Table of Contents for this Episode
570 Versailles with Children with Katie Danger
[00:00:15] Introduction
Annie Sargent: This is Join Us in France, episode 570, cinq cent soixante-dix.
Annie Sargent: 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.
[00:00:31] Today on the podcast
Annie Sargent: Today, I bring you a conversation with Katie Danger about Versailles, and we go beyond the château.
Annie Sargent: Discover why this historic city is perfect for families, hidden gardens, kid-friendly activities, and insider tips for avoiding crowds.
Annie Sargent: Katie, an American mom living in Versailles for over 10 years, shares her favorite spots from secret picnics to the legendary Grand Masked Ball, which we’ve mentioned on the podcast before but she goes into some details about it because she went.
Annie Sargent: Tune in if you’re hoping to have a magical, yet stress-free visit to Versailles.
[00:01:13] Podcast supporters
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Annie Sargent: Want to keep me going and skip the ads? There’s a link for that in the show notes, and you’ll find everything at joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
[00:01:40] Bootcamp 2026
Annie Sargent: If you’d like to find out more about Bootcamp 2026, I have, I think four spots left. Don’t wait too long is the first thing, but you can see the details at joinusinfrance.com/bootcamp2026.
Annie Sargent: The dates are October 3rd until October 10th next year, and I hope you can join us in France for seven days of hanging out with fellow Francophiles, visits of wonderful sites around Toulouse, and optional language classes.
[00:02:10] The Magazine segment
Annie Sargent: For the magazine part of the podcast, after my chat with Katie today, I’ll discuss a few things actually, how the Paris Metro is preparing for possible Seine River floods, Robert Badinter, who you’ve probably never heard about but he played a huge role in French life, so huge that he’s now in the Pantheon, and also how France is actually made of mostly very small villages and what that means for you.
[00:02:47] Welcome Katie Danger
Annie Sargent: Bonjour, Katie Danger, and welcome to Join Us in France.
Katie Danger: Hi. Thank you, Annie. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Annie Sargent: Wonderful to have you. We have an exciting topic today, something I don’t know that much about. You are a resident of Versailles, and you have been living there for a while, right?
Katie Danger: Yeah, I’ve been here over 10 years now. It’s a pretty cool place to be.
Annie Sargent: Yes, yes. And so, you started a website called Welcome to Versailles, right?
Katie Danger: Yeah, that’s it, Welcome to Versailles.
Annie Sargent: That’s right, Welcome to Versailles, which is a very nice website where you give some wonderful suggestions and you’re very kind to share some of those with us today.
Annie Sargent: We’re mostly going to talk about things, because you’re a young mother, you have four children, and you take them to do kid activities around Versailles since that’s where you live. So, we want to talk about the kids activities in Versailles and also about the Grand Ball which you’re about to go to.
Annie Sargent: Those will be our two main topics of conversation today.
[00:03:47] Living in Versailles: A Personal Experience
Annie Sargent: So do tell, what is it like living in Versailles?
Katie Danger: Versailles is really great, and I’m really thankful that I’ve been able to place down roots there. I love this city. It’s nice because I’m American, of course, grew up in Los Angeles and a little bit in Texas, and then moved to… we lived in Paris first and I really loved that it was really hard to leave because once you get used to your arrondissement and your neighborhood, your friends, but I took a job in the suburbs and we moved 30 minutes out of the city to Versailles. We were able to buy a house and have kind of a better quality of life. The castle alone brings 15 million people a year, so we do have a lot of visitors coming, that come to Paris, and I think it’s on the bucket list as often to see Versailles.
Katie Danger: I love our lifestyle in Versailles. I love, you know, the French lifestyle. I feel like it’s a really authentic version that you kind of miss out in Paris, and it has its charm.
Katie Danger: So I’m happy that we’ve decided to live there, and three of my four kids were born in Versailles, so it’s really, I think we’re Versaillais, as they would say.
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it is a lovely city. The vibe of it is like a posh, but yet real city. I mean, all people ever see is the chateau, but I have a first cousin who lives in Versailles and has all of his life that… well, adult life. When I go, it looks like a regular French city. It has all these very nice stately homes, really. Some of them a little bit older, some of them newer, but it’s just a gorgeous place.
Annie Sargent: And of course, you have access to the chateau with your kids, so that’s probably where if I lived there, I would go there.
[00:05:25] Exploring Versailles with Kids
Annie Sargent: What can you do at Versailles with kids?
Katie Danger: Well, we happen to go to Versailles a few times every year just because the school field trips go there. So it’s just in your backyard that you go. So there’s a lot to see in the chateau. My favorite parts are the gardens with the kids. It’s just really fun, there’s lots to do, boats, there’s a lot of good restaurants around there, but also the Queen’s hamlet. It’s just kind of her… her rebellious sanctuary. And there are animals there. It’s kind of… It’s not a petting zoo exactly, but you can see, you know, things in fields.
Katie Danger: I had a kid’s birthday party there once where we kind of got to go behind the scenes and to go in these little thatched huts and to see… It was run by the Association for Animals who are abused or don’t have homes, so they take a lot of people’s pets, so that kind of turned into a petting zoo birthday party theme. That was really, really fun. So around the castle there’s that. And we’ve done that a ton of times. I feel like I know it like the back of my hand, which is not a bad thing at all. It’s just, it’s really lovely. Every time I go, I’m kind of seeing new things, reading some of the arts differently and learning as I go.
Katie Danger: But outside of the castle, there’s a lot of stuff to see, too. As a family, like every weekend, we’ll take bikes. It’s a very bikeable, friendly town, and we’ll take our bikes down the bike paths and go to the market. I have a little son, his name is Louis, who loves strawberries. So, just last week, we saw him, you know, we were ordering the fruits and ready to carry it home and I looked down and he’s just, you know… he’s thieving strawberries and he’ll say… he’s bilingual, but he’ll say, “Encore fraises? Encore fraises?” And he was just… He was on his tippy toes reaching up as high as he could, getting these strawberries and just shoving them in his mouth with all this red juice running all over it. It was just so cute, but…And you know, every weekend now it’s like, “Encore fraises, Louis? Encore fraises?” Which means we’re going to go to the market and get some strawberries.
Annie Sargent: What a name for a kid to live in Versailles, Louis. I mean, wow!
