France Traveller

09/06/2024

Fantastic to see my feature on the food of the Aubrac Plateau (all those beautiful flowers!) in the summer issue of this month’s National Geographic Traveller Food magazine.

06/06/2024

Hooray! Today’s the day… Amuse Bouche: How to Eat Your Way Around France is finally published!

08/05/2024

For those who like a bargain… https://amzn.eu/d/2ZaUCu0 (this is the cheapest I’ve seen it).

Amuse Bouche: How to Eat Your Way Around France

06/04/2024

My book Amuse Bouche: How to Eat Your Way Around France comes out two months today (6 June)!

📮 You can pre-order via this link https://www.waterstones.com/book/amuse-bouche/carolyn-boyd/9781800810389

📈 If you follow a few authors you’ll know that pre-orders help a book’s success enormously - the retailers and booksellers judge their orders on pre-orders, it can help the book get into the best-seller lists too. AND best of all, you get it through the door the day it comes out! I wrote this book with all my heart and really hope readers love it as much as I loved writing it.

25/03/2024

The waiter’s race is back…

23/03/2024

In today’s Guardian, an amuse bouche (see what i did there) of what you’ll get in my book…

From roadside picnics to Michelin-star restaurants, the former editor of France magazine picks her most memorable foodie moments

13/02/2024

Happy pancake day. Perfect excuse to celebrate the best of Breton cuisine (ok one of the best things about Breton cuisine) with a galette complète… yum. Sadly I am not in Saint Malo where I ate this beaut, but instead London bound. Excited to be seeing the .books gang to discuss publicity and marketing of Amuse Bouche: How to Eat Your Way Around France. And then see about their D-Day anniversary commemorations. Hoping to be in London more this spring/summer - so many people to catch up with after two years in the writing bunker. And sadly I don’t think I’ll have time to eat pancakes today, but as Bretons prove, they’re not just for pancake day. We eat them all the time. 😋

10/02/2024

Happy New Lunar Year… it’s the Year of the Dragon 🐉 and this is the best dragon I’ve seen (though not connected to Chinese culture). Worth a visit to Calais though.
Also, I was born in another Year of the Dragon, so hoping for great fortunes to come my way 🤣. 🐲

15/01/2024

Definitely Blue Monday here… so if anyone else has the January blues, I’ve found some blues of a better kind… Calais seagull, La Tache lake near Roanne, boat in Saint Malo, door in Granville, Le Vieux Port in Marseille, cottage in Gerberoy… momentary distraction from writing my next France Traveller Substack. Sign up - link in bio.

11/01/2024

Exciting/nerve-wracking… the final proof of Amuse Bouche is here. Red pen at the ready…

21/12/2023

Found a new French haunt in Chelters. Been meaning to try Le Petit Social for ages… gorgeous French bistro-y place with lovely atmosphere, wonderful music, very nice table linen, great service and excellent food that I forgot to take pictures of because I was having lovely chats with writer pals and . It’s quite lonely at Christmas being a solo/homeworker/freelance away from London, so was very glad we managed to get together. And lovely venue too… There’s quite a collection of restaurants in Cheltenham now and I’ve never been disappointed. Saving up for another trip to because it is 👌👌👌. And then tonight a trip with another dear freelance pal to see Napoleon at which was excellent- well done .

16/12/2023

Another little glimpse of in Brittany, see today’s Guardian for my tuppeneth on it. Link in stories…

12/12/2023

Pour mes amis français ou francophones, voici un podcast génial La Crème Anglaise avec mon boss Michel Roux Jr. C’est un interview super et il
y a une belle explication du concours The Roux Scholarship là-dedans (je suis directrice de communications, mi temps - en même temps que l’écriture).

02/12/2023

In departures… homeward bound, so Paris photo dump coming up… this was absolutely the best meal of my last few visits to Paris .boissonnerie.paris - ordered leeks vinaigrette as I was curious about what the bistronomique movement would do with this classic starter. My god, I wanted to lick the plate… citrus and pickled ginger, persimmon and almonds 🤪 (excuse already-started-to-eat-it picture). Then duck with polenta and confit clementine sauce, more toasted almonds perfect bite against soft polenta… again it was 👌👌👌. Wines also fab, atmosphere excellent, lovely company, great chat with owner Drew who my friend Annalee knows from years living in Saint Germain. Total highlight.

30/11/2023

The new-look is absolutely superb… bravo . It was fascinating to learn how the six-year renovation and conceptualisation came about from Roger Mann and his team who showed me around. Really clever design and blending of the old and new. Loved it 👌.

30/11/2023

Well hello Paris. Be nice to me.

