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PODCAST

Join Us in France Travel Podcast

Planning a trip to France? Join Us in France is the podcast for you! On this podcast we have conversations about our trips to France, chat with tour guides, share tips on French culture, the basics of French history, explain how to be savvy traveler in France and share our love of French food, wine and destinations in France. You won"t want to miss out on all these great conversations about one of the most beautiful countries on earth! Subscribe now so you don"t miss an episode. And if you"re

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All Episodes

56:20

Baccarat Crystal: Visiting the Town and Museum in the...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/10/04

Annie Sargent wasn't expecting much from Baccarat. She's not a crystal person. Then she visited this small town in the Grand Est and changed her mind. In this episode, Annie and Elyse Rivin talk about how glass becomes crystal and how to test whether yours is the real thing. Annie takes you inside the Baccarat museum. You'll hear about a red made with 24-karat gold, chandeliers for a tsar, and paperweights worth thousands. She tells you why you should step into the Saint-Rémy church. And she

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53:23

Brittany Coastal Camping Guide: GR34 from...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/09/27

Could you hike the Brittany coast with just a tent and a bus app? Jennifer Gruenke did. She walked the GR34 from Saint-Brieuc to Saint-Malo this summer and never booked a single night. Annie Sargent asks her how it worked. Jennifer explains what those campground stars really mean. She paid 8 to 20 euros a night, plus one euro for a morning croissant. She watched boats on wheels haul in mussels, walked out to a tidal island chapel, and lost cell service so completely her phone welcomed her to the UK

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01:06:37

Women in the Panthéon episode: Geneviève de...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/09/20

Annie Sargent talks with Elyse Rivin about two women honored in the Panthéon. Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz and Germaine Tillion both joined the French Resistance as young women. Both got arrested. Both survived deportation to Ravensbrück, where they met and became lifelong friends. Listen to this episode ad-free Annie and Elyse trace what happened next: one fought poverty for decades, the other became a pioneering ethnologist and later negotiated during the Algerian War of Independence. It's a hard

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01:02:54

Loire Valley Chateaux (Plus a Month of French Lessons...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/09/13

Annie Sargent chats with Rowena Sjovall, a repeat Bootcamper who just spent a full month living in Tours. Rowena signed up for four weeks of intensive French classes, rented her own apartment, and shopped the local markets like a local. On her days off, she explored Loire Valley chateaux most tourists skip: Loches, Azay-le-Rideau, Chinon, and Blois. She also spent time with the stunning tapestry of the Apocalypse in Angers and some excellent hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Tours. Annie and Rowena

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57:10

Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de Lapérouse: France's...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/09/06

Annie Sargent talks with Elyse Rivin about Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de Lapérouse. He was born near Albi. He became one of France's greatest naval explorers. Louis XVI sent him to finish mapping the Pacific after Captain Cook. Listen to this episode ad-free They cover his forbidden love story. They talk about his humane command style, rare for a naval officer of his time. They also cover the 1788 cyclone that ended his voyage near the Solomon Islands. It remains one of France's biggest maritime

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01:03:33

Learning French Later in Life: A Couple's Avignon...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/08/30

Annie Sargent chats with Nan and Marty Deniston, two Americans who spent three whole months living in Avignon. They wanted more than a vacation. They wanted real French. Nan started young, studying in Toulouse as a student. Marty didn't start learning until his fifties. Together they hired a private tutor, built their days around lessons and day trips, and leased a car through a program most travelers never hear about. They rented out their own house back home to make the whole trip work. Along the

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01:04:14

Louis Braille: The Blind French Teen Who Changed...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/08/23

Annie Sargent sits down with Elyse Rivin to tell the story of Louis Braille. He lost his sight at age three. He was completely blind by five. That didn't stop him. By his teens, he had invented a whole new way to read. Annie and Elyse trace his path from a small village school to Paris, where teachers resisted his system at first. Then it spread like wildfire. You'll hear how blind students tested it, how one public demonstration changed everything, and why Braille still matters today, even with

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57:57

Lyon Travel Guide: Secret Passageways and Food...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/08/16

Annie Sargent takes you to Lyon in this episode. She met with Mikayla Sibner, an American who's taught French in Lyon for years, and they walk you through the city together. Listen to the episode ad-free You'll hear about secret passageways called traboules, Lyon's surprising silk-weaving history, and murals so convincing you'll swear they're real streets. Annie shares her own week in Lyon: the city pass that saved her money, the Fourvière Basilica, and the food she couldn't stop eating (praline,

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55:12

Camille Claudel: Betrayed by Family, Locked Away for...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/08/09

Camille Claudel trained alongside Auguste Rodin. She fell in love with him. She became a brilliant sculptor in her own right. Then her family locked her away. Listen to the episode ad-free Annie Sargent talks with Elyse Rivin about Camille Claudel's extraordinary life. Elyse traces her early talent, her ten years with Rodin, and the misogyny that kept her from getting the recognition she deserved. Then the story turns dark: her own family had her committed to an asylum, where she stayed for 30

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53:29

How We Moved to Paris: Visa, Housing, and Healthcare

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/08/02

109-word iTunes description: Sacha Cohen and her husband spent two and a half years scouting France. They tried Rouen, Dijon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and more. Then they chose Paris and moved in December 2025. Annie Sargent talks with Sacha about the whole process. They cover the long stay visitor visa, opening a French bank account, and setting up healthcare. They also dig into apartment hunting, picking an arrondissement, and the homesickness that hits even when a move goes right. Sacha shares what

