning, we got up and we took our daughter to a cool little playground, while everybody else was getting moving, and that was really cool. And we did the… We saw the cathedral, went to the Tapestry Museum, and then I had looked ahead of time at what cemeteries to look at.
Lori Belinsky: Of course, we wanted to visit the American cemetery, which we went to at the very end of the day.
Lori Belinsky: Colleville-sur-Mer?
Lori Belinsky: The Colleville-sur-Mer, yep.
Lori Belinsky: So we spent the majority of the day at Sainte-Mère-Église.
Lori Belinsky: Sainte-Mère-Église, yes.
Lori Belinsky: Yes, which is where the Airborne Museum is.
Lori Belinsky: Yes.
Lori Belinsky: And that was really cool. And it’s recently redone, right, James? Just the last couple years?
James McLaughlin: At least two years maybe, but it seemed like it was brand-new. Yeah.
Annie Sargent: It was very cool. They had… The museum was set up with different focuses, like, propaganda about the war. Our favorite part was probably the importance of gliders, and they had a big glider inside one of the buildings. They are quiet, those things.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, and that’s why, right? And then we really, really quick went to the American cemetery, did a quick walk around, and then drove three hours back to outside Paris.
Annie Sargent: Oh, wow, yeah, that was kind of a…
James McLaughlin: Lots of driving. Yeah, lots of driving.
Annie Sargent: And was your dad happy with the experience? Did he get what he was hoping for?
Lori Belinsky: Oh, yes. Absolutely. Yes. It’s just getting to be there in, it just reminded me of when we went… so we went to Champagne region too, and just getting to see the buildings, and how the buildings had the bullet holes in them, and just getting to be in where that happened. That was what was most moving about it.
James McLaughlin: The day was definitely heavy. Like, I remember feeling, driving back going like, “Wow, that was a lot.” Yes, heavy.
Lori Belinsky: You know, it’s a long day, and it’s also emotionally kind of draining. And that’s why I was kind of happy with it only being one day. It was like, we just wanted to make sure it happened, but we didn’t need to, like, get too immersed in it.
[00:33:28] Navigating Paris with a Group
Annie Sargent: So I’m looking at,if you feel like you made any mistakes on this trip, and your answer is, it’s hard to account for the level of stress getting from one point to another. Yeah, so talk about that a little bit.
[00:33:40] Trip of a Lifetime on a Budget
Lori Belinsky: So, when you are, you know, trying to do a trip of a lifetime still somewhat on a budget, you wind up like… that’s why we wound up outside of Paris. Couldn’t imagine how expensive it would be to have a place for six people. And I’m thinking of the one day that we had the photo shoot, so we did a photo shoot with Gloria Villa.
Lori Belinsky: So she was, I think it was someone who was on a honeymoon recommended her in a podcast.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, and she’s lovely. Actually, I have to say, shout-out to… I haven’t met her, but she was on the Facebook group, and she was very, very careful about not trying to do promote, promote, promote all the time. She was very respectful, unlike most people who offer services like that. I just have to ban them because they… that’s all they ever want to talk about. So she was good about that. Yeah.
Annie Sargent: She was super sweet. She has a very interesting story herself, about how she wound up in Paris because she’s originally from Colombia. But the stress was getting from our home all the way to Montmartre by, like, 10:00 AM, I think it was. And it was like, I think we were, like, a half-hour late, and it was not a big deal. Like, nothing… Nowhere that we got… that we were late to wasn’t an issue. It was just the stress of being like, “We’re going to be a little late. We’re going to be a little late.”
James McLaughlin: And then a little late became, like, kind of a lot late sometimes. But everything worked out always. Yeah.
Annie Sargent: You know, when you’re traveling with a group and several generations, and a five-year-old and older people with your parents.
Lori Belinsky: And Lori did a really good job of trying to get people going early. It… sometimes it just doesn’t matter, when you’re moving that many humans from point A to point B, like we’re saying, you’re going to hit snags. And we’re not talking about just one form of transportation. We’re talking about, like, we had to drive to the train station, park, then get through the train station with the QR codes on your phones, and then, like… I swear, every other day, somebody’s QR code wouldn’t work.
James McLaughlin: That’s a snag that we could definitely talk about, is certain types of phones with certain types of software as the operating system were not jiving, with certain train stations.
Annie Sargent: So for trains or for RER, or for…?
Lori Belinsky: It was for the RER, but it was… But it would be both. It would be RER and then going into Paris, and then it would be the metro in Paris. But I think we would usually find it our first place, the first place we would go to use it.
Annie Sargent: So this has changed by now because now it’s just one ticket. There’s no more zones.
Lori Belinsky: Oh, really?
Annie Sargent: So long as you’re in the Île de France, it’s one price, one zone.
James McLaughlin: That would’ve been nice.
