Loulabelle’s FrancoFiles

. Donna Guest is the Co-Founder, CEO & Creative Director of fashion house Blue Illusion, which is a French inspired brand bringing fashion, homewares and all sorts of French connections to their customers everywhere. In this chat Loulabelle delves underneath the brand to find the woman and uncover what inspires her and

On 19 October 2025, thieves wearing high-vis work wear, used a stolen furniture removals truck to get into a top floor of the Louvre in Paris, stealing pieces of the French Crown Jewels from the Galerie d"Apollon ("Apollo"s Gallery"). The amazingly swift robbery took place at around 9.30am on what seemed to be a regula

Canadian author Patricia Sands is so connected to France, through her novels which are most often set there in Provence. Coming out on 15 November, 2025 is her latest book The French Effect, set in Paris with the story heading down to Nice on the Cote d"Azur as well. I loved my "petit papotage" with Patricia about her

Pierrick Boyer is a celebrated French pastry chef who has earned the French highest honour of the Chevalier Merite Agricole for his services to France and French culture through his pastry work and he has called Melbourne home for over 20 years. . Paula Nikita has come to call Melbourne home for the last 5 years and is

Earlier this year I road tripped around France and spent a couple of weeks in Burgundy with friends of the Loulabelle"s FrancoFiles podcast, Kate and Nathan Veach. Kate and Nathan had a French restaurant in Melbourne prior to making the permanent move to France just after Covid after buying a place on the internet duri

I love road tripping in France and I aim to get there and meander the roads less travelled as often as I can! In the April/May of 2025 I took a "vacances" in France for a couple of months and embarked on 3 separate road trips with separate groups or individual friends.  . Author Katherine Watt and I became great friend