Katie Danger: No, my husband was worried about it so he went by the city hall before Louis was born and he’s like, “Are there lots of Louis born?” And they were like, “Maybe three or four this year in Versailles.” So, we thought… It’s a big name. It’s a big name, but I think he wears it well.
Annie Sargent: Good, good. Yes. Well, and that was a good instinct on his part because, you know, the names that everybody uses is, it gets old.
Katie Danger: Yeah.
Annie Sargent: It does.
Katie Danger: To kind of go back to the classics, I think, is nice.
Annie Sargent: Yes, definitely.
[00:07:53] The Grand Canal and Outdoor Activities
Annie Sargent: So, okay, so you mentioned briefly the pond. What do you do when you go to the pond with your kids? Is this something you should reserve in advance? First of all, it’s not open year-round, right? The pond activities. Some of these outside activities are not available year-round.
Katie Danger: That’s not true. They are available year-round.
Annie Sargent: Really? Even the boats?
Katie Danger: The boats are not available year-round, but the pond is always open. You can always … There’s always people all year. They call it the Grand Canal, and it’s a big shape like a cross. And people are always going jogging around it. We’ll also take our bikes around it because, you know, when the kids were a bit smaller, it’s a nice place where there’s no cars. And the path is smooth and flat. My husband will go jogging, the dog will chase him, and the kids will follow on their bikes, so it’s kind of a funny-looking parade.
Katie Danger: But we do picnics there all the time. It’s really fun just to meet up with friends. We kind of have our … You know, if you want to sit in the sun or not the sun, kind of depending on the time of day. It’s open and it’s actually free entrance all the time. You just have to know which door … which kind of gates to go into. If you go down the Boulevard de la Reine, the Queen’s boulevard, you can get pretty darn close. You pay, I think it’s €15, and you can get into the gardens, drive your car in. Or you can … I mean, we always go on bikes, so we kind of get around that. And there’s a lot of people who walk around there. To get into the … where the fountains, you have to pay. That’s more … That’s kind of closer to the castle. They have a little stand there. They’ll kind of check your tickets as you go in and out. It’s just a lovely, peaceful … it feels … I mean, you’re kind of … you’re out of the city, you don’t feel like you’re in the city, though you’re kind of … There’s houses everywhere around.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, it’s really interesting.
[00:09:35] Versailles Gardens: A Year-Round Attraction
Annie Sargent: So some people get surprised by this whole idea of paying extra for some parts of the garden, and it’s true that when they have special events, which from memory, I think isin the summer months, it’s Tuesday nights and Friday, Saturday night that they have special things going on in the gardens. When that’s happening, you have to pay to enter the gardens.
Katie Danger: Yeah. Especially at night, they do a magicalwater show, fountain show that they match to Baroque music. They have fireworks all summer long. But you need to check the dates and times on the website because I don’t have those on the top of my head.
Annie Sargent: Right, right.
Katie Danger: And they do change.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Katie Danger: But in the gardens where we go to, it is more natural. It’s very manicured, but as you kind of go, it feels like forest, and we found even a little pond that we tried every year to … we’ve done it twice, to catch tadpoles. It’s just, it’s very natural and very fun, and the kids like it, so we kind of go off-road a little bit, because it’s a huge … the gardens, they’re massive.
Annie Sargent: Yes, it’s very large, yeah.
Katie Danger: And you can stay where the tourists are and where there’s all the attractions and stuff, and it’s fun, but there’s … it’s just massive. It’s big, so you can get lost.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. My cousins always go on walks in the gardens and they … You can go in every which direction. Like you said, it’s free year-round. You need to know which entrances. If you look on Google Maps, there’s some entrances that are best for bicycles. There’s some entrances there for cars, and you pay a little bit to go in with your car, but if you’re going to do that a lot, why not? Just look at the Google Maps to find the best entrance that’s suitable for you. Lots of ways to enjoy the garden without paying any money, really. If that’s all you want to do.
Annie Sargent: Now, those gardens, like all gardens, they are glorious you know, in the spring and summer and early fall. If you go in the dead of the winter, it’s a lot of grass.
Katie Danger: Yeah. I also don’t … in the spring and fall, I don’t find it to be … I was a bit disappointed at first because I thought it would be a ton of flowers, and I found that it’s not I mean, the French style wasn’t … it was more like harnessing nature… and controlling it, and that’s why the trees look very boxy and everything is very shaped. But it wasn’t … It was just a different … I was expecting, like, maybe Monet’s garden or something like that. And then when I first went, I was like, “What? Where’s the flowers?” They do plant some in springtime, so it’s not completely void, but it’s nice.
Annie Sargent: Yes. Yeah, yeah. So yes, Versailles gardens are … It’s a lot of grass, a lot of hedges, a lot of beautifully trimmed trees. They have these machines that ride over the trees and cut them square.
Katie Danger: Yeah, it’s crazy. We’ve seen that. It’s really fun.
Annie Sargent: It’s kind of cool to watch. Yeah, if you expect Monet’s garden, that’s not it. It’s not going to be full of flowers.
Annie Sargent: But it is free and people can go and enjoy it with their kids, so that’s fantastic.
Annie Sargent: So if you’re only spending a few days in Paris and you’re coming with, say children, I don’t know, five, seven, eight, something like that, would you recommend a visit to Versailles and going mostly to the gardens, or would you say go into the chateau, do the whole shebang?
Katie Danger: I would say do the whole shebang just because I think for little kids … I mean, it depends on the age, but it’s just … The Baroque stuff is just overwhelming. It’s so much and so loud, and so …
Katie Danger: I think there’s always stuff to see and there’s always, especially if you know what to look for, there’s little clues. And I love, personally, the way that Louis, like, older Louis hid their initials in the art and in the gates you can see, like, the Ls and the M-A of Marie Antoinette. You can see these little things.
Katie Danger: Depending the age of kids, but I think the audio tour is nice enough. It’ll get you through it. But there’s just … There’s so much to see, and even when it’s crowded, I mean, we’re …… in June, July, August, maybe not August, but it gets really packed as the weather gets nice. I think you just look up and there’s so much to see within the castle just looking up. In the Hall of Mirrors, the first time I ever stepped in there, it was like, “I’ve been here before.” I don’t know how or what, it just was this feeling of like, “Wow. Wow.” And I just still get wowed by it. And the more I learn about it, the more I find it just amazing. Just, at the time when Versailles was constructed, it really was the hub of technology, and art, and fashion. Louis XIV brought all this to Versailles, and it became the first place a hot air balloon ever took off, was from just the entryway of Versailles. Mirrors hadn’t… most people had never ever seen their reflections before, before stepping in the Hall of Mirrors. It’s the first time you’ve ever seen what you look like. Just mind-blowing in so many ways, it gives me goosebumps. So kids, I think, I mean, it depends on kind of how you do your family and how you, you know, what you like to do. But I think kids, they really like it. My kids like it. They don’t get tired. They still like going. Yeah, it’s a lot of fun for them. But there’s things like the market, there’s things outside. You can do scavenger hunts. I have one on my website, a scavenger hunt that you can do with kids.