Annie Sargent: Yes, yes.
James McLaughlin: At the time of the games, but whatever.
Annie Sargent: Yes, Yes. It wasn’t ready. But yeah, by now it’s, it started in January, so now you just get a train/RER tickets for 2,50Euro each, and you can take them anywhere in Île de France.
James McLaughlin: Okay.
Annie Sargent: And you can do the, like the passes too, you buy the passes?
Annie Sargent: And you could do your Navigo Easy.
Lori Belinsky: Yes. That’s what it was. That’s what it was.
Annie Sargent: Or, I mean, if you stay longer, you would do Navigo weekly or monthly or yearly. But most people, Navigo Easy is enough. And the beautiful thing about that one is there’s no photo, no signature. It’s one little card per person. They, I think they cost 2,50 Euro to buy, and then you just put tickets on there, and they can be…
Annie Sargent: Now, the difference is it used to be that you had to have, you could use the same tickets for the bus or the metro. Now, that’s not how it works. Tram and bus is one sort of ticket, which are two euros a ticket, and metro and RER are 2,50 a ticket.
James McLaughlin: Okay.
Annie Sargent: And they’re different tickets.
James McLaughlin: Still a little complex.
Annie Sargent: Well, this is France.
James McLaughlin: Just throw it in there. Yeah, right.
Annie Sargent: We cannot have it too easy.
Annie Sargent: It would not compute.
Annie Sargent: Give us something simple and we’ll make it complicated.
Annie Sargent: I’m trying to think of some of the places that, like things that we did that I don’t know are on the podcast.
James McLaughlin: You could talk about, well, sorry, Lori, with the games, and then speaking of the RER stations, that how we found they, they had the little pop-up game site, and then our daughter was playing with that, and I thought that was so, so cool.
Lori Belinsky: That was really fun. That was something that the French had set up in the metros, how to learn random, like really, like the random things at the Olympics. It was like badminton and archery and handball. So it was just like randomly in the metro, and we were like, “This is cool. We’ll never see this again. Let’s stop and play this.” And they spoke English. And it was, yeah, that was really fun.
Annie Sargent: And so the kid could try handball or badminton or something, yeah.
James McLaughlin: And everyone won something. They gave kids little gifts of, you know, whatever. But I thought that was a great look. The French were obviously focused on getting kids actively involved in what they were doing there. So, you know, it was great.
Annie Sargent: And during the Paralympics, you could try Paralympic type of activities. So you could try, racing on a Paralympic racing wheelchair. You could try the boccia thingies. You could try all sorts of things, which I thought was really, really cool because, you know, regular people could see how hard it is to move a wheelchair for the Olympics. It’s not that easy at all. So, yeah.
Lori Belinsky: That’s really cool. We have one more shout-out to give to someone from your group, that’s David Blanc.
Annie Sargent: Yes. He was on the podcast as well.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, and we did a morning tour with him in Paris. So he took us all the way from Le Marais, is where we met him, and we went all the way to the Luxembourg Gardens.
Annie Sargent: Wonderful.
Lori Belinsky: It was very interesting to, it was literally, was it the day before the opening ceremonies or the two days before the opening ceremonies? So it was like…
James McLaughlin: I think it was two days, yeah.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, so things were, like starting to close, but there was like random ways to get around, and he had worked that out, and it was, it was fantastic. He was great. I highly recommend him.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There were some challenges getting around, especially right before the opening ceremonies. They were paranoid. After that, things relaxed a lot, but they were very concerned, which is one of the reasons why they pulled it off, is because they didn’t leave anything to chance.
[00:40:18] Marker
Lori Belinsky: And they did it right, we felt completely safe. That was one thing that we talked about, like, France versus here, I don’t know how safe I’d feel in the US, but I feel great in Europe.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, well, that’s a perception thing, but it’s true though, just not having guns everywhere helps.
Lori Belinsky: Exactly.
James McLaughlin: Gendarme were everywhere, heavily armed.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, that’s true. The only people who had guard was the army. Yes.
Lori Belinsky:
Annie Sargent: Yeah. And they have the big guns. It’s a different mentality kind of approach. I’ve been told a million times, you know, when you show up in Paris and they see people with a machine gun, they are alarmed. You never see that in America.
Annie Sargent: Well, don’t tell me people in America don’t have machine guns.
Annie Sargent:
Lori Belinsky: I’d rather be able to see the person with the gun and know it’s a person who’s trained well.
Annie Sargent: That person is in uniform, it’s different.
Lori Belinsky: Yes, exactly. Yeah.
James McLaughlin: But we certainly felt safe.
Lori Belinsky: Do you remember? Was that when we… Was that our flight? Was that our flight when they stopped us?
