While a book makes a perfect travel companion, traveling with its author is even better. All of that is possible with a new travel concept developed by Nancy McGee of Absolutely Southern France that brings women together on trips with best-selling authors — including Patricia Sands, Jules Larimore, Steena Holmes and Cheryl Jamison. Hosted against the stunning backdrops of France and Italy – two of the world’s most desirable destinations – McGee hopes to bring beloved places to life in new ways for her clients. Learn more here: https://journeywoman.com/destinations/europe/literary-adventures-travel-in-france-and-italy-with-best-selling-authors/
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Just before we get started I just want to welcome everyone to journeywoman we are celebrating our 30th Anniversary this year as the first uh website in the world for women’s solo travel and I’m very proud and honored to be carrying on Evelyn hannon’s Legacy if you missed it
We just gave out our very first journey woman award a few weeks ago to Joy Fox who is um an 89-year-old Solo Traveler and if you need a little inspiration I encourage you to check out the article on our site about Joy we’re also going to be giving out other Awards throughout
The year to um to solo travelers to businesses that are serving solo Travelers so we’ll put the chat in the uh the link in the chat if you want to nominate any woman entrepreneur that you might know so today we are talking about travel with authors and as you can see
We have uh four authors on the screen with us and Nancy McGee who is the founder and CEO of absolutely southern France um Nancy has been a longtime member of our women’s travel directory so one of the uh women-owned businesses that we are so proud to partner with and
Feature in our directory and Nancy I want to uh just open it up to you and explain a little bit about who you are what you’re up to and why we’re here today all right well thank thank you thank you to journeywoman and to you Carolyn for your continued support and
For having uh initiated this this webinar I’m delighted and so are the authors we’re we’re absolutely thrilled and hello to everyone who has uh has uh joined us and and thank you for for uh for that so a little bit about myself I think maybe some of you recognize my
Accent I’m from Canada from province of Quebec actually but I’ve been living in the south of France for for over 40 years um I uh a little bit about uh about my business maybe and what I do is I set up this uh this travel business uh actually
For two reasons is uh one of them was because I basically had no choice when I was when I turned 52 I was working for Coca colola at the time organizing events they basically told me that I had to relocate to Belgium uh because the was a
Reorganization in in in the group and I was based in the South and France there was no way I was going to go to Belgium so I was told that I could leave with a little package and with a lady who would be in charge of helping me find a new
Job and now here’s the thing at my first meeting with this consultant she said well Nancy um how old are you and I said well I’m 52 she said I see and she said uh what did you do for Coke and I said
Well I was you know EX ex cutive I was a manager working for the president and she said hm okay how much did you make so I told her and then she said so you’re 52 you made a lot of money and you’re a woman she said Nancy I hate to
Tell you this but you’re never going to find a job so I thought what am I gonna do and that’s when she said well there’s only one option left is to set up your own business and so here I am I’m doing what I love doing and what I’ve been
Doing for forever I worked for the UN and for for Coca-Cola for a number of years or organizing events and um and trips so I set up my travel agency and here I am that’s a little bit about how I started off and uh yeah I I love what
I do amazing I think I’m pretty I think I’m pretty good at it after all these years and the women that are with us today maybe I can ask them all just to introduce themselves quickly and I’ll start with Patricia because I’ve actually known Patricia for a few years
You’ve you’ve been a part of Journey woman for quite a while I have being I I was fortunate to uh to know Evelyn Hannon and first be introduced to Journey woman through Evelyn we used to meet at Whole Foods for lunch every once in a while and she
Was a great lady and you’re doing a wonderful job of carrying on her Legacy Carolyn thank you so I Toronto was my home base for many years but for the last 25 years I’ve spent a couple of months most years in the south of France and when I started writing novels which
I was a bit of a late bloomer so uh uh at 65 my first book was published and I knew that I wanted to set my stories in the place that I love the most which is the the south of France so um I don’t
Know how much you want us to say because I could blather on for the whole oh you’ll get yeah you’ll get a chance to let’s move on to Cheryl Cheryl what about you tell us a bit about you oh I’m mute muted is that working now yeah okay yeah
Hi everybody again yeah I’m Cheryl Alters Jameson and I’m sitting in my home in Santa Fe New Mexico but I have always had a real affinity for the south of France and the coastal areas of Italy and such I was really fortunate in being able to spend some some time in college
