It's hard to think of Cannes without conjuring up images of the Festival de Cannes, the glamorous film festival held every year right by the beach. If you're looking for fun ways to tap into the French Rivera city's cinematic culture, why not take a self-guided walking tour of the Murs Peints — murals that celebrate Cannes' film history?

Ever strolled past the fragrance counters at your local department store, smelled the perfumes and thought you could do better? Well, in Grasse — the French town dubbed the perfume capital of the world — you take a workshop and do just that. I don't think I'll be troubling the big fragrance houses any time soon but I was very happy with the perfume I created and I had a lot of fun!

During our recent stay in Cannes, my parents and I took a side trip to the Gorges du Verdon. With its towering cliffs and meandering turquoise river, this gorge-ous region is known as the 'Grand Canyon of Europe'. We spent two action-packed days hiking, white-water rafting, boating and enjoying the views. Read on to discover the best things to see and do in the Gorges du Verdon and my tips for making the most of your stay.

2025 has begun in the wettest and windiest fashion in London and I'm already dreaming about my next adventures, ideally to somewhere warm and sunny! In the meantime, I've picked out five of my favourite travel memories from 2025, including two new countries (Sri Lanka and Bulgaria) and delightful returns to NYC and Cannes.

Planning a French vacation on a budget? Cannes probably isn't the first destination that springs to mind. The Euro cents soon add up in the glamorous French Riviera city known for its Film Festival premieres and parties, designer shops and glitzy beachfront hotels. But it is perfectly possible to experience some of the best of what Cannes has to offer — from beautiful beaches, history, culture and, of course, delicious food — without breaking the bank. 

Countless villages — including Sainte-Agnès in Alpes-Maritimes — lay claim to the title of prettiest village in France. And Sainte-Agnès certainly is very pretty. But it also holds a more unique honour: le village du littoral le plus haut d'Europe. Indeed, on the day we visit Europe's highest coastal village, it's almost as though we are driving into the clouds.

In January, I went on a 24-hour business trip to Toulouse in the southwest of France. I had hoped to be able to visit at least one of the city’s specialty coffee shops, but the scheduling was so tight that my only free hours were between midnight and six in the morning, so I had to make do with terrible hotel coffee.


Luckily, though, I was able to return for a slightly longer trip earlier this week and although I still only had a couple of free hours, I made good use of them and visited four specialty coffee spots. It helped that the weather was much nicer than in January — temperatures reached 25C on my final afternoon — and the ‘pink city’ with its pastel-hued buildings looked particularly pretty. Here are the places I found, all within the city centre:

La Fiancée
Serving coffee and brunch for over five years, La Fiancée on Rue Peyrolières seems to be Toulouse’s original specialiy coffee shop. At first glance, the café seems tiny with only a couple of small tables in front of the coffee bar, but there’s more space in the lofted mezzanine. The coffee comes from Paris-based Coutume, one of my favourite coffee spots in the French capital, and there were two single-origin varieties available as a V60 pourover. I went for a Burundi Maridadi, and after placing my order, I went up to the mezzanine.



While I waited, I eyed up the brunch menu and regretted that I didn’t have the chance to sample the brunch menu, which included various pancakes and egg-based dishes. The coffee itself was very well prepared and had lovely milk chocolate and citrus notes. On the way out, I chatted to the friendly baristas about specialty coffee in France, London and beyond, and couldn’t resist buying a white chocolate and peanut cookie for later.


La Fiancée is located at 54 Rue Peyrolières, Toulouse. Facebook. Instagram.


Le Café Cerise
A few minutes’ walk from La Fiancée and just across from Pont-Neuf and the river Garonne on Quai de la Daurade, Le Café Cerise was my next stop. Located in a historic red-brick building, the café has a few tables out on the pavement, which I’m sure are popular on sunny days. Inside, it is cosy and rustic, with wooden furniture and the roaster in the back. Again, there’s a mezzanine with more seating, although there are also plenty of tables on the ground floor.