James McLaughlin: There was some type of baggage left by baggage claim, and gendarme saw us, stopped us in our tracks and said, “Let us work this out.” And we stood around for about 10 minutes, maybe longer, but, and that was in… was that in Nice?
Lori Belinsky: I think that was in Orly. And it wasn’t just the French gendarmerie, it was also the Italians, right, that were there?
Annie Sargent: Right, they had invited gendarmes from different countries. Which was good because then you had visitors from all over the place, and they could call on people from different nationalities to help. That’s one of the beauties of Europe, is we have all these different… You know, you go from one state to the other in the US, it’s not that different, right? But in France, well, in Europe, you go from one state to the other and it’s vastly different.
Lori Belinsky: It’s a different country.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, it’s a different country.
[00:42:02] Travel Tips and Reflections
Annie Sargent: So, so I’m looking through your… At the end of your document I asked you, you know, “Do you have any tips?” And you said, “The more research you can do, the better,” which clearly you are someone… I mean, you know a lot, but you still did a lot of research, right?
Lori Belinsky: Yes. Absolutely. I mean, this was probably two years in the making to make this trip happen, to do all of this in three weeks and not completely lose our minds. And it’s still, like you said, there’s nothing that I regretted.
Annie Sargent: So, were there tools or apps or resources that helped the most?
Lori Belinsky: Your podcast!
Annie Sargent: Thank you.
James McLaughlin:
[00:42:38] AIRALO, virtual SIM APP
James McLaughlin: There’s an app called Airalo, which was how we got our phones to work in France.
Lori Belinsky: That was the SIM cards that we used. So how’d you spell that?
James McLaughlin: A-I-R-A-L-O. You can buy certain packages and then it’ll just… You know, it’s the virtual SIM.
Annie Sargent: Okay, so it’s a virtual SIM. Yeah, okay.
James McLaughlin: Right. Super helpful, and we’re, night prior to the trip, downloading this app, going like, “Well, we’ll see if it works.” And it worked very, very well.
Annie Sargent: Excellent.
Lori Belinsky: Yeah, you pick which country you’re going to and for how long, and it was reasonably priced too. It was not like $40 or something. It was reasonably priced for a month.
Annie Sargent: Right, right. Because some providers will charge you 10 bucks a day per phone.
James McLaughlin: That’s craziness.
Annie Sargent: That’s a lot, yeah. So using a virtual SIM like that is probably more cost-effective if you can make it work. And most of them work well.
James McLaughlin: But yeah, that one certainly worked well, and that was something that we were kind of hesitant about. We didn’t really know. Because if your phone doesn’t work nowadays, you’re in serious trouble. And I knew that I had to navigate certain areas. So, it was really good peace of mind to land in France and be like, “Oh, phone works. Cool.”
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
James McLaughlin: You know?
[00:43:54] The Podcast and VoiceMap Tours Are a Great Jumping Off Point
Annie Sargent: Yes, yeah. Oh, and you also listened to my walking tours ahead of time. Did you walk them or just listen to them?
Lori Belinsky: Just listened to them.
Annie Sargent: Okay.
Lori Belinsky: Because I mean, by the time you get there and you’re with three generations, I pick things out. I think I sent you a picture of my daughter, hanging on the foot of the man coming out of the wall in Montmartre.
Annie Sargent: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Lori Belinsky: So like, I knew of things to go see, from the tours. It was just another source of information, and that’s just where I was looking for anything to pull from, but it was, yeah, your podcast and your walking tours were a great jumping off point. And then I found all those tour guides and the photographer, and I just contacted all those people and they were all wonderful.
James McLaughlin: You also did some research on YouTube, pretty extensively. I mean, this trip, if I’m honest, this trip took over Lori’s life for a solid year and a half.
Lori Belinsky: It wasn’t that long.
James McLaughlin: Oh, no. It was like two years almost.
Annie Sargent: Now, perhaps you enjoyed that, right? I mean-
Lori Belinsky: Exactly.
James McLaughlin: Oh, she loved it.
Annie Sargent: And I think YouTube is a good way to do this. I mean, honestly, every now and then I think, “Oh, shit. Okay, I should do… I should have a visual aspect to the podcast. I should do…” But it’s… Going from a purely audio podcast to a video podcast is a completely different thing, and I’m not sure I’m cut out for it. I will probably do things about driving to places, especially driving with an EV to places,because that’s something I do anyway. But producing a whole video podcast is… but you can learn a lot from them, you know?
James McLaughlin: But, I mean, Lori would be doing other things, kind of like listening actively and then passively and then actively, and that’s perfect, you know, for podcasts. And then she would hear something and write it down.
Annie Sargent: Right, right. And I should mention that the show is transcribed, not all of the episodes are transcribed, but all the ones if they’re two, three years old, they’re all transcribed, and so you can search for specific terms. If you hear about an activity or something…
Lori Belinsky: I think I did do that.