Uh in school in salsburg Austria and I loved that part of the world but what I loved most was the fact that I could get on a train from there and go any place in Europe so easily and I have to say when I saw by train the southern coast
Of France I thought okay I’ve got to be able to come back here I have to figure out a way in life to allow this to keep happening and I’ve been very fortunate in that case um I have a background actually in in arts management management but I somehow segue from that
I’ve always loved food and I’ve always loved travel and I was able to put those together into a career at some point after I left my Arts Management Field and at this point I have something like I don’t know I’ve lost track but something like 20 cookbooks and many of
Those were with my late husband Bill who died actually nine years ago this week so I had found myself widowed at 62 and while I had done all this travel at an earlier point in life and felt very comfortable with it I had had many great
Years 30 years of traveling a lot with my husband and sometimes on my own still too but all of a sudden I was faced with a whole new world of traveling uh on my own once again as a as a widow and one of the first things that I did was
Actually go on a trip that some friends in France had told me about which turned out to be Patricia sans’s memories tour wow so this is how it happens so that’s kind of you know kind of a full circle thing and you know that tour isn’t isn’t
Really you know a food tour per se but Nancy McGee sets up such good tours that I was thrilled with all the food that we were eating throughout that tour with Patricia and of course we were seeing and doing wonderful things and it was a women’s tour and it was a very welcoming
Group and I loved all this part of it but I have to say that you know I was really taken with how well arang ranged it was and part of that was Patricia but I kept you know thinking this woman Nancy McGee behind this must be really good at what she
Does and she is well you know I was thinking that she was seeing my Instagram and Facebook posts which were all about the foods that we were eating and going wow this woman must know something about food she really takes some nice photos of all of
This so later in the trip we actually met up face to face and uh at that point started scheming culinary tours and I am thrilled to have this opportunity to you know to share uh that with um our tour groups now I’ll shut up okay thank you thank Jules
Welcome hi welcome everybody um I’m also known as Cynthia Louise so if you ever hear anybody referring to me by that name that’s my real name uh Jules is my uh de plume um I’m a historical fiction writer I’m actually based in ohigh California which is it’s a very much
Spring here we were talking about the weather earlier but um and um I’ve traveled a lot through the years but um last year um I was helping to organize a tour for a group of descendants of the protagonist in my historical fiction and um we got a referral for ny’s tours
Um so she initiated a tour last year with that group um and then this year we kind of grew it into more of a reader tour um so my historical fiction is based on um some people that were hugos in the southern part of France um if you’re familiar they were French
Protestants and during the era of Louis the 14th they were um persecuted and a lot of them left the country um so that’s how you know I got to you know be in in the US you know not not U directly from a French background but um so this
Tour that we’re doing is actually um goes back a little bit further than the protagonist in my book and we look at some of his ancestors that were uh the counts of carcassone the counts of tulo so we’re you know going into cathar country um of course the huge medieval
Fortress of carcassone is just magnificent so it’s it’s a mustsee um and um then we but we also go into the sain mountains where uh the protagonist my book was from and we’ll be visiting some pretty unique places that um are kind of you know places that you just
Wouldn’t normally see on a tour um in the south of so someome we talk we’ll talk more about that yeah um stina hi everyone uh I’m here in cold Chile uh Calgary Alberta we got dumped with about 40 centimeters of snow um so I wrapped up nice and tight I have a
Blanket on my lap and whatnot um I have written about 45 novels um and in a lot of my novels there’s a consistent theme of coffee chocolate and travel um I started doing reader tours back in 2019 but it was actually Patricia uh who kind of pushed me to
Think beyond the the simple type of reader tours that I was doing and make them um more immersive with readers and she um mentioned Nancy and I have absolutely no regrets since that day H talking with Nancy as soon as I told her what I love and what my passions are um
She was like we’re going to create the best uh sweet tour imp Paris trip that we can um so I’ve done two now with her we have two or three more coming up and then we have a whole bunch in 2025 as well which I’m really excited I write
Everything from sweet romance um to psychological suspense and thrillers and I’m starting to dive into the whole destination suspense thriller theme um so a lot of the places that we’ll be going to on our tours will end up in my books which I’m really excited about oh
