My love affair with everything French related

Château de Verteuil, Charente, france

By Fi Quinn

My love affair with everything French

When I was at school, I was lucky to excel in French from an early age, yet had never visited. My French textbooks transported me to a foreign world that included croissants, café au lait (café renversé in Switzerland) and magical places called Ile de Ré and Annecy. 

Then, while doing an English project, we had to write a travel piece. In my hands, I clutched a Kuoni brochure with a picture of a lion on the front. That was it, I knew what I wanted to do - travel and write. 

Becoming fluent in French

So it seemed obvious that the first place I visited was France. It was the day after my 18th birthday, and I headed to Gerardmer in the Vosges mountains to work as an au-pair. My spoken French wasn’t great, but as I sat around with a bunch of French boys and couldn’t think of the words quick enough, I vowed to myself that one day I would chat easily in French. 

Fast forward to today, and I now speak fluent French (although some say I have a slight Swiss accent).

France as a destination

I’ve lived and travelled extensively in France from those early days of being an au-pair, through being a student at Sciences-Po in Paris; several years working in the tourism industry in French and Swiss mountain resorts as both a summer and winter ski rep learning the ski lingo in French; owning a home in the sunflower-filled departement of Charente for 15 years and navigating French property laws; and spending lazy holidays on French campsites along the Atlantic coast testing local aperitifs and sampling regional foods. I love sharing my tips about the best places to visit in France. Here’s a piece I wrote on Ile de Re for Mary Anne’s France.

French content and destination expert

My career as a travel writer and editor has spanned decades. I started on the student newspaper writing guides to France, through a stint on the Wolverhampton Express & Star, then studying journalism in Bristol and Bath. I’m now a France content expert and destination specialist (who knew there would be such a thing when I was at school). My work includes copywriting, marketing and PR content for French and Swiss destinations and tourism offices, French to English translation of press packs, as well as the traditional travel writing and editing.

More recently I also spent time working at Google as a content strategist specialising in French destination content, checking quality assurance with our localisation vendors, before moving into B2B marketing communications and events management. 

The best things about France

I have a long love affair with France from the food, wine (and Champagne!) to French house and funk music, pretty villages filled with agapanthus and hollyhocks, gorgeous beaches, lakes and mountains, and the people of course!

If you want to chat more (in either French or English), I’d love to connect with you and share my passion.