They serve pourover filter coffee but I was short on time and so stuck to a cortado. There were two single-origin coffees in the hopper, both roasted on site — a Colombian Planadas and a Kiboko from Burundi. Sticking with my theme for the day, I went for the latter, which worked well with a little milk. The latte art was very good too. And if you’re in the mood for food, they also have a salad of the day and a grilled cheese on the menu.



Le Café Cerise is located at 4 Quai de la Daurade, Toulouse. Website. Instagram.


L’Anartiste This coffee shop — whose name marries art and anarchy — was the closest to my hotel but it’s closed on Mondays, so I wasn’t able to visit until Tuesday morning. I’m glad I got the chance to visit L’Anartiste, though, because it’s a lovely spot serving specialty coffee, food and natural wines, with an emphasis on local produce.


The cosy café with its meticulously mismatched furniture and precarious stack of board games gives it the feel of being in someone’s living room — and the welcome I received from the barista was just as warm. They take their brewing seriously, however, as the shelf of brewing kit (siphon, Kalita Wave, Aeropress, Chemex, and Kono, Torch and Clever drippers) and original Faema E61 espresso machine on the bar attest.



The coffee is from Kaffa, a roaster based in La Drôme in southeast France (not to be confused with the Finnish Kaffa), which I hadn’t tried before. I had a filter coffee made with a Limu Kossa variety from Ethiopian, brewed through the Kalita Wave. As a ‘chaser’, I also ordered a cortado made with a Colombian Kaffa coffee. Both coffees were brewed beautifully and came in gorgeous ceramic cups that are also made locally. Ahead of a busy day of meetings, I really enjoyed a moment of calm and a lovely chat with the barista in the haven that is L’Anartiste.



L’Anartiste is located at 13 Rue de Couteliers, Toulouse. Website. Instagram.


Florian’s Coffee

Last year, I ended up taking a lot of two- and three-day overseas trips, some for work and some for pleasure. One of them was at such short notice — four hours — that I was glad I keep a bag packed with most of the key essentials at home. Regular readers will know that I also love to travel light, especially on short trips, and my rediscovery of the humble backpack last year help me to reach new (weight) lows.


I'm heading to Toulouse on Thursday for a one-night work trip and I thought I'd show you what I packed for two days of meetings in a cool, rainy European city. I pack almost exactly the same things for most two- or three-day trips, though, with a few small changes.

The backpack


My parents bought me the Tumi Voyageur Halle backpack as an early birthday present last year and it has replaced Longchamp's Le Pliage large shopper as my carry-on or personal item (if I'm also taking a suitcase) when flying. I also use it for work, particularly if I am transporting my laptop or other heavy items. There is a laptop sleeve inside, which fits a 12-inch laptop and although only lightly padded, it's fairly well-protected when the bag is full. There are also lots of pockets, which are great for compulsive organisers like me. When I'm flying, I tend to keep the main front pocket for my toiletries and Kindle so that I can remove them easily when flying. The top zippered pocket on the front is useful for storing sunglasses or headphones. The bag is made from nylon, with a leather handle and gold hardware, which means it's lightweight and the padded sleeves make it very comfortable.

The handbag


I used to be a big-handbag woman, but I've been trying to coax myself into downsizing. Buying a new compact camera (the Canon G7X mark II, which I've been very happy with) helped with this and I finally bit the bullet and bought Madewell's crossbody tote during a Black Friday sale. It fits: my (very small) wallet, phone and earbuds, passport, Kindle or notebook, camera, pen, keys and lipbalm. It's also small enough to slip under my coat should I be on a 'strictly one bag per person' Easyjet flight. I can also use this smaller bag for dinners or meetings where I don't want to bring my backpack with me.