That’s very cool that’s very cool so Nancy tell us um you know why why do you think it’s important for women to do first of all to go to Italy and France but also to do it in this way and what makes this unique in your
View well first of all Caroline I don’t think I would go to so far as to saying it’s important for women to travel to to go to France or to Italy with authors I don’t think it’s important I would say it’s more it’s I consider these trips as
Being enjoyable unique um and great opportunities for women to to go on these trips and travel maybe with someone that they have never heard of before but maybe someone that they’re following that they’re reading and um or for people simply who are going to go on
A trip that they would never have been able to organize themselves because they are so curated and uh so um closely designed with the authors to to have a specific theme I think you’ve heard that all of them all of the four authors who are here one of them is you know mainly
Food another one is chocolate another one is historical tours uh then um PES are tours are to her favorite places in the south of France so they’re they’re very specifically designed with the authors and I think that that’s what I think is appealing to the audience and
And and that’s why I would I think that they’d like these tours that they’re they’re very interested in coming along on them do you want to share a little some highlights of you know some of the places that you go to or or even the authors could share their favorite places on these
Trips yeah there are many destinations different destinations all let them Express themselves but there there are tours to different not only the south of France but to Paris there’s Strasburg um Morocco um Italy uh we are expanding next year to Vienna and and Belgium uh
To Austria and Belgium um so yeah we we we do we’re expanding and that’s because my authors are asking me to expand and in fact I’m getting more and more authors who are contacting me because they like the concept and they would like me to design tours for them too so
If there are any authors out there listening to us um you know don’t hesitate to reach out if we can do something together I’d be delighted to um so maybe uh I don’t know maybe uh you know what we could maybe do is I have like I have a little
Maybe they have a little something to say about that they a special or memorable experience that they’ve had on one of their tours and I have one that is particularly um memorable is a tour that I was on with Cheryl when we were we have to rent Villas usually with
Cheryl because um there’s cooking workshops there’s a couple of cooking workshops during the week so we need to have a house with a kitchen and we were in Oxy Tanny which is in the south of France and in right next to the kitchen was a baby grand grand piano in the
Dining hall and I had arranged to have a Pianist come and perform our farewell dinner you know to perform and like play a little bit of background music while we were having the farewell cocktails and this thing happened during the week before the farewell dinner is we had cooking workshops and the ladies
Were on the tour were like cooking but they were doing other things chitchatting having a glass of wine and one of them just got up and went to the baby grand piano and started performing and it was just and she said yes I’m a I’m a I’m a concert pianist and I’ve
Been this is my passion and I’m going oh my gosh this you know it’s wonderful next day next day we’re at the cooking Workshop same place another cooking Workshop another one gets up without saying a word and she’s also a concert pianist I go oh my gosh how lucky am I
To to have these ladies here and we were just like so thrilled to have them but here’s the problem and when my poor guy arrived on on the last farewell night on the last night for the farewell dinner I said you know what there’s two concert
Pianists here he almost left he was he’s like a little Jazz croner you know and he’s going oh my gosh so anyway that was something that really um marked me because I realized that I am so lucky to be able to travel with so many amazing
Women I mean I do give a lot because of my time and my energy in my Crea creativity but I get so much out of these chores because I do travel with the the the ladies on the tours by the way I design them but I also travel more
And more with them and I I really enjoy it and I and I get so much out of it and I’ve made a lot of good friends too along the way so I don’t know if any of the authors have little stories to say to tell us or things that they they they
Really particularly enjoyed or a destination well I think we probably all have great stories to tell about every day on every tour that’s what’s so fabulous about them there’s never been a bad moment and I’ve been doing this tour for 10 years now and this year’s probably going to be
The last one because I have some family commitments coming up next year so anyway we’re sort of looking at that but uh you know 10 10 years to do the same tour says a lot for the tour and uh it’s always a joy as Nancy says
The women we meet every year are just fabulous and the friendships they form not just with us but with everybody else on the tour is I think one of the best things of the travel to see them enjoying uh sharing our passion for the places that we visit uh it’s a very