Annie Sargent: Cool.
Katie Danger: There’s also… Yeah, just kind of things to see.
Annie Sargent: Inside of the chateau?
Katie Danger: It’s both inside and outside. So you can kind of choose which path you want to do, and then you add up points at the end, and it’s… it’s pretty fun. I’ve made my kids do it many times. And there’s also, you know, good restaurants and stuff.
[00:14:56] Dining and Markets in Versailles
Katie Danger: There’s inside the Hotel de Lumiere, right by the castle, if you go upstairs, there’s a little… we’ve had lunch there before just this last week, and I felt like it was a really hidden treasure. It’s on Rue Colbert, so it’s right on the side of the castle, on the… From the upstairs, it’s… You enter by a hotel, the upstairs, it’s like this tea room that has these huge chandeliers, so you feel like you’re actually eating in the castle again, but you’re looking right up on it. So it’s up on the first floor and you look up. And it’s just a really… That was a really hidden treasure that we found last week. But anything around the market. The market is maybe… maybe like an eight, 10 minute walk away from the castle.
Katie Danger: And the market, all around the market, is restaurants. Something for everyone there, right? There’s authentic French food. There’s a place called Le Chien Qui Fume. And my kids always find the name of that funny, like The Smoking Dog. There’s just a ton of little restaurants around there, you know. If you like sushi, if you like… It’s just something for everyone, and that’s the kind of… So you can see two at once. You can see the market, which is really fascinating, and also, you know, get a bite to eat.
Annie Sargent: Is this an outside market or an indoor market?
Katie Danger: A little bit of both.
Annie Sargent: Okay.
Katie Danger: A little bit of both. Depending on the days they’ll put it outside. On the weekends and on Wednesdays, it’s outside. And whatever weather, people do it. This market is always winning awards for best market of France. Like, always, consistently. And it’s one of the oldest.
Annie Sargent: Really?
Katie Danger: It’s one of the oldest. So it’s just… I mean, I think the king, not that he would go get his own groceries, but you know, just right outside, this is… And it’s a beautiful square. You just see the beautiful square and I’m always happy to get coffee with friends around there. It’s a little vibrant hub, little center to get stuff.
Annie Sargent: Yes, yes, yeah. A nice covered market is always wonderful, because it’s open most mornings. I assume it’s the same in Versailles. It opens in the morning and then afternoons, they are closed. But it’s usually every day. I mean, maybe not Christmas Day or whatever.
Katie Danger: Yeah, the inside is every day, and the inside is mostly fish and cheeses, and then outside is kind of fruits and also cheeses, depends on, you know. But it is… On the weekend, it is packed. And it’s super fun. It’s just a good vibe. There’s musicians that will play. They’ll kind of block off the street and there’s musicians that’ll play, and it’s a good energy. All that stuff makes it a nice…
Annie Sargent: Wonderful.
Katie Danger: … nice place to live.
[00:17:14] Extended Stay Recommendations
Katie Danger: So coming from Paris, I mean, I would say stay more than a day, because it’s a rush to go see the castle and the hamlet and Trianon and all that in one day. It’s a lot, e- specially if you have kids and a family with you.
Katie Danger: But I think if you come, stay in Versailles, you know, everything’s very close. It’s kind of a little town, that you can just walk there, you know, one day visit the inside of the castle, take time, have a nice dinner, and digest that, and enjoy. And then the next day, go back and see the hamlet, and more of the gardens and enjoy that.
Katie Danger: I would say instead of… A lot of people come and they overwhelm themselves, and either they overwhelm themselves that they hate it or they overwhelm themselves and like, “I wish I would have taken more time.”
Katie Danger: If you can afford in your timetable to take couple days in Versailles, I think it’s really worth it. Just the… the little things you can see and the… it has a lot of charm. It has a lot of charm. There’s a lot of stuff for kids to do, and there’s different ways to see it, right?
[00:18:12] Unique Ways to Explore Versailles
Katie Danger: I don’t know what your budget is, but right behind the castle there’s an airfield, and there’s… there are helicopter rides that will take you into Paris instead of taking the train. It’s an option.
Annie Sargent: Wow.
Katie Danger: And you can fly over the gardens and see everything, and it takes you to the… You know, it’s like five-minute, eight-minute tour can take you back and forth. There’s also… Because Versailles used to be the ancient hunting grounds for the king, that’s why he set it up there, he’s like, “You know, hunting’s good here. Let’s build a castle.”
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Katie Danger: So you can go see Versailles by horse, and this is… there’s a company, not too far, I think it’s called Horses… I need to look it up. I’ll put it on my website. But they do horse rides for 60 euros. You do a picnic and a tour on the horse. So you can see more of the gardens, more of everything riding around, and I just think that’s such a special way to see it.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, kids would love that.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. To see the city on horseback and to really be able to kind of get access. There’s an equestrian center right across the street, and you can see, that’s also free. You can see right in front of it, there’s all the old carriages, and you can see the funeral carriage of Napoleon, and just all these… you know, I feel like they’re kind of Cinderellish. Yeah, they’re beautiful carriages, yeah.
Katie Danger: Yeah, they also have sleds that the kids used to go sledding in.
Annie Sargent: Wow.
Katie Danger: In the gardens, I find it… they’re really carved in wood with cheetahs and they’re really… I would have loved to go use them, you know. It was really cool. But the carriage house is also really cool, and it’s a free thing for kids to do.
Annie Sargent: Wonderful. Yeah, I think your point of staying more than one day is really good. It’s not something I’ve recommended very much, but honestly, if you want to take it easy, and when you have kids or older people, taking it easy is really important. If you’re in your early 30s and you have all the energy in the world, that’s one thing, but, you know, if you have kids in tow, they need to be able to stop and throw rocks or whatever it is that kids like to do, you know? They need to take it easy, or they go nuts. So that’s an excellent point. And there’s some good hotels right near the… around the chateau, not very far. I mean, you live there, so you probably don’t stay at hotels, but do you have one that you know about that is particularly good?