30/11/2023

*Old picture* So the latest in the journey from hell… just left St Pancras…
We finally got out of the terminal just before midnight when i finally got better Wifi/signal. They told us on board before we got off the train that we could claim back £150 for a hotel that we had to book ourselves. Which obviously is not enough to cover anything even close to a Premier Inn/Travelodge. Next problem… after midnight the booking engines default to the following night, ie Nov 30/Dec 1. So I thought sod it I’ll go home (car parked at Oxford, Oxford Tune runs all night). Got off tube at Edgware Rd because Circle line had finished for the night. Hilton is right opposite- wandered in to see if there was any room. No, full. Told them my sob story and they found me a room, gave me a massive discount (hooray ), went to room. Tried to rebook ticket for today, ‘all trains full’. Sod it went to sleep (1.30am by this point). Woke up, checked trains again… space reappeared. Booked on 9.30am. And here I am. I will not believe it til I’m sipping a cafe crème with my pal on the Left Bank.

Ps Old picture is of 👌

28/11/2023

Feeling very spoiled by so many lovely birthday messages, thank you to my husband, friends and family for making it a lovely day. In store… A very quick trip over the Channel tomorrow ‘til Saturday to the City of Lights… Because my ‘I’m not travelling for a while’ lasted 5 minutes and a couple of opportunities came up. What’s a girl to do? 🤷‍♀️😂

24/11/2023

It’s - first one too as it’s been devised by to celebrate this wonderful medium. One of my favourite things about editing a magazine (which seems such a long time ago now) was commissioning illustrators, such as the wonderful , Tim Wesson () and (who even illustrated Macca’s guitar!). Also including here who has illustrated the cover and maps in my book, which is shaping up beautifully! More to share soon.

Been a bit quiet on here lately… somehow life is just as busy even without a book to write 🤷‍♀️.

22/11/2023

This place is wonderful… so worth entering!

20/10/2023

So glad I got to write about this place…

[PRESSE BRITANIQUE] On parle de nous dans le Sunday Times ! 🇬🇧📰

😁 Nous sommes ravis de vous annoncer que l'hôtel-spa L'EssenCiel **** a été récemment présenté dans un article de presse en Grande-Bretagne. C'est un honneur pour nous d'être reconnu à l' internationale !

💡 Découvrez l'article en suivant le lien :
↪️ https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-french-hotel-that-s-out-of-this-world-f5xrn59k5?fbclid=PAAaaYka9bUQFMhvUNqFOcqVc0mO4spgjIV_yZH4xSeIHG0wpupzfsiZ_Ewyg

16/10/2023

Loving his completely nonchalant description of the beauty of France (and sorry Switzerland 🤣)

15/10/2023

Happy, happy, happy to share these pics of the incredible near Rennes as my feature is in the Sunday Times (paper, not online yet) today.
It’s been a bit of a mad week getting back from Sweden, catching up on a gazillion things and then dashing to a few things Literature Festival on the doorstep (nice synergy to have a story in this paper, when it sponsors the festival), so it’s nice to sit down for a minute with the paper.
Anyway, the Hotel Essenciel (bravo, on the jeux de mots) is extraordinary - these pods or nests are its rooms, which are suspended from the central structure. Then the restaurant is in a building that looks like a flying saucer, where the food and decor us out of this world… I’ll write a bit more about it in my next Substack newsletter (sign up… link in bio). I’m so delighted i got to write this story as I followed its construction all through the pandemic, then as the book writing got so crazily busy, I had to park it and accept that I wouldn’t get to it before another roving reporter did. Thankfully it stayed under the radar long enough to get there. 🙌🏻

10/10/2023

Currently on the most hellish journey home with from Heathrow so some time to catch up on the ‘gram. So many food and drink pics to share but first a set of travelly ones from the town of Bastad in Skäne where we had lunch in the absolutely fantastic (see the reel for the divine food from ). Then a post-lunch stroll down to the beach. I have so many pics to post… it might now come in a random order!

09/10/2023

Yesterday at ’s apple orchards was fascinating. He gave up his acclaimed restaurant in northern Sweden in 2019 and now grows apples for flavour - when other producers worldwide grow for how apples look, uniform size, no spots, etc. Learned so much from him and it’s a beautiful site. Such an interesting guy… And he shares my birthday so I found a birthday twin 😆.

03/10/2023

Best meal. Of. My. Life.

03/10/2023

In Stockholm with … yesterday cocktails at (star mixologist ) and then dinner at , absolutely incredible meal. Very special experience- they opened it especially for us. Follow more on …

02/09/2023

I finished and submitted my book! Thank you so much to all the people on here, from tourist boards, to hotels, chefs, restaurants etc etc. who helped my research. I’m very grateful! It’s out next June with Profile Books…

17/08/2023

It was great to be back at last night. This place has so much character and fascinating history as host to lots of famous racing drivers, with each room named after a famous driver. It’s in La Chartre-sur-Le Loir a gorgeous town with lots of brocante shops including a really cool Quincaillerie that was closed this morning (I spotted it last night when it was open 😭). I gazed longingly at the little enamel office/flats signs (I presume, brocante experts correct me if I’m wrong) in the window wishing I had a reason to buy a full set (our house is so small you don’t need directions to its inhabitants).

15/08/2023

The village of Mornac-sur-Seudre is also very lovely to look at when your eyes have recovered from the smoke 😆