Special experience and uh uh I have 11 novels that are set in the south of France one isn’t quite set in the south of France but it does get there eventually because it has to if I write it but uh it’s just so much fun to hear
The women talk about the places we are and relate them to what they’ve read in the books and not everybody that comes on the tour has read my books but hopefully when they leave they do but it’s just a joyful experience year after year who else would like were un
Mute am I good no yeah okay perfect um so my last tour we had two fun things that happened um we started off our first night Nancy found us this amazing restaurant it was close to the hotel um and it was probably one of the best
Beginnings that um I’ve had on one of my tours we were um we met a lovely flirty Frenchman who is also our waiter and he handed out roses to everyone who uh came on the trip and that was just a really lovely uh thing to start with um and
Then towards the end of the trip Nancy took us to a castle um and in the castle we did a private session where uh we learned all about the In-N-Outs of having um uh what’s it called Nancy um the French table ETI there we go yes and while we
Did that we were able to meet a real live count who came and he came into the into the session with us and he had champagne with us and chatted with us all and um it was one of those memory making um experiences that I am never going to
Forget and he was really cute too yes he was yes like so many Frenchmen Our Ladies all seem to have an ability to have a good eye for the good-look French photos are often shared well we’re off to Italy next month or in a month or so stina we’ll
Check out the Italian men compare I’m just interested in the site really I’m sure the Italian men will be lovely but I wanted those sweet there’ll be plenty of that definitely what about you Cheryl unmute unmute I was going to say yeah scope those Italian men out for me because I’ll be
There in maie with Nancy in the fall we have a couple more places in the trip available if anybody wants to join us we’ll be doing all kinds of fun food things and table wear things and all kinds of great stuff too so I can’t wait
Till we get to go to a mall feet any other special moments from from previous trips what about you Cynthia yeah um I I would say you know um part of the tour that we’re doing goes into an area that is just so authentic and the people are
So welcoming I I can’t even begin to describe it I mean I’ve been to to France many times in all different parts of France and um they’re just so welcoming and they’ve inspired me to um think about maybe another book in the future that’s more of a memoir thing
From different um people on the tour that’s kind of a becoming s0 becoming you know part of their culture um so I have good memories around just the people that we met along the way yeah it must be really exciting one of the very different things about
Your tour is how people are connecting it to their genealogy and going back into their roots and discovering their personal history I think that is really wonderful yeah yeah and you know what we’re organizing too is um we are going to bring the participants the North American they’re Americans
They’re all Americans on this tour we’re going to uh arrange a meeting with children at the school and um they know that they’re going to be coming so their teachers are already at this point in time preparing them for the visit of the American uh group of of visitors and
They um they are going to be actually you know welcoming them into their school learning learning all the history about the families and how they they left the seven the Sans and went to the United States and for the school like when I’m saying in a school this is a
Village that has how many inhabitants like maybe what 300 yeah three or 400 full-time um the rest vacation imagine what this means to this Village to have these ancestors you know family numers coming to their Village it’s a big deal there’s going to be the local press and
Everyone’s really excited about it this is a trip in September and they’re already preparing for it so it’s meaningful it’s very meaningful not only for the tour participants but also for the village that is welcoming them um and that I Think I Love The Exchange I love that that that magic that happens
When people don’t know each other they’re different ages different countries different profiles and then just it just really is so beautiful you’re right the authenticity is truly there in those small villages great we uh we have a book club at journeywoman and um you know many of
The books I’ve read have inspired me to travel to these places I can only imagine what it’s like to travel with all of you as the authors of these books and and I’m curious how much you know when it comes to writing your books because that’s part of the sometimes
You’re using the books to help you or the trips to help you create new ideas for books sometimes you’re probably looking at the guests and maybe they become characters in the books I don’t know like it’s very much a collaborative kind of relationship isn’t it to to be