Katie Danger: Le Louis is really nice. It’s on the main street. We also have an Airbnb. My family owns an Airbnb right in front of the city hall, so it’s right center. It touches the Palais de Justice, so everything is very close.
Annie Sargent: I’ll put a link to that in my show notes, yeah.
Katie Danger: Our Airbnb, it used to be the king’s… the hunting dogs, the… what do you call it? The kennel for the hunting dogs.
Annie Sargent: The kennels, yeah, yeah.
Katie Danger: So it’s been renovated, you know, it doesn’t smell like dogs anymore. But, you know, when you hunt, dogs are a huge part of that.
Annie Sargent: Of course.
Katie Danger: And Louis XIV was a big fan of dogs. He would, you know, have his personal baker, kind of make them treats which he would go deliver to them. There’s cute little stories like that about… you know, I’ve also written about that on my blog, but it’s cute.
Katie Danger: I just… I mean, there’s a reason. I’ve been all over the world, I’ve traveled a lot, and I think… I mean, I chose Versailles for a reason, to be the place that I would raise my kids, and that’s the kind of life that I wanted for them. The childhood that I think… it’s, you know, they’re bilingual, we’ve traveled a lot together, but it’s just so nice to come home to Versailles. It really is home.
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Annie Sargent: You mentioned your website, which I’m sure is full of very good stuff, but is there a book people could read about Versailles that’s appropriate for kids, that you could read with your kids? I haven’t looked into that at all. There’s got to be something.
Katie Danger: Yeah. Well, I’ve been working on a book myself.
Annie Sargent: Aha.
Katie Danger: Because as I told you before, the hot air balloon that… I’ll…
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Katie Danger: … just tell you the story really quick. This is a crazy story.
Katie Danger: So first of all, King Louis was sitting around one day and he was like… he heard a rumor that, like, some guys were making things fly, and he’s like, “We could put a…” because nobody had ever been in the air before. So he’s like, “We could make people fly in, like, a flying machine?” It was actually these, these two brothers, Montgolfier, who did, they were wallpaper guys. They were making wallpaper and they made it kind of thick and they were playing, I guess, one night at a bar with the match and like, “Hey, this flies,” and they said, “If we make it big enough, maybe we could put people in there.”
Katie Danger: So the king hears this rumor and he’s like, “Bring those guys here, I want to see what’s going on.” And when they came, he says, “I need you to build something and put Ls all over it, because I’m Louis, and let’s make it fly.” And they’re like, “Okay.”
Katie Danger: So they worked for months to get it ready, a few weeks before, I guess, I don’t know when it was, they’re like, “Should we put prisoners in it? Who are we going to test this on?” And he’s like, “No, we should… we should use a sheep, a duck, and a cockerel, like a rooster, right?”
Annie Sargent: Okay.
Katie Danger: So they put these three animals in there and they set them up and it did take off. It was a good eight-minute flight. It crashed in a forest just a little bit down the way. But these, so my story that I wrote is about these three animals and this adventure that they took and how they end up heroes. But I just… I wrote it for my son when he was born and I’ll be, you know, getting it ready soon. But it just was kind of a story, whimsical, of how this happened.
Katie Danger: But there are a lot of stories. You asked… there’s a lot of stories in books on Versailles. There was one that we picked up in the gift shop when we were there.
[00:23:19] Exploring Children’s Books at Versailles
Katie Danger: There’s little ones with… that pop out, that kind of have the gardens and stuff in 3D, depending on the age of the kids. My kids also are reading, there’s a lot of mysteries, there’s a whole season series in French about a little girl named Elisabeth and the thing of Versailles, so she’s always kind of solving mysteries. It’s for a little bit older kids. But there’s tons of books.
Annie Sargent: Nice.
Katie Danger: I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the gift shop, but they have a whole kids section and it’s floor-to-ceiling. It’s just… you know. I mean, Versailles doesn’t do anything halfway.
Annie Sargent: That is correct.
Katie Danger: Baroque means you go big or you go home. You need to show your power and your innovation and your wealth. You just need to put it all out there.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. It’s only ridiculous if you do it halfway, and they never do it halfway.
Katie Danger: I mean, there’s so much gold and embellished…
Katie Danger: Yeah, yeah.
Annie Sargent: Beautiful.
(Mid-roll ad spot)
[00:24:10] The Grand Ball: A Night to Remember
Annie Sargent: All right, so that leads us quite nicely into the grand ball that you’re going to, and I know it’s hard to get into. So tell us about this a little bit, please.
Katie Danger: It’s super hard to get into. So this year tickets went on sale and they sold out. Well, there’s different tiers. So you can be Fantastique, which is the top to top, it’s 550 bucks. I say bucks, but it’s euros. There’s the VIP, which is 250, and then the third tier, which I call the commoners, they would never call themselves that, but still $150 per ticket.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Katie Danger: So these, the top tiers, the top two tiers sold out in 11 minutes.
Annie Sargent: Mm.
Katie Danger: This event has made itself a cult following. So there’s two. There’s the Fete Galante, which is like everybody dresses up and it’s very, a very strict protocol.
Katie Danger: You have to know how to dance in the Baroque style. Your costume has to be very, like, Baroque. Your hair has to be, like… it’s very strict.
Katie Danger: So this is more of a spinoff. This is more of a party, like a rave. So it starts at 11:00 PM and it goes until the sun comes up. And it’s been, in the past, thrown together by… or put together, not thrown, it’s very organized, thrown together by… the guy that did the Olympics.
Annie Sargent: Oh.
Katie Danger: Aziz… Yeah. So- so it’s- it’s put together by a high level choreographers, and it’s- it’s quite, like, an event. It does sell out fast, it’s reached a cult following.
Annie Sargent: Right.
Katie Danger: Right now I’m in a ton of WhatsApp groups of people kind of selling tickets, and trying to prepare, and pump each other up, and it’s… it’s a cult. These people are like, “I’ve been going for 10 years.” “Well, I’ve been going for 13 years.” And… it’s just… it’s a thing.
[00:25:55] Versailles’ Exclusive Costume Culture
Katie Danger: So this thing, the costumes, you have to wear a good quality costume. You can’t just go to the…
Annie Sargent: Yeah, yeah, this is not a cheapo costume thing, yeah.
