Dear Friends of French Affaires
It has been another year full of travel adventures and meeting new friends. Thank you to all who follow the journeys of this wonderful enterprise. When I look back on Elizabeth’s and my four years living in Courances, it seems almost too magical. I enjoy being able to keep France alive and, as she said, “like the country next door.”
Maud and I began the year with a trip to SW France, the Dordogne, or Perigord region. Misty mornings in February, staying next to the famed Castle of Beynac. It is a charming time to be in this region rich with castles, truffles, foie gras, the UNESCO site Rocamadour, during a tourist-free time of year. We are leading a private trip in late September 2025 and we always like to do research ahead of time. My wife and I spent our honeymoon at Chateau de la Treyne fifteen years ago. It remains a special memory.
(The creche scene above is from Christmas morning chapel, in 2009, at Rocamadour).
I then took a graduating class of students of French to Burgundy, with parents and the headmaster, for a week in May. We exchanged French and English language experiences with the help of our local French teacher, Virginie Rouxel, and saw abbeys, a restored Chateauneuf-en-Auxois, Dijon (with Maud as guide), and celebrated around the table at the cooking school, Terroirs by Adeline. They capped the trip off with 3 days in Paris.
In September we returned to Aix-en-Provence for the French Affaires “Live like a Local” French language immersion. We threw in some new adventures this year (a boulangerie experience and making lavender wands in a field below Les Baux-de-Provence), some new villages in the Luberon, and the annual favorites from years prior.
Maud joined me for week-two of the language trip, and then we headed through the Var to Nice, with two guests continuing their travels, to join those for the Cote d’Azur trip. The breath-taking Chevre d’Or Hotel, Cap Ferat, Monte Carlo, Nice, and then on to Antibes and Cannes, where we stayed at The Martinez for the final three days. This is the trip that keeps on giving. The weather, the art museums, vineyards, landscapes, and food make it a perennial favorite.
2024 marked the inaugural Paris Fashion History Trip, which I have written about in the previous newsletter. It was a hit, and the group of fashionistas was one on the most pleasurable I have experienced – maybe in part because Maud was at the helm, doing what she loves.
In view of that, French Affaires will host a visit to Dallas for Maud 27 January to 2 February this coming year. I will join her. We have three sets of dates for possible Fashion History trips in 2025: May 11-17; June 8-14; October 19-25. We will discuss any-and-all French Affaires offerings, and we hope to see our Dallas friends. Dyan Anderson, Kathy Boyett, and Pam Day are helping to organize her visit. Watch this space, or email me for more information, at christopherseitz@frenchaffaires.com.
It is the time of year when we pause to give thanks for the birth of a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. I wish you every blessing as family and friends gather round. I am grateful to know you, and I give thanks to Elizabeth for sharing herself and her love of France so richly.
Joyeux Noël and Merry Christmas
Chris