On these trips with you what’s it what’s it like for you as an author to have people come with you well got it go ahead stina yeah go ahead um I love it I uh recently released a Christmas Market novel um it’ll be it’s the first in a series and
It’s based on a trip that I a reader trip that I had done for chocolates and tulips through Amsterdam and Belgium um one of the special things about these trips with Nancy is my those who come with me they’re able to help me create characters in my upcoming books um and
We use different things that happen throughout the trip some of their favorite memories um or things that they saw or experienced um we use those things and I put them into novels as well and then once they’re uh written and depending on how they get published
Um they’ll get the first copies of them which I think is really exciting um but having them helped me create these characters it’s just it can be based on themselves or it can be based on someone they saw during the tour or someone just completely fictional um that they want to to create
But it is so much fun yeah I would think so yeah yeah go ahead um Cheryl okay I was just thinking about well because I write cookbooks they don’t have characters in them in the same way that those who write some of these other books do but um and I should
Say too that when people come on these uh culinary tours they do get sort of a mini cookbook of the recipes that we work on in the workshops and then there are usually some bonus recipes that I think are things that they should know about and be able to take home and do
Too but I do think about how some of the things that I see with my wonderful participants can end up in headnotes later on for recipes and I’m Thinking of U well the last time we were in oxitan Nancy and we had an who was making the
Dough for piz ler which is uh sort of a cross between you know a pizza and uh and anyway it’s topped with wonderful nisis ingredients but um I had suggested that it needed to be in a warm moist Place uh to finish up you know to rise
And all that and the next thing I knew I saw an in the the hot tub room and she was putting her little you know her little red toe there by the hot tub and watching it rise it was the cutest thing and I have the best photo
Of her sneaking in there and sticking it beside the hot tub so I love the creativity that I see with my cooks and I must say too you don’t have to to be a great cook to come on these trips they’re for anybody who really loves
Food we find a way to make all kinds of things and it’s not it’s not hard it’s very welcoming for everybody at any level of cooking and and with this and also with your your trip to stina are you going to local markets and S sourcing food locally and all that kind of Thing well we’re going to bakeries um and eating all the macarons and croissant Coco we do a a pastry class um which is fun um and those are always because everyone is there and we all have different levels of um I cannot cook Cheryl my family does not like it when I
Cook um but they don’t they do enjoy my baking um so it’s nice that I can bring these home and I can recreate the recipes sometimes and and sometimes I eat them all and don’t often share but that’s a different story yeah yeah yeah my chores are based on on stories that
Are already written and uh so as I said the readers enjoy you know standing in the footsteps of their favorite characters and visiting places that they have read about and uh yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of the personalities on the tours do end up in
In uh future books uh one of the things that is really uh that people on our tour love is that they’re kind of getting a twoin one tour because it’s a longer tour uh of 12 days with six days based in nce and then six days based in
ARL it’s kind of like having two tours in one and the fact that we only change hotels once is something that everyone loves and I certainly love too so it works out really well Nancy has done a brilliant job of organizing all the logistics and picking wonderful restaurants that are within easy walking
Distance of where we are and our day trips um are all less than an hour and yet each one takes us to another incredibly beautiful location so and in and often on our our bus rides or at the hotel after when we’re just relaxing having a cocktail or an
Apparo um women who are on the tour who are interested in writing talk to me about their writing dreams and uh asking if we can spend some time together you know talking about different aspects of how to get started or just you know how one goes about um organizing their
Writing life and it’s really a pleasure to be able to share uh my experience with them and to make recommendations yeah I want to remind uh those that are that are here on this call with us please do put your questions in the chat if there’s
Anything that you’d like to ask um um but I was curious Patricia you mentioned some of the accommodations and I wondered if you could share you know what’s what’s a or maybe Nancy what’s a favorite accommodation that you have uh because I love like that’s part of the
Joy of travel to me is is finding a really amazing place to stay so you know definitely that’s a key factor I always Target if it’s going to be in hotels I Target fourstar and boutique hotels preferably that means smaller size hotels I don’t work with the larger chains because that my tours
