France Runs Through My Veins

As a child I was fortunate to live in France (my father was a diplomat with the Australian Air Force). I attended the American School of Paris for two years and travelled extensively throughout France and beyond. Since then (I was ten years old) I have been drawn to anything French. And so, after many years working in the travel industry, I decided I needed to put my passion for France into action.

In 2007, I was invited to attend a Boutique Barge Show in Carcassonne in the south of France and the “France Travel” show with Atout France in Strasbourg. My passion was rekindled and I was on a roll.

My first “one-on-one” session was a meeting with a representative (Christine – now my best friend in France) from the Office de Tourisme de Montpellier. She was keen to meet an Australian because Montpellier was about to host the Australian Rugby team for the World Cup that year. The office de Tourisme extended an invitation for me to explore the unknown city of Montpellier. I accepted this invitation – and the rest is history. I am now referred to as “Ms Montpellier d’Austra1ie”!

Arriving by train in early April 2007, Montpellier was boasting one of its three-hundred-days-a-year of sunshine. I stepped off the train and into another world, one that I didn’t know existed. Montpellier was the missing link from my past. Montpellier was my dream I hadn’t found since my encounter with France in the early 70s. Meandering through the marbled streets, discovering private mansions, dining in the quaint cafes, finding the medieval mikvé (Jewish baths), and buying produce from the farmers’ “bio” markets (Les Arceaux and Les Halles Castellane), Montpellier was “so south but so chic”.

To me, Montpellier is:

“My mini-Paris of the south”

The smell of the market places, the cheeses, the tielle setoise (scallop pie from Sete, on the coast), the images in the museums and galleries, the Haussmann buildings and the 2CVs (iconic little French cars), entering Rue Foch via Montpellier’s own Arc de Triomphe, all recreated memories of my childhood: this time not in Paris, but in my new hometown of Montpellier.

It was instant love! I have been bubbling with excitement ever since. I fell in love with the entire Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. Within five days I bought an apartment in the “Centre Ville (L’Ecusson) de Montpellier”, gained a collection of new friends including the body corporate (Syndicat), solicitors, real estate agents, bank managers, artisans and more.

I bought my three-bedroom apartment in April 2007 and I refurbished it with a charming and welcoming mix of brocante, antique and new. Within two months I had my first tenants – a TV camera crew from Australia covering the Rugby World Cup. How bizarre!

I now specialise in France Tourism and Boutique Canal Barging. My clients share my passion and my apartment to experience firsthand, Montpellier and its environs. En plus – my hidden gem: Uzes, a small village, tucked away in the Gard region, close to Pont du Gard and Nimes. Uzes is everything the Australian tourist imagines about France. Nothing is too far away; it is located on the cusp of Languedoc and Provence. A must see!

The last six years have been the pinnacle of my life and, unbeknown to me, have been in the making since the 70s. It took a long time, but I have found my niche, my melange (mix) of passion and acceptance in a country that I would love to call home. I am “ravie” (delighted) to be called a Francophile/Francophone (lover of France and French speaker)

Vive la France!

Sonia Jones