I am a writer and Francophile with one foot in France and one foot in the UK.
In 2012 I set up The Good Life France website to keep in touch with family and friends from France, but it rapidly became a website for everyone. From less than 500 visitors in its first month to 60,000 in six months and now reaching more than 1.5 million people each month. It is a dream come true and my dream job. I write about the wonderful places I visit in France and share my insider knowledge and secret places. I work with tourist offices and PR companies throughout France to make sure I know what’s new and what’s great so I can share it. I also work with companies and brands from all over the world to connect great products and services with my readers and followers. I only work with companies I know and trust and am happy to endorse. And I say no to more enquiries to feature companies than I say yes. I’m adamant that The Good Life France retains it’s integrity and authenticity.
I’ve written four best-selling books: My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Living the Dream in Rural France all available as ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online. And How to be French, a hard back book that’s perfect for coffee tables!
I love Facebook and social media and you’ll find me every day on our Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram where I interact with an engaged following of +400,000.
I launched The Good Life France Magazine in November 2015 – it enables me to publish longer features in more detail and with wonderful photographs. It’s completely free to read online and has grown over the years into a glossy publication which now reaches more than 2 million readers per issue. I’m a member of the British Society of Magazine Editors, The British Guild of Travel Writers and the International Travel Writers Alliance.
And I’m a podcaster! The Good Life France podcast was launched in September 2022.
Good Life France Advertising and Media Pack
Want to know more about me? Here are 20 secrets!
1. I have had a home in France for 20 years and I’ve been renovating it for 14 years and still not finished!
2. I used to sing in a band in London. They had a hit song after I left!
3. I love French cakes as you may know if you follow me on Facebook where I share a ton of photos! I go into almost every boulangerie and patisserie I see in France and take a photo, much to the amusement of the people who work there.
4. I adore French monuments and chateaux and I write a lot about them! I once climbed the wall of the Roman theatre in Orange to stand with the statue of the Emperor at the top – I was invited, I’m not a vandal!
5. I have 4 dogs and 6 cats and my vet has made me promise to stop taking in stray animals.
6. Cheese is my weakness. I won the 2014 ABTOF (Association of British Tourist Operators to France) Award for best French online article for my story of my local cheese producer, AKA The Goat Lady.
7. I have 4 ducks, 2 geese and 27 chickens who are mostly so old they don’t lay eggs but they’re happy.
8. My great grandma was an Italian trapeze artist – I have no circus skills whatsoever, though I love to dance (I have always wanted to be a professional disco dancer).
9. My favourite region of France? Impossible but I adore Nord-Pas de Calais where I have a home in the stunning and off the beaten track Seven Valleys. I also love Paris and won the French Media Awards Best Social Media feature 2016 for my article about where to kiss in Paris! Pretty much everywhere I go, that’s my new favourite place in France. I phone my husband and I say “if we were ever to move, I’d definitely like to live here.”
10. I wanted to be a writer from the age of 3, but life got in the way, mortgage and bills to pay, so writing came later in life to me.
11. I first visited France when I was 14 and on a school exchange visit and I completely fell in love with tarte tatin and the French way of life.
12. I like to grow vegetables and once grew a pumpkin that was nearly as big as me.
13. I could not cook when I came to France. My French friends used to say “you are Flop Chef notTop Chef” – but I’ve got a lot better thanks to patient neighbours and friends insisting I learn.
14. My favourite French historic character is… I can’t do it, I can’t pick just one. If you asked me who I’d like to meet if I could go back in time – I’d say King Louis XIX, Napoleon, Queen Marie-Antoinette, Claude Monet, Renoir, Victor Hugo… I’d have a big list and then I’d just have to do ip dip, your it.
15. My favourite French drink is Champagne.
16. I used to work in McDonalds in London in my school holidays! Little known fact – there are more McDo’s at the French call them, in France, than anywhere in the world except the US.
17. I was born in London, Bermondsey which is about as inner city as it is possible to get (it wasn’t yuppified thenI), and a complete contrast to my rural French life now and I pinch myself daily at how lucky I am to be here.
18. I hate flying. As a freelance travel writer this is usually a bad thing but as I only write about France, I go everywhere by train and I love train travel.
19. I love writing – okay, that’s probably not a secret! I am currently working on a new magazine idea for holiday makers, and separately those who want to live in France – that is a secret.
20. I am also writing a novel, a romance set in France of course! And you’re the first to know!
Want to know more, listen to my first podcast when I talk about life in France.