Are usually small group tours so uh we don’t you know we we we try to keep it more intimate and um I depending on the destination too uh for example in Paris when we’re in Paris we have this beautiful little boutique hotel that’s near everything we we’re not staying in
Like um a major chain but we are where things are happening whereas in provance um we we like to have something that’s a little bit more relaxed little so we’re not staying in a big city we’re staying in a smaller town called ARS um so I I
Adapt I choose the hotels so that they correspond to the destination that we’re in and to the expectations of my Travelers I know that women on my tours usually like to have a bit of time on their own and if they’re in a an isolated area and they can’t do anything
Then it means they’re stuck there in a hotel in the middle of nowhere or in in a villa so I usually like to keep it close to where something’s happening where they can just step out and go for a glass of wine or do a little bit of
Shopping so that’s another one of the criteria that I’ve adopted so yeah I’d say fourstar boutique hotels or if it’s a villa obviously it’s going to be a villa you know with a pool and you know all the the comfort you can get um that that is required to keep keep everyone
Happy and and busy but what’s most important I think is is that I design tours for people who are on holiday it’s their vacation the the ladies on my tours are on vacation so I design tours with a lot of things happening in them there’s many different activities every day and I
Always tell everyone you know what it’s your vacation you you don’t have to do everything it’s just I give you all these options and if you don’t want to do them it’s nice to be able to take some time off and just relax by the pool or just say oh I’m
Going to pass on dinner tonight I’m feeling a little tired so that’s um that’s also something that is important I think for is that attent paying attention to the the participants in the tours the guests on the tours because that’s one of the advantages to having
Small group tours um so I I I really pay attention to that um well that’s that’s a great segue to my next question was was you know who is the right kind of woman to come on these trips um obviously Book Lovers perhaps but are there uh are there other things that you
Know if you’ve never done a trip like this before that you might want to think about before before coming on it that’s that’s a good question well I’d say the tours that design are not for 50 plus but for 45 plus because I know stina’s bit younger than 50 so I’m
Going to say 45 plus and my clients are mainly um they’re mainly uh North Americans so because I’m from North America I know what the expectations are so I try to expose everyone to to things that they they are expecting to see um so who they designed for 45 plus I’d say
I i’ like to remind people this you know a lot of my trips are in Europe Europe is the old country so the old means beautiful old buildings historical buildings and all that but it also means old sidewalks cob cobblestones very narrow streets so I I
I always tell everyone you know you have to be able to walk and and you have to be able to walk to get around Europe I you know it it’s not like in Canada where sometimes I’d have to drive like half an hour to go to my neighbor’s house everybody here
Walks and you know comfortable walking shoes is key so um then the other question about is it good for you know solo travel you know what I I don’t for me solo means traveling alone because on our tours and I think Cheryl stina uh and Patricia will agree there are no
Solo Travelers on our tours we we’re we all become friends and relationships Blossom um you know memories are created it’s not solo travel we we really do um we really do travel together and there because I’m there kind of going from one person to another making sure everything’s going smoothly and no one’s
Sick or I take care of some someone who’s being a little tired Etc I think that they all feel very um very comfortable and and take time to talk to meet to laugh to drink to shop all those girly things um so yeah it’s uh uh being a Solo Traveler
Is not an issue on our tours at all you’ll blend right in yes oh go ahead Patricia sorry well I was just gonna say starting from the first night I think we all have meet and greets uh that first day and and everybody introduces themsel and you
Know by the time you finished dinner everybody Sprints oh that’s great yeah because often What I Hear with solo women is is there’s a little bit of anxiety at meeting new people and you know even the social situations and it sounds like with all of you involved
You’re just kind of ease right into everything very much so yes are there any other um any other features that you want to mention that are important for solo women we’ve talked a little bit about the destinations the hotels uh wearing their right Footwear I I think I think maybe some
Folks who are listening in thinking oh well we have to have read the books I think Patricia what Patricia said is something important you don’t have to have read the novels by the author um to be honest a lot of uh the participants who join are maybe a little bit well