Annie Sargent: … it works pretty well. I would love for the search to be even better. I’m always looking for better search solutions, but it works pretty well for people. So if that’s something you’ve heard on the podcast, you know, go to the website and do a search.
Annie Sargent: All right, you guys, I think our time is up, but it’s been wonderful, talking to you both. I love it when I have enthusiastic travelers. Young and enthusiastic, I love it.
Lori Belinsky: Can’t wait to get back. We’ll see when we can get back.
Annie Sargent: Very good. Well, thank you very much, and keep listening to the podcast.
Lori Belinsky: Thanks so much, Annie. Merci beaucoup.
James McLaughlin: Thank you, Annie.
Annie Sargent: Au revoir. Merci.
[00:46:40] Thank you Patrons
Annie: Again, I want to thank my patrons for giving back and supporting the show.
Annie: Patrons get several exclusive rewards for doing that. You can see them at patreon.com/joinus.
Annie: A special shout-out this week to my new Join Us in France champions, Terry McPherson and David Palachek who renewed his membership.
Annie: Go to patreon.com/joinus and to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/elysart.
[00:47:10] Carl’s Review
Annie: My thanks to Carl Tiska for his generous one-time donation using any of the links on Join Us in France that say “Tip Your Guide.”
Annie: Carl wrote, “Annie, I just made a one-time donation in appreciation of how much your podcast helped me in preparing for a multi-month trip to France this past winter and spring. I spent the first three and a half months at a language school, that I selected based on the show notes for episode 288, the LSF in Montpellier.
Annie: During those three and a half months, I traveled every weekend to locations throughout the Southwest of France by train, and rental car. I visited many sites from your episodes and other sites, locations, and museum that you haven’t covered.” And of course there are always places that we don’t cover, we cannot be all encompassing, you know?
Annie: “Anyway, after finishing the language school, I walked the GR 145, Via Francigena, across the Northeastern France, through Calais, Arras, Laon, Reims, Clervaux, Langres, Besancon, Ornans, and a host of small towns and villages before crossing to Switzerland in late May. Along the way, I visited many historic sites, museums, champagne cellars, and other attraction. Your podcast greatly assisted me in planning and preparing for the trip, and I continue to listen to the podcast for future travel ideas and tips.”
Annie: Well, thank you very much, Carl. That’s very good to know. And always very nice to hear back from people who enjoy the podcast.
[00:48:49] La Rentrée and Forum des Associations
Annie: La Rentrée. Well, when September rolls around in France, it’s La Rentrée. Kids go back to school. Vacationers go back to work. Shops, restaurants, offices, reopen after the August slowdown.
Annie: But there is another part of La Rentrée that’s uniquely French, and that’s the Forum des Associations. This is the annual sign-up for clubs and associations. We have 70,000 new clubs and associations in France each year. 12 million people report that they volunteer for a club or association in the country. So, we have a ton of them.
Annie: If you’ve ever wanted to join something new, this is the time that you can do it. You’ll see hundreds of options all in one place, sports clubs, cooking groups, hiking associations, and some that are frankly a little unexpected.
Annie: Here are some of my favorite unexpected ones. Les Amis du Clown. This, yes, it’s an actual clown association where members practice their craft, put on shows, and share the joy of red nose and big shoes.
Annie: L’Association Francaise Des Amateurs D’orties, a group devoted to stinging nettles. They cook them, study them, and celebrate their uses. Hmm. Okay.
Annie: Club de Lancer de Camembert. Now, that one is excellent, exactly what it sounds like, competitive camembert cheese throwing. Move over discus or frisbee, we have the camembert in France.
Annie: Les Amis de la Guillotine. That one is deadly serious. This is historians dedicated to preserving the history of France’s most famous, infamous execution device.
Annie: La Confrerie du Boudin Noir, a brotherhood committed to promoting the traditional black pudding sausage.
Annie: Some clubs are deeply rooted in local traditions, others are just pure fun. But together, they show that La Rentrée isn’t just about returning to the daily grind, it’s about trying something new, sometimes something wonderfully odd.
Annie: So, if you’re in France in September, head to your local Forum des Associations. Who knows? You might come home signed up for fencing lessons, a knitting group, or a camembert throwing league.
Annie: My thanks to podcast editors, Anne and Christian Cotovan, who produced the transcripts.
[00:51:24] Next Week on the Podcast
Annie: Next week on the podcast, an episode about the fascinating world of Emile Zola, one of France’s most influential writers and social activists. Bookworms and historians will really like this episode.
Annie: Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time, so we can look around France together.
Annie: Au revoir.
[00:51:48] Copyright
Annie: The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent, and Copyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance. It is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.
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Episode PageCategories: Family Travel, Normandy & Brittany, Paris, Provence