The tech

• Laptop and charger. When I'm travelling for pleasure, I can take my MacBook Air, for which I have the international adapter kit. My work laptop is quite lightweight but its charger is bulkier and requires an adapter. This still fits in my backpack with the other kit.
• Kindle Paperwhite. Even short trips involve some downtime and I usually have a range of novels downloaded and ready to go.
• Headphones. I always have a pair of Apple earphones with me (they're the only in-ear earphones I can wear) and depending on the trip, I sometimes also take my Bose SoundTrue headphones (updated version here), which pack down small but are comfortable and have great sound quality. I'm toying with replacing them with some noise-cancelling, bluetooth headphones but I'm not sure I have room in my backpack!
• Compact camera. Unlike my beloved but bulky Canon 100D DSLR, my new compact G7X camera is so small that I take it with me almost everywhere. I also bring a USB SD card adapter to transfer the photos to my computer; the G7X also allows me to transfer photos directly to my phone, which is great for Instagramming on the go. The battery usually lasts for at least three days of shooting but the camera can also be charged via USB, so I bring a cable just in case (which also works for my Kindle).
• Cables and USB charger. I usually have a couple of Apple USB cables and at least one micro USB cable with me to keep all my gadgets happy.
• Portable charger. I bought an Anker PowerCore+ Mini charger last year. It is indeed 'lipstick-sized' and I get more than one full iPhone 7 charge per recharge. At home, I only need to charge my iPhone every other day but I use it a lot more when travelling, particularly now that Three's Feel at Home package means that I can use my data for free almost everywhere I travel.

September is perhaps my favourite month to visit Paris but although I hope for russet- and orange-hued leaves and bright, sunny days, the weather gods don't always smile on me. Sometimes, however, they do and when I visited my friends last month, it was gloriously sunny and unseasonably warm; perfect conditions for a long-weekend trip.


I've visited Paris an average of two or three times a year since I was small, which means I don't have to rush around trying to visit all the prime tourist sights. But Paris's city centre is relatively small and best explored on foot, which means I tend to spend a lot of my time there strolling around the grand Haussmannian boulevards and characterful side streets. I also usually spend time exploring the city's speciality coffee scene, and you can read about the coffee shops I visited in this post. Read on for some of the other things I got up to during my recent visit.

FOOD & DRINK
On Friday night, we dined at eels, chef Adrien Ferrand's new restaurant on rue d'Hauteville in the hip 10th arrondissement. The small restaurant, with its pared-back, rustic décor and welcoming staff, was a lovely place to spend the evening. We all opted for the €56 tasting menu, which included two starter courses, two mains and a pudding. As a formerly picky eater, I am sometimes nervous about tasting menus, but more often than not, I end up trying and loving dishes that I wouldn't otherwise have ordered. The titular smoked eels, accompanied with hazelnut, liquorice and raw apple, was a prime example of this. Each subsequent course involved impeccably cooked classic French dishes with Japanese twists. We also tried: marinated tuna with a tomato marmalade, ginger and ponzu; beautifully cooked hake with orzo and bonito jus; shoulder of lamb with aubergine caviar; and one of the most light, crisp and delicious mille-feuilles I've ever eaten. The service was a little slow (we arrived at 9 pm and finished after midnight) but the food was well worth the wait. Note: you'll probably need to book in advance.


We went to the newly opened Paris branch of the Hoxton Hotel on rue du Sentier on a couple of occasions. We took in a pre-dinner aperitif at Jacques' Bar, an elegant, Moroccan-themed hideaway, on Friday night. As we were a little short on time, we both selected the same drink from the short but well-thought-out list, the Jacques Snapper (a spicy, gin-based twist on a Bloody Mary), which was very well mixed. Curiously, before we ordered, the waiter came over to dispense hand sanitiser into our hands from an ornamental silver vessel.


The following day, after discovering that there was a four-hour wait at Biglove (a popular — potentially overhyped — Marais brunch spot), we went back to the Hoxton and had brunch at the ground-floor Rivié restaurant. Actually, the main restaurant was full (there was a big group there) so we ate in the stylish lobby. The lunch menu included both French classics and more American-brunch-style dishes. The cheeseburger (€15) was excellent — perfectly à point (medium rare) — although perhaps a little cynically priced, especially as we weren't eating in the restaurant proper.