They join for three reasons the first one is yeah may they they’re followers they love the novels or the cookbooks and they really want to travel with that person the second type of person is they’re kind of curious you know they’re kind of like they’re thinking about maybe about writing they’re interested
In it and they’re thinking oh traveling with a with an author might be a good way for me to learn but they haven’t read the books but they thinking oh this could be a good way to see if this is something I want to do and then there’s a third type of person
That’s just traveling because they’re kind of they just love the destination yeah and they’re they’re thinking oh well I want to go to Belgium or I want to go to mares or I want to go to Paris or I want to go to the French r that I
Really want to go oh but there’s like a somebody famous on the tour oh well that’s a that’s a plus let’s go that’s included let’s go well I’ll take it yeah Nancy I agree I I think the destinations and uh and the uh activities that uh that we’ve built into
Our tours uh are the primary um incentive for people to come with us definitely we’re all going to such beautiful parts of the world um in in a time you know of the Year where the weather is great and uh um it’s just there’s so much to do so much to see
It’s all positive uh uh they just every one of these tours is is a joy to experience so a lot of you are getting interested in coming with us this year we’re looking forward to it yeah there there’s also I think a lot of women who haven’t really perhaps stepped back into travel
After the pandemic or they’ve had a change in their lives for example um we’re going to be running some articles next week on widows in travel and um and just how hard it is to get back into travel sometimes so trips like this can
Be a very good way to kind of take that first step back in and a very safe uh environment with uh with all of you I mean who wouldn’t want to travel with all of you I think it looks amazing and that is true we we have a
Lot of women on our tour anyway who who are have found themselves alone uh you know through widow or widowhood or divorce and and some of them because their husbands don’t want to travel anymore they don’t want to go to Europe and the wives are saying well up with the men come
On yeah the amazing thing about all these destinations too is it’s like you can go back to them over and over again it’s not like I I just spent a few months in Italy and you know you would think you’ve been to Italy no every little town and Village is different and
So it’s it’s much the same isn’t it Nancy in France and all the places that you’re going to it’s all got its own character oh yes definitely yes I I have to say that um when I was saying that the profile of of the guests on our
Tours are 45 plus but they are um women whose children are grown up and they they’re they’re free to travel now uh we don’t organize any tours actually during the um school holidays they’re always outside of the school holiday period so usually the tours are in you know April
May June and then September and October and right up to December of course for the Christmas markets so we we have women who yeah their children are grown up or their divorcees or their widows as you said or just you know have husbands who don’t want to travel anymore uh we do have
Mother daughters which is reallyy nice sisters who travel together um in actual fact I I have um two on stina’s tour in May there’s a mother and daughter who are traveling her the the her husband died a year ago and uh she and her daughter have decided that it
Was time for them to to get back to travel and they’re going to travel together it’s going to be a beautiful bonding experience um we also have women who have gotten over say cancer who’ve had some sort of illness and are just thinking I nearly died or I was so sick
I never thought I’d be able to travel again and they’re on a trip and it’s so nice to see them blossoming and and and um getting back their self-confidence um it’s really nice and again because we’re all women on the tours or mostly women then they they we’re supportive we understand what what
They’re going through and uh and we’re very supportive so it’s all nice and a lot of times we talk about our grandchildren and you know uh things like that so it’s yeah it’s it’s bonding it really is wonderful wonderful there was a question about group size
And I think we we some of some of you have answered it but do you want cover off the size of the groups it depends on the groups the destinations so the groups can be excuse me I I I try to keep it between eight and 10 but
Sometimes they’re just so popular that I squeeze in a few extra extra people if I can get the rooms at the hotels but um we like to keep it at a number where we can uh we can travel in a comfortable um in the comfortable coach we don’t travel
In van so we have these coaches and they’re 15 16 seedar so that’s uh that’s one of the the the criteria also is the Comfort uh for everyone and um I think that’s a nice it’s a nice number I’ve been on trips where they were less like
Six people and I thought that was maybe a little too intimate you know it was hard to say oh I’m going to take a day off or I don’t know so I think that I think I like the number that I work with I I I think that um it’s a it’s a