Katie Danger: No, they’re nice costume, like, people prepare for months ahead of time.
Annie Sargent: Theater-quality costumes.
Katie Danger: Theater-quality costumes that a lot of people make themselves.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Katie Danger: I mean, you can buy them on Etsy. A lot of people are going handmade with them or dyeing old costumes to… yeah, the costumes is quite a… quite a thing. It’s an industry, actually, in itself, like around Versailles costume rentals.
Katie Danger: I don’t know how these companies stay open all the time, but they rent the costumes just for this event, and it’s there. I mean, the dresses, you can just Google images, and the dresses and the people, it’s just… I mean, it’s amazing.
Annie Sargent: Over the top. Yeah.
Katie Danger: Over the top. And it starts, the night starts with fireworks. You know, you’re in the gardens and it starts with fireworks, and then as it progresses, it moves from kind of the old classical music into like more of a dance party and a rave, and it goes all night.
Katie Danger: So I have a babysitter. We’re going this year. It’s going to be real fun.
Annie Sargent: Do you have your dress already?
Katie Danger: I do have my dress. I got it.
Annie Sargent: Oh, I would love a photo of you in this dress to…
Katie Danger: I’ll send it.
Annie Sargent: … to put on the… on the website.
Katie Danger: Yeah, and I’m going to put my hair as high as it goes. The thing that’s cool is, it’s just so well known all over the world, everybody’s flying in to come. And the tickets were, you know, they were hard to get. I didn’t get mine on the… on the first… you know, I had a friend who decided not to go and she’s like, “Do you want tickets?” I’m like, “Oh boy, do I.” Like, yeah, this is a bucket list thing to do. It’s a bucket list.
Annie Sargent: So you said there were two events. You talked to us about the Fete Galante?
Katie Danger: Yes, the Fete Galante has just passed, so that’s… when is it? Early June. People are very strict. And it’s during the day, that’s a normal, like, you know, during normal hours. That is in the Hall of Mirrors.
Annie Sargent: Okay.
Katie Danger: Because, you know, there’s not so much drinking, and you know, you have the old- they’re called the floor Versaillaises, you have the old wood floors. I mean, the floors in the castle are still hundreds of years old. They’re still the original floors. With all that traffic, that’s…
Katie Danger: but this party is in the Orangerie. So you know, a lot of the pictures of Versailles where you see, like, the garden that’s a bit, you know, twist, you see the pattern, it’s down there. And it’s marble inside and it’s very, I guess, easier to clean after a party.
Annie Sargent: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So what’s the name of that party in the Orangerie?
Katie Danger: This one is called the Grand Mask- the Great Masked Ball of Versailles. So you have to wear a mask.
Annie Sargent: Okay. Le Grand Bal Masque de Versailles?
Katie Danger: The Grand Masque Ball, yeah.
Annie Sargent: And you have to wear a mask?
Katie Danger: You have to wear a mask, at least for the start of the evening, and then you see. But, I mean, as I’ve seen pictures, I’ve seen pictures of previous years where there’s a tiger, there’s a white tiger at the party. Like they go, like, Louis XIV style. I’ve seen, like, a lot of people at night are, like, huddled around a bonfire that just, you know, I can just imagine a bonfire in the gardens just- … you know, it just seems so VIP because normally we don’t have access to this, so just to have access to have a party in the place where they used to have killer parties, I mean, this is- a lot of- a lot of history went down at these masked parties.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. Some hanky-panky too, I’m sure.
Katie Danger: Some hanky-panky, like, you know, finding mistresses and- you know, kings can do what they want when they’re- when you’re masked because nobody knows who it is.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so that takes place when? You haven’t done that yet?
Katie Danger: No, that’s on the 21st of June.
Annie Sargent: 21st of June.
Annie Sargent: Wow. So it’s like a Fete de la Musique times 1,000?
Katie Danger: It is. It’s the night, this year it falls on the night of the Fete de la Musique, so it’s going to be, it’s going to be… So it’s crazy because, you know, I’m going to be walking through Versailles all dressed up because, you know, I’m going to be walking there and everybody’s going to be walking around for the Fete de la Musique.
Katie Danger: The Fete de la Musique is so fun. It’s just, you know, Versailles comes alive and it’s just… There’s a lot of… there’s a lot of nightlife because there’s universities and there’s a lot of students around. So, I mean, Versailles, it’s not just a commuter city or a city with a castle.
[00:30:09] Dining and Picnicking in Versailles
Katie Danger: It’s actually like, a place in its own right where we have, like, really good restaurants, top-tier Michelin-starred. We have, like… Le 7 was recently reviewed by the New York Times. It’s a little neighborhood place that we like to go. I find the food is just… you know, we cook at home and we cook good, but this food, it just… just try recipes that you just wouldn’t know to do yet. French recipes.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Le 7? Like number seven?
Katie Danger: Yep. Le 7.
Annie Sargent: Okay. Okay.
Katie Danger: And there’s also, speaking of numbers, there’s the Table du Onze, which I’m sure you’ve heard of. That’s a very highly rated… It’s really impossible to get reservations all the time, but…
Annie Sargent: Especially around the Fete Galante and so forth, Le Bal Masque, yeah?
Katie Danger: Oh, yeah, it’s not possible. But it’s there right beside the castle in the scented garden. So they have… There… that’s a flower garden, if you need something in Versailles that has flowers. The Garden of Scents, le Jardin des Senteurs. They do lovely flowers all through that garden.
Katie Danger: But it’s just also a little pedestrian passageway with the Table d’onze is this very chic, highly rated… There’s also a place next door if you just want to grab a coffee, called Chez Molly, and it’s a really cute little, you know, they sell patisserie and coffees and things, you know, for tourists. But, I mean, I hang out there too, so it’s not… it’s not just tourists.
[00:31:28] Bringing a Picnic Into Versailles
Annie Sargent: If you’re going to the chateau with your family, you bring a picnic? Or do you ever use the restaurants inside of the gardens? because there’s several. They do, like, they do really simple food.
Katie Danger: Yeah. There’s… Angelina has…
Annie Sargent: Right. There’s that. Yeah.
Katie Danger: The Angelina is there, they have kind of a walkthrough, a cafe, and then a sit-down place. There’s also Le Flotil, which is right out by the gardens, and you can sit outside when the weather’s really nice and just overlook.
