The Best of France

When planning my 60th birthday celebration, my sister and I stumbled upon France Just For You, which saved us from the potential nightmare of traveling with 40 strangers on a bus. As a result, my sister and I, along with our husbands, experienced a trip of a lifetime! From the beginning, Emilie was extraordinarily responsive, informative, and more than accommodating to our wishes, both before and during the trip. For example, my sister and her husband experienced travel delays, and Emilie immediately offered to arrange alternative travel from Paris to our first destination in the Loire Valley. Before our travels began, Emilie sent us keepsake book, detailing our daily itineraries, replete with scheduled activities, restaurant suggestions, and optional excursions.Traveling through the Loire Valley, Normandy, and Paris for 12 days, each day was more spectacular than the previous one. The B&B near Chenonceau was a fantastic introduction to quintessentially French hospitality, charm, food, wine, and culture. From there we experienced true luxury in a serene setting in a chateau, where unexpectedly dinner was served (complete with vegetables from the castle's organic gardens). The B&B in Normandy was most memorable for the genteel hospitality of our host, Comte, who shared tales of his family through the centuries, including the arrest of his father in the foyer of the chateau due to his resistance activities against the Gestapo during WWII. The Count's son and his girlfriend served us a lovely meal around a stone fireplace in their charming apartment on the gorgeous chateau grounds. Thinking we had already experienced the best that France had to offer, we were blown away when we arrived at the B&B near Bayeux, warmly and creatively appointed. Finally, while less extravagant, the Hotel in Paris was equally as charming as our previous accommodations, located in a neighborhood teaming with cafes and shops in close proximity to all of the amazing sites that Paris has to offer! All of our hosts were extraordinarily gracious, serving us homemade French delicacies each morning and offering us helpful suggestions for making the most of each day. All in all, due to Emilie's fastidious planning, the trip was beyond perfect and exceeded our wildest dreams of a French vacation.

I was going to plan a trip for my daughter and I and quickly got overwhelmed. We didn't want to go on those tours that have you going for morning until night. We wanted to be able to take our time and enjoy our trip. That's when I found Emiliee. We wanted to stay for 3weeks and really experience France, and Emiliee did just that. Her guide books were more than I ever dreamed they would be. Every B&B we stayed at was beautiful. The hosts were wonderful and welcoming. We had the most wonderful trip and Emiliee took care of every detail. I would highly recommend them.

We wanted my spouse's birthday trip to France to be special and we could not have expected such a perfect time. From initial communication with Emilie by email right up to having a driver meet us in Paris CDG airport, it was a stress-free vacation. Emilie provided first class service throughout and tailored our desire to see Paris, the Loire Valley, Bordeaux, Dordogne and finally Provence. Her recommendations and arrangements for accommodation, transportation, dining, wine estates, tours, guides and special out of the way places was perfect. She based our vacation on our desires and specific wishes - and she matched them perfectly.
We can't say enough how her trip planning, itinerary, choice of what to do was exactly what we were looking for. In addition she provided several out of the way spots away from touristy sites that made this special Birthday vacation amazing.
The intriguing part was receiving our custom tailored Guide Books which were indispensable and allowed us to travel worry free. This was a great source of practical, useful information that made our trip even more relaxed.
The diversity of the trip allowed us to experience many aspects of French culture - history, art, wine tasting and appreciation, dining, truffle hunting and running through Lavender fields in bloom. Biking through quaint villages and following in the footsteps of Van Gogh and Hemingway, amoung others. Thanks to her we were able to see several regions of France and we came to understand that we could not do everything she suggested - and that was a good thing.
Throughout it all Emilie communicated on a regular basis and was always available if we had a question.
We would definitely recommend France Just For You to anyone desiring a unique, tailored way of experiencing France.

Emilie,
You are the best! Everything you selected for us was perfect in every way. All the tickets, tours and reservations were handled well and we thank you for arranging such a beautiful vacation. We are recommending you to everyone we talk to. If you are ever in Toronto, we would be happy to host you and Guillaume!

Our trip was exactly as expected, planned perfectly with so many amazing tips on where and how to get around like a local. 25 days, with lots of driving and so much to see. Paris, Versailles, Normandy, Loire Valley, Sancerre, Dordogne and Bordeaux. We were warmly welcomed at all B&Bs and felt that we really got a local feel everywhere we went. All recommendations by FJFY were spot on. I can’t say enough about how impressed we are by France Just For You. We will come back for more!!!

I can echo everything that has been said in the previous three reviews. The personalization of this entire trip was incredible and Emilie communicated quickly and completely, both in the planning of the trip and after we were in France. My husband and I were spending four weeks in France in celebration of our 50th anniversary. We were a little reluctant to take a trip this long and do this much driving but Emilie's planning and suggestions were so great that we never had any problems. And she arranged the best bed and breakfasts possible. All of the hosts were wonderful and we had some very good dinners around a table with many people from other countries, which was one of the reasons why we wanted to stay at bed and breakfasts. Our tour guides were amazing and at two different places Emilie had left personal notes and gifts. That is just the type of person she is. We asked Emilie if we could meet her and we were fortunate enough to be able to do that in her hometown of Langeais. She is just was delightful as you would expect her to be and she spent over an hour with us. It was one of the highlights of our trips. Every day we had to pinch ourselves that we were doing all of these fabulous things from Paris, to Normandy, to Brittany, to the Loire Valley, to Burgundy, to Provence and to the French Riviera. As you can see, we covered a lot of territory because of Emilie's willingness to customize our trip so that we could see a lot of France. We agree with the suggestion to go with your own GPS. It certainly helps to know how to use it before you arrive. We also suggest that you book your trip well in advance so that Emilie has time to arrange the best bed and breakfasts and the best tour guides. We certainly felt like we had that and we booked our trip seven months ahead. And read your tour book(s) before you go. You will still refer to them each and every day but there is so much general information in the books that we found very helpful. We have NEVER had a better trip and it's because of Emilie. Thank you, Emilie, for truly giving us the trip of a lifetime. We have memories that will last forever because of you.