![]() ![]() Lou: I started the ‘Loulabelle’s FrancoFiles’ podcast to save my mental health during COVID, but it has turned out to have given me so much more. No one wants to be sick whilst travelling!Ĭarole: Do you have any new plans for ‘Loulabelle’s FrancoFiles’ or any other projects coming up in 2023? All completely unknown to the pre-COVID traveller but needed now to combat the impact of COVID. Any traveller prior to 2020 would be surprised with the contents of my luggage though! I now take COVID tests with me, masks, cold and flu medication, vitamins, probiotics and sanitiser. I returned to France again just prior to Christmas 2022 and I noticed much more mask wearing, perhaps due to the impending flu season, but not much more outward difference than that. During the French summer of 2022 I was surprised that not much was different to previous trips to France, except that there weren't as many tourists as yet. Lou: In Australia the impact of COVID is consistently around us with mask wearing being common. But the walk along the Paris Meridian has always stayed with me.Ĭarole: You were able to visit France during their past summer and again more recently, would you mind giving your evaluation of the effect of Covid on the tourist experience in France during that time? How did it compare to previous trips? Patrick took me past the actual Paris Observatory building which is exquisite and then delivered me to the book store I was looking for! We shook hands and he left me there. The place that the sun hits on the lead line showed the astronomers back then what angle to place their telescope on so they could monitor the night sky and the movement of the earth. I was completely fascinated by this story and my walk with a stranger. Patrick explained how the Paris Observatory which was built about 1670 has a little hole in the wall on the first floor and the sun comes through that hole shining a beam of light along a lead line in the stone floor. This long line, the Paris Meridian was the line that ran through the centre of Paris historically and was once the prime meridian for the world like the Greenwich line is now. We wandered through kids playing boules, bizarrely their school playground was in the middle of the road, through garden strips and other snippets of Parisian life going on around us. We walked down the centre median strip of a long road which Patrick explained was known as the Paris meridian. It turns out his name was Patrick and he was a Canadian astronomer working at the Bonn university in Germany but was working at the Observatory in Paris for a couple of weeks. I'm loving the fact that it continues to help people in some small way after the recent (and in some places ongoing) difficult COVID times. Lou: Since starting the ‘Loulabelle's FrancoFiles’ podcast I’ve interviewed so many fascinating people! I've chatted to Michelin star chefs, Paris jazz singers, French authors, a Provence wine master, French celebrities in Australia such as Gabriel Gâté, French historians, Paris florists, Paris Lido dancers, château owners, Paris photographers and more! Some people more well-known than others but all with a lovely French story to tell. I've been so surprised by how much people like to chat about their connection to France! I never tire of listening to all their French related stories as they just transport me away to France! I have had some lovely feedback from listeners around the world about how the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast has kept them buoyant through some tough times. Wow! What has inspired you most to continue with your podcast? I was always a day dreