Chinon in the Loire Valley

France Just for You has my highest recommendation. I will never forget our trip to France. Laura was amazing. Perfect itinerary. They did the little things right. Were available throughout the trip. We forgot my 4 year old's blanket at the first hotel. I contacted Laura and she had it waiting for us when we arrived at the hotel airport to leave. I could go on forever. Allow them to help you with your trip and you will not regret it.

I communicated directly with Emilie who is very serious about their business of providing self guided tours. She prepared a proposal that matched what I had requested. Payment arrangements were easy. We really got to visit with local people. We rarely saw a tour bus. France - Just For You arranged visits with guides (wine tasting day in St. Emilion area and visit to Les Combarelles & Font de Gaume---small historic caves) to places we would never have found on our own. The guides were passionate and knowledgable. The personalized guidebook was essential as most commercially available guidebooks tell you want the author thinks is important which may not be what the reader is interested in. More than once I said ”What does Emilie's book say?” The book is laid out with more suggestions than you can do in one day. This is good because for example it was easy to adjust our plans on the day the weather turned bad. The whole package started at the airport with a car ready as promised and ended with easy car rental return. The B&Bs were exactly as described with enthusiastic hosts who were conversational in English.

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.