Katie Danger: But, I mean, I would say picnic is the way to go, because we would, even before we lived in Versailles, we would come out and have picnics with friends who lived here.
Annie Sargent: Mm-hmm.
Katie Danger: You know, you get off the train, you stop by the market, you get some cheeses, some baguettes, some fruit, and then you walk over and have a picnic in the garden. I think that’s just a nice way to go. There’s also… I’ve listed on my website, under Picnics, there’s people that will do catered picnics for you. So you just tell them what time and where to be, and there’s two or three different companies that will bring you a picnic in Versailles. So less planning, but I just… Yeah. Picnic is the way to be. The restaurants within, they can just get crowded and they’re not always… you know.
Annie Sargent: It’s really basic. You know, it’s going to be your burgers and fries, and not real good ones either. Like, they’re fine, but that’s it.
Katie Danger: I’ve never heard anybody here, like, “This is great.” I do want to say that there is… L’Ore.
Annie Sargent: Yeah.
Katie Danger: This is a hack. If you want to get into the castle and it seems sold out, like, especially for the morning, you can buy… they do a special thing at L’Ore, where you can go in and have a breakfast and then you’re into the castle before anybody else, because it touches on the castle. So you can go in and order… I think they call it the… how do… You can help me with my French here. The Réveil du Roi?
Annie Sargent: Réveil du Roi. Uh-huh.
Katie Danger: Yeah. The Waking Up of the King, because that’s a theme of Versailles.You can go there, and buy that meal, and that comes with a ticket to get in. So that’s another way that I think people have hacked not waiting in that long line that’s really notorious.
Annie Sargent: Right. So this is Ducasse. This is a nice place, right?
Katie Danger: It is a nice place.
Annie Sargent: It’s O-R-E, Ducasse Château de Versailles. They… and so once you’re there, you can enter the chateau, huh?
Katie Danger: Yep. You can enter straight from there. So you just… Yeah.
Annie Sargent: So let’s look at some of the prices.
Katie Danger: I think it’s about 50 euros for the ticket, and you get a croissant and, like, a hot drink, like whether a coffee or a hot chocolate.
Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It looks like about… Yeah. You’re not going to get anything for less than 50, but if you’re getting into the gardens… Now, you would still need a ticket to get into the chateau proper. And if it’s on a special day, you might have to pay to get into some of the gardens.
Katie Danger: Yeah. But from that place you can look… You’re looking into the courtyard. You know, you’re sharing a wall with… Like, you’re looking into the castle.
Annie Sargent: Nice. Nice. Nice.
Katie Danger: It’s a nice place to have a little breakfast before you… Then you can take your time with lunch.
Annie Sargent: Wonderful. Yeah. So I’ll put a link to that as well. It looks like a very good tip. Excellent. Excellent. All right.
Annie Sargent: So, any other things that didn’t come up that you want to share with us? Like, I’m sure your website is full of just interesting things that people can do.
Katie Danger: Yeah. I could talk about Versailles all day, so you can… you can just shut me up.
[00:34:56] Versailles Beyond the Castle
Katie Danger: But living in Versailles, there’s also, not far from France Miniature. So, I mean, I think you need to rent a car to get out there. But my kids go often. And you see everything French, like even the Chateau Versailles kind of miniature. You could see the Eiffel Tower and, you know, everything all in one day. It’s a fun place to see, like, everything small of France. It kind of does the history of France. You can see all the thing… That’s a really cool thing.
Katie Danger: There’s a zoo. The Zoo de Troyes is not very far, and it has… You know, that’s also nice to spend a full day there. If you’re there, you can go see the walkthrough of the animals. And there’s tons of play parks throughout the zoo, and then you can do a drive-through safari.
Annie Sargent: Nice.
Katie Danger: And if you plan ahead, you can even spend a night. They’ve got a night where you can spend with the wolves and a night that you can spend with bears.
Annie Sargent: Ooh.
Katie Danger: But these, I want to do that for my daughter’s birthday, just kind of like waking up with the wolves. I think she’d love something like that. But there’s definitely, like, a lot to do.
Katie Danger: Versailles is definitely a city in its own right, has its own heartbeat and its own, you know, things to do. But you know, there’s also suburbs of Versailles.
Annie Sargent: Right, of course, of course.
Katie Danger: There’s often like… And there’s tons of stuff to do. But yeah, definitely check out the website because I link and talk about all this stuff. I have a newsletter. If you give me your email, I can email you once a week with just, you know, happenings and new things. I also share, just as an American living in France, some of my discoveries about French culture that I think are fascinating, as you do too. So, yeah.
[00:36:29] Living in Versailles: A Personal Perspective
Annie Sargent: And you’re married to a French person, right? So…
Katie Danger: Yes.
Annie Sargent: Yeah, so the whole immigration thing was quite easy? I mean, you, you’re married to a French person, so…
Katie Danger: Well, I actually… Well, yeah. I can say that I’m married for love, and I do love my husband very much, but my father is British. My mom’s American, my father’s British from Northern Ireland, so I actually have four passports.
Annie Sargent: Wow.
Katie Danger: Yeah, yeah, which is… It comes to quite a nightmare when it comes time to travel, like, “Are these… Which ones are expired?” It’s, you know, it’s a headache. I became French just a few years ago, so I went through all the tests, and I did know my French history, though they didn’t ask me too many questions about it. I was really disappointed. But I’m French now on top of everything else, and that’s… I’m proud of that one.
Annie Sargent: Wonderful. You, yeah, you’re probably… I think you’re here to stay for a while anyway.
Katie Danger: Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Annie Sargent: That’s wonderful.
[00:37:21] Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Annie Sargent: Well, Katie, thank you so very much for talking to me. It’s been delightful. And I really recommend your website and your newsletter and all of that so that people can spend a little more time in Versailles. It’s definitely worth it. Like, it’s, it’s a beautiful part of France, and it’s… I wouldn’t say it’s rural because it really isn’t, but it’s not as dense as Paris. Paris is just, like, really, really dense. Lots and lots and lots of people and things. Versailles is posher and a bit less crowded.
Katie Danger: That’s… I think that’s a pretty good assessment.
Katie Danger: It is posh. Yeah, I would say it’s kind of the Beverly Hills. But we do have like… you know, there’s a lot of green spaces. People have gardens, which was kind of the draw for us. The prices were a bit cheaper than Paris, and we have gardens and space and can breathe, and it feel, it feels good. It feels good with the fresh food. And we have all the perks of Paris but not, you know…
Katie Danger: So it’s worth more than a day trip in and out. I think it would be too bad just to come just for a day. But of course, I’m a little bit biased.