We experienced similar brunch anxiety on Sunday. A lot of the most interesting brunch spots don't take booking and thus require a long wait unless you arrive before 10 am (too early for a proper brunch, in my view). The Marais was very busy so we decided to head further north and secured a table at NOLA, one of two lovely Southern US comfort food restaurants, collectively known as Two Stories, located right alongside the Canal Saint Martin. Our table overlooked the canal and with live piano and an elegant but relaxed setting, we really enjoyed our meal. I had an omelette with Cajun pork, new potatoes and mature cheddar (€14), which was delicious. Had I not already fulfilled my burger quotient for the weekend, I would have gone for the brunch burger, served with bacon jam, cheddar and a fried egg in a pretzel bun (€16).



My trips to Paris are never complete without an eclair (or two) and this time, I enjoyed a wonderfully decadent salted caramel eclair from Ernest & Valentin — there's a branch on rue Réamur, which was located conveniently close to my friends' apartment. On previous trips, I've also indulged at Pain Pain on rue des Martyrs, L'Éclair de Génie in the Marais and Patisserie Yann Couvreur in the 10th arrondissement.


THINGS TO DO, PLACES TO GO...
When I arrived at Gare du Nord on Friday afternoon, I had a few hours to spare before I met my friends and my initial plan was to go to KB CaféShop for coffee. On the way, though, I caught a glimpse of the Sacré Cœur basilica between two buildings and decided that the late afternoon sunshine was too good to waste. I ended up climbing up to the basilica, enjoying the great views over Paris. I was not alone: there was barely a free step as Parisians and visitors came out to enjoy the warm weather.




I then wandered around the pretty, cobbled streets of Montmartre, enjoying the views and the street scenes.



Rue des Martyrs is one of my favourite streets in Paris — almost every building houses an independent shop or café, with a particularly high representation of gourmet food shops. I popped into Ekyog, focusing on eco-friendly women's fashions, and The Cool Republic, which is good for gifts and homewares.


After an intense session of coffee-shop hopping and brunch on Saturday, we wandered through the Marais (stopping into my favourite Parisian shop, Merci) and down to Jardin du Palais Royal, an attractive, manicured park with plenty of space to sit and to stroll. We made our way to the Grand Palais, where we had tickets for the new Irving Penn exhibition. Penn is most known for his work as a fashion photographer but the exhibition included a diverse range of his work, including portraits, still life and 'debris'. If you are interested in photography, I highly recommend this very well staged exhibition; Penn was a master of his craft.





By the time we left the Grand Palais, golden hour was approaching and we walked down to the river and took a seat at one of the outdoor bars on the Left Bank, just by Pont Alexandre III. Cliché as it may be to sit with a glass of wine on the Seine with an Eiffel Tower as sunset approached, it was a wonderful experience. That night, my friends had concert tickets so I decided to go to see mother!, the new Darren Aronofsky film. I have really enjoyed most of his previous works, especially Black Swan, but I'm not quite sure whether I enjoyed mother! It was interesting, of course, and provocative, disturbing and, for the most part, completely bonkers, but I feel like I would need a second viewing to decide whether or not I think it's a good film. I'm just not sure I want to watch it again. The grand Gaumont cinema near Opéra was a suitably grand place to see the film, and the ticket price — €10.90 — was refreshing after London cinema prices.




After brunch on Sunday, we walked down from Canal Saint Martin, over the river to Saint Germain. I was on a mission to buy a gift at Café de Flore (quelle horreur! I didn't stop for coffee, of course!) and then we met some more friends at Coutume for coffee. We wandered back along rue du Bac, crossed over Pont Royal and then I continued through the buildings that surround the Louvre. There was no time for leaping but I did indulge in a quick selfie. Well, when in Paris...




I then spent a few hours shopping in the Marais, one of my favourite Paris neighbourhoods for shopping. I popped into the BHV, and spent ages browsing the three interconnected homeware stores called Fleux'. I also found a cute accessories store called Maison Clotilde and a Nordic lifestyle boutique called Nordik Market. I had also hoped to visit a cool art- and print-themed concept store called Empreintes, but alas, unlike many stores in the Marais (although just like most other shops in the city), it was closed on Sundays. One for next time!