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01:09:42

Catherine and Marie De Medici: Queen Mothers and...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/07/26

Two Italian banker's daughters married French kings. Both ended up ruling France. Annie Sargent sits down with Elyse Rivin to sort out Catherine de' Medici and Marie de' Medici, cousins who together span the entire 1500s and into the 1600s. Catherine arrives at 15 to marry the future Henry II. She lives in the shadow of his mistress, buries three sons as kings, and holds France together through brutal religious wars. Marie marries Henry IV by proxy, gets humiliated at court, then loses him to an

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58:05

An Art Retreat in a Medieval Burgundy Village,...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/07/19

In episode 607, Annie Sargent talks with Julie Lynch, an Australian costume designer turned painter, about her week-long art retreat in Noyers, a tiny medieval village in Burgundy. Julie traded her precise, detailed style for loose, abstract landscapes made on a gel plate. She and four childhood friends painted all morning, then explored Vézelay, Avallon, and the Château d'Ancy-le-Franc in the afternoons. Annie and Julie talk about wisteria, lilacs, why reservations matter even in small villages,

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01:04:40

Eugène Delacroix: The Painter Critics Loved to Hate,...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/07/12

Critics called his paintings smudges. He kept painting anyway. In this episode, Annie Sargent and Elyse Rivin tell the story of Eugène Delacroix, the man behind Liberty Leading the People. His father left the family in debt. Géricault became his mentor. Critics attacked nearly every painting he showed. Then seven months in Morocco changed his art forever. Elyse tells the whole story, and Annie shares where to see his work in Paris, from the Louvre to Saint-Sulpice. You'll never look at Liberty

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56:58

Five Weeks Solo in Paris: 20 Museums and Hidden Gems,...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/07/05

Five weeks solo in Paris. Twenty museums. Four monuments. And a whole lot of surprises. Annie Sargent chats with Larry Rosenblum to talk about his trip. Larry swims in the Seine. He watches a play at the Comédie-Française through AR glasses. He tours the French Senate during Heritage Days. He even straps on VR goggles and steps straight into the Louvre's history. Larry shares his best planning tips, his favorite discovery (a fairground museum you've probably never heard of), and the one thing he

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01:01:21

Alexandre Dumas: Adventure, Scandal, and 100,000 Pages

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/06/28

Annie Sargent and Elyse Rivin dig into the life of Alexandre Dumas Père — and it's a wild ride. His grandmother was a slave. His father was the French army's first non-white general. Napoleon destroyed that father, and Dumas never forgot it. He wrote over 100 novels, went broke twice, helped unify Italy, and ran the museums of Naples — including Pompeii. Oh, and he wrote a cookbook. Elyse brings the research, Annie brings the questions, and together they make French history genuinely fun. Hit play

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59:42

Puy du Fou, Arles Bullfighting, and Getting...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/06/21

Cas McIntyre has visited France seven times and speaks French well enough to land in real trouble, and real fun. She joins Annie Sargent to swap stories that go beyond postcard moments: two and a half days lost in the theatrics of the Puy du Fou theme park, a village potato ball where 400 plates got filled, and a thermal cure in Sète that ended with Cas dancing the Jerusalem at midnight. Travel isn't always smooth. A pickpocket hits Cas at a Paris turnstile, her handbag goes missing on a train in

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01:04:33

Vichy's Story and the Best of the Allier Department

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/06/14

Annie Sargent just got back from the Allier department, dead center of France, and almost nobody visits it. In this episode, she sits down with Elyse Rivin to talk about Vichy, Moulins and her trip. Annie shares what surprised her: a gorgeous Art Deco café, and a 19th-century mansion frozen in time for a hundred years and empty streets in Vichy in December. Elyse then digs into Vichy's real history, the Romans, hot springs, and a beautiful pottery called sigillée, long before it became famous for

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54:02

What Your Paris Photos Are Missing (And How to Fix It)

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/06/07

Annie Sargent chats with Bob Soltys, a black-and-white street photographer who has spent decades capturing Paris. Bob shares what gear to actually bring, why night photography beats daytime almost every time, and which Paris neighborhoods deliver the best shots. He also explains phone tricks most tourists never use and when to put the camera down entirely. In the magazine segment, Annie covers a new underground tunnel connecting Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est — and why it matters for your next Paris

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01:04:09

Who Was Coco Chanel Really? Her Life Story, Unvarnished

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/05/31

This is episode 600 of Join Us in France — a milestone worth celebrating. Annie Sargent and Elyse Rivin dig into the life of Coco Chanel. Born Gabrielle Chanel in rural poverty in the Corrèze, she clawed her way into Paris society and revolutionized the way women dress. She invented the little black dress, launched Chanel No. 5 — still the world's best-selling perfume 104 years later — and freed women from the corset. She also collaborated with the Nazis. That part is harder to ignore. Elyse

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01:05:17

Getting a French Mortgage as Americans and Buying an...

Join Us in France Travel Podcast ·

2026/05/24

Antoine and Annie Ksadzhikyan bought an apartment in Nice, France, without ever seeing it in person. They did it from Los Angeles, over FaceTime, and they have zero regrets. Annie Sargent talks with them about finding the right neighborhood, making an offer in two hours, and securing a French mortgage as Americans — no small feat. You'll also hear what daily life looks like when you split your time between LA and the Côte d'Azur. In the magazine segment, Annie shares hard-won tips from a two-week

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