Annie Sargent: No, but you’re right. You’re right. And it’s really important for people to understand that, you know, we often complain about overtourism and things like that, but we need to be cognizant of how we’re making it happen. If all we ever do is go to Paris for five days and run around like crazy chickens, that’s the overtourism. Whereas if you take it easy, you go outside of Paris a little bit, you go to Versailles, you go… I mean, heck, you could even come to Toulouse. Amazing. You know? See other parts of France.
Annie Sargent: The France is a big country, and I think people, really need to think, Is this okay for me?” Like, am I ready to get out of Paris and go see a little more of France?” And in the case of Versailles, you’re not very far. You could always go back to the safety of Paris.
Katie Danger: Well there’s… The website says the French, the castle website says that there’s 15 million people a year that come see the castle, so they’ve got… I mean, it’s got its traffic. It does have its traffic, but it’s just too bad to come on a bus, leave on a bus, and just, you know, really not savor.
Katie Danger: I feel like, you know, one of the keys to happiness is just being able to savor something and just kind of lingering a little bit more and that’s kind of why… That was the impetus behind my website, is just, “Hey, hey, hey, did you see this? Let’s stop together. Let’s look at this.
Katie Danger: Let’s savor this.” You know, I think a lot of… That’s a big part of the French culture that I really love, is just to savor and enjoy and to have a deep conversation and to connect and to feel alive.
Katie Danger: So, Annie, it’s been such a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much for having me.
Annie Sargent: Thank you, Katie. And we will stay in touch, and I wish you wonderful, wonderful times.
Katie Danger: I’ll send you photos from the ball.
Annie Sargent: Yes, please.
Katie Danger: Okay.
Annie Sargent: Have a great time.
Katie Danger: Thank you. Bye.
Annie Sargent: Au revoir.
Annie Sargent: Again, I want to thank my patrons for giving back and supporting the show. Patrons get several exclusive rewards for doing that. You can see them at patreon.com/joinus. And a special shout-out this week to my new Join Us in France champions, Vicki Satterlund and Marciela Krusemann.
Annie Sargent: Thank you, Megan McKay, also for renewing your membership and Helene for increasing your pledge.
Annie Sargent: Would you join them too? You can do it for as little as $3 a month, but if you can afford it, I’d love to have you pledge more so you can have access to more of the rewards. And to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/elysart.
[00:41:08] Tour Reviews
Annie Sargent: Somebody left this review of my VoiceMap tour of Paris this week, about Savoring Paris: A Food Lover’s Walk Around Les Halles. This person wrote, “Fun tour with many good recommendations, informative, and not a lot of walking without commentary.”
Annie Sargent: Oh, thank you. Good pacing is very important in a VoiceMap tour.
Annie Sargent: About my Montmartre VoiceMap tour, “This was amazing. One of my favorite parts of our trip to Paris. Love her tours and did this when Louvre was closed due to the break-in. We stopped a lot and the tour just picked back up when we were ready.
Annie Sargent: Just the right amount of information shared, not too heavy, fun, and educational. We love to walk, we are in our 40s and felt it made for the perfect trip companion.”
Annie Sargent: Thank you so much.
Annie Sargent: Yes, VoiceMap is like having your own private tour guide in your pocket. You cannot put me in your pocket for real, you can pause whenever you want, grab a coffee, explore a side street, and the tour picks right back up when you’re ready. No rushing, no schedule to follow.
[00:42:16] Podcast listeners discount
Annie Sargent: And podcast listeners get an exclusive discount when you buy these tours directly from joinusinfrance.com/boutique. That’s also the best way to support the show, because it means more of what you pay comes straight to me instead of going through Apple or Google.
Annie Sargent: And if you’re planning a trip to France and want expert help, you can hire me as your itinerary consultant. I will improve your plan if you already have one, or suggest one if you are at a loss. And you can also book that at my boutique, joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
[00:42:49] Seine River flood tests – Hydros 25
Annie Sargent: A couple of weeks ago in Paris, emergency crews tested what would happen if the Seine River flooded the city again, like it did back in 1910.
Annie Sargent: There are markers for that flood everywhere in Paris. The exercise, called Hydros 25, brought together the RATP, that’s the official company that runs the metro system in Paris, also city officials and first responders to see how fast they could react.
Annie Sargent: At Saint-Lazare Station, metro workers assembled a two-meter-high aluminum barriers in just over two hours, and those aluminum barriers are made to block rising water.
Annie Sargent: The RATP has mapped more than 400 vulnerable entry points of the system, and without protection, over 130 stations could flood. A massive flood could cost the region 300 billion euros, threaten 700,000 jobs, and leave hundreds of thousands without electricity, water, or transportation.
Annie Sargent: So the goal of this exercise was to make sure everyone, from local businesses to government agencies, knows exactly what to do if the river rises.
Annie Sargent: Recent floods in places like Crecy-la-Chapelle and Val-de-Marne showed just how hard small towns can be hit. Still, surveys show most companies in the Paris area don’t think it could happen to them, and yes, we love the Seine for its charm, but it’s also Paris’s greatest natural threat and city officials are determined not to be caught off guard next time.
Annie Sargent:
[00:44:38] Robert Badinter
Annie Sargent: On October 9th, France remembered Robert Badinter, the former French Minister of Justice and the man who led the fight to abolish the death penalty in France. Badinter, who passed away in February 2024, was honored with an official ceremony at the Pantheon in Paris, presided over by President Macron.
Annie Sargent: Streets around the Pantheon were closed for the events, as is always the case when they bring somebody new into the Pantheon, which included readings by actor Guillaume Gallienne, probably my favorite French actor. He’s mostly a theater actor, but we see him in the movies sometimes. And a performance by singer Julien Clerc, which I also like very much.
Annie Sargent: France’s road to abolish the death penalty was long. The last executions in Paris took place on November 28, 1972. I was alive then, and maybe you were too. This was the notorious Buffet-Bontems case. Badinter was one of the defense lawyers. Although only one of the two men actually killed the hostages during that prison escape, both were executed by guillotine.
Annie Sargent: Witnessing that execution convinced Badinter that France had to end capital punishment. He later said, “From that morning on, abolition became my cause.” And I know a lot of countries are struggling with how do you actually make the death penalty happen? It’s a terrible thing to have to think about.