Comfortable number of people there uh there have been a few questions about um the themes of your tours and also other tours that you offer at absolutely southern France do you want to give us a little information on that sure so um the the trips that uh
Every year they’re different um I work with people or on a theme so depending on what the theme is it could be um you know it could be health and well-being it could be wine I do get a lot of requests for folks who want to have a
Focus on wine of course I’m in France but that can be Spain as well or Italy um I do get a lot of Tours where in fact I have a call just right after this with five women they’re what I call gal Pals they’re uh they’re Americans and they
Are in their 50s and they want to rent a villa and spend you know like about a week or 10 days there in at in September so they’re asking me to design that so it’s really a lot of the tours are not just tours
That I put out on my website it’s I I I don’t put them all there there’s a lot of Private Tours that I have designed for folks and they’re traveling and I don’t put them up because they’re not open to the public so that I think um can be just
About on any theme it can be cycling tours it can be you know more active um it can be for folks with disabilities I’ve had you know uh families traveling with their you know someone who’s in a wheelchair and I can accommodate that as well everything is very um you know
Designed and curated for with with an objective or or with a a special audience and and I try to adapt and work around that so it can be just about anything I have a few little ideas for next year I’m not going to it right now but they’re going to be really really
Fun oh that’s and you mentioned Morocco at the beginning uh a new destination for you we went last year with Cheryl culinary tour and we’re doing it again next year we didn’t we didn’t offer it this year because of the earthquake and we just we thought okay no we’re just
Going to let them get over it so we are now going to um it’s it’s scheduled in May next year so it’s already it’s up on my website but it’s not finished yet like I’m still I’ve got a quite a few tours up on my website for next year but if people
Go to look you’ll see that maybe some things are missing and I say just get on my early bird mailing list that would be the best thing to do and by the way for everybody who’s listening in on this don’t forget to mention if you contact
Me that you were on this webinar and and and mention the the the code Journey woman because you’ll get €150 discount immediately and if you bring along a friend or you know a daughter or a neighbor you’ll get another another discount um you know I’m just so happy
To be able to to offer this to give back to Journey woman because journeywomen during the pandemic uh was by my side by the side of all their travel agencies they were hosting you know you don’t know what they do behind the scenes but they are formidable group yeah well we’re very
Supp yeah well that’s um you know this the all of this when we talk about women’s travel to me it is all about Sisterhood and community and I just love see women get out and travel and I love seeing women own businesses um you know supporting women
And empowering women because at the end of the day this is you know women I think someone said how curious women are and adventure and I think the more of us that are out traveling in the world the more of a difference we can make through travel
And uh so I’m very excited about about what you’re doing and and everything that’s happening in the world right now it’s just amazing to see women getting out there and I think also discovering something about themselves through travel which which you know that’s the the joy of travel that’s the magic of
Travel so so true yeah so anyways we’re coming to the end of the hour I want to thank everyone for um for coming today if you have any questions do put them in and we’ll try to answer them and then uh Nancy do you want to put your contact
Information in in the chat are you able to do that or can I do that for you I think somebody did I think somebody did yeah I’m I’m on my cell phone right now and I’m afraid if I touch a button on here I’m just gonna I’m just gonna
Disappear so don’t ask me to do that but I think Esther Esther on your team I just saw my website pop up in in a chat box but I’m afraid does anyone have any questions I don’t know how to take questions here because I we’ve been taking them uh yeah we’ve been taking
Them through the chat so the ones I’ve been asking have been coming from um from really oh that’s so nice oh there you go thank you Eser good well thank you uh thank you ladies all coming I’m going to go find some chocolate in my kitchen I think I suddenly have a craving I don’t know what brought that on and maybe some wine uh but I want to thank you all for
Coming and um and thank you Nancy for you know kind of curating this concept and letting us travel with authors that we love it’s wonderful it’s my pleasure my pleasure and will you be posting our contact information afterwards Carolyn or is there yeah we’re gonna send an email out
To everyone that signed up yeah that’s great and thanks everyone for joining us it’s great to see so many happy faces there come travel with us thank you thank you everyone thanks everyone thank you nice to see you all