Annie Sargent: When he became minister of justice under President Mitterrand, Badinter introduced a bill that parliament passed in 1981, so nine years after the last execution, officially ending death penalty in France.
Annie Sargent: This made France one of the first countries in Europe to outlaw capital punishment during that era. A common question is whether ending the death penalty led to more violent crime in France, and studies over the last four decades show no evidence of an increase in serious crime linked to the abolition.
Annie Sargent: Crime rates have fluctuated over time due to other social and economic factors, but not because the country stopped using capital punishment. The ceremony honoring Robert Badinter’s personal legacy highlighted a turning point in French justice, the moment the country chose to reject executions and affirm the dignity of every human life.
Annie Sargent: This is an intractable problem for a lot of countries and in many ways I’m glad we don’t have this anymore. I don’t think France is a less safe country because of that choice.
[00:47:22] France, a mostly rural country
Annie Sargent: When I take people on day trips in my electric car around the southwest only, that’s because I, you know, that’s where I live, we head out of Toulouse into the countryside.
Annie Sargent: And I like to point out that France is mostly rural, which surprises some of them. In France, we have about 35,000 communes or municipalities. That’s a city or a town or … But when you say city, you kind of have to imagine of a big place, right? A town perhaps it’s a smaller, and a village is even smaller, but really these are communes, which means they are a administrative unit, you know. They have a mayor and they have a council and such things.
Annie Sargent: So more than half of our 35,000 municipalities have fewer than 500 inhabitants. So we are a country of small towns and villages, and that’s kind of startling to many people, who mostly go to Paris.
Annie Sargent: But even Paris is not that big, I mean, London has more people, New York has way more people, you know. As a major country capital, Paris is not that big. But if you look at 500 inhabitants then, you know, half of our municipalities have fewer than 500 inhabitants. So we’re a country of small towns and villages.
Annie Sargent: Now, what’s a bit worrisome is that many of these towns and villages have no commerce anymore. No boulangerie, no hairdresser, no tobacco shop, no cafe. Some have one shop that do a little bit of everything. You know, they’ll serve you a coffee, they have a few grocery items, they have some bread, they sell some cigarettes, they sell stamps, things like that.
Annie Sargent: But some villages have no business at all, and in that case sometimes the city hall will have a few things, but not always. And city hall is not always open every day either. That really would not suit me just because there are no businesses, but also because if it’s that small it’s probably too isolated for my taste.
Annie Sargent: But to make up for the fact that these towns have no shops, and that is very specific to France, these villages often welcome itinerant businesses. And those are itinerant businesses that go around villages by themselves. So one day a traveling hairdresser will show up or a pet groomer or a book shop on wheels.
Annie Sargent: Now that’s not a loan library on wheels, which we also have, but it’s a real book shop. There are even traveling cafes and crepe vans and things like that. There are also baker vans that go to villages and park on the town square for an hour or two on set days and times and move along to different villages all day long.
Annie Sargent: These businesses, if you live there, you know it’s coming and, in my village … So we are not far from Toulouse and we actually have two hairdressers that have shops in the village, but we also have an itinerant hairdresser and I always see men going in there. For some reason they would prefer to go to the itinerant one than to the…
Annie Sargent: I guess the settled hairdressers feel more like a beauty salon perhaps. At any rate, some places also have a fresh bread distributor where you put in your coins and you get your bread out. It works, but I’d rather talk to someone personally.
Annie Sargent: Now, those are all different from the weekly markets with the traveling butchers, bakers, cheese shops, vegetable vendors, clothes vendors, et cetera.
Annie Sargent: That’s not what I’m talking about. The weekly markets are made up of vendors that all show up on the same day. Some markets have a dozen vendors, some have 50 or more. So you have some small markets and some bigger ones. But what I’m talking about is just when one business shows up on a specific day of the week, to get your hair cut or clean your pets or whatever.
Annie Sargent:
Annie Sargent: Now, those small weekly markets that only include a dozen vendors, they don’t go to places with 500 inhabitants unless it’s a very scenic and touristy village. And then some vendors will show up because they know there’s going to be people. So please keep going to those small village markets when you visit France.
Annie Sargent: They need you. They really need you. But even in those scenic villages, if it’s a small enough village, the weekly market is seasonal. It’s not year round.
Annie Sargent: So we have a ton of these very, very small villages.
Annie Sargent: Having said that, it’s also true that those communes with very few inhabitants, many of them are between 20 and 30 minutes away from a major urban center by car or by rail or by bus.
Annie Sargent: So they’re not really isolated. And if you ask French people where they would like to live ideally, they overwhelmingly respond that they would like to live in a village with easy access to a major city. That’s where I’m very lucky to live, and my daughter, who is looking for a house now, would also love to find a place like that as well.
Annie Sargent: I live in a village that has several shops, but I can also literally walk to the next village where they have even more businesses, including a grocery store. And the city of Toulouse is only 15 to 20 minutes away by car. I never feel like I’m isolated, but there are a lot of towns in France that are more than 45 minutes from a city, and that feels completely different.
Annie Sargent: So I know some of you are interested in living in France at some point, so it’s important that you pay attention to population distribution and think about what is the sweet spot for you.
Annie Sargent: And consider that the folks who put up with living in tiny villages, 45 minutes or more away from a big city may have a bit of a different outlook on life, get off my lawn type of people, you know?
Annie Sargent: I’ve met many, and I know how to talk to them and such, but I’m not sure if you’re a brand new person who’s trying to settle in France you would be as successful just because you don’t speak the language and they definitely don’t speak any English. Anyway, it’s something to think about.
Annie Sargent: France is a place full of villages, and some of them are definitely a bit too far from cities for comfort.
Annie Sargent: My thanks to podcast editors, Anne and Christian Cotovan, who produced the audio and the transcripts.
[00:54:09] Next week on the podcast
Annie Sargent: Next week on the podcast, an episode where we answer the big question, should you go after a talent or a freelance visa if you’re considering moving to France and you’re not retired yet and don’t have a full time job waiting for you?
Annie Sargent: Immigration lawyer, Daniel Tostado, explains who should choose what. This is going to be a very important episode because, I mean, it’s kind of… of narrow interest to some people, but it’s very hard to find very well informed opinions about this if you look online.
Annie Sargent: And so, you’ll see that there’s a lot to discuss.
Annie Sargent: Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together. Au revoir.
[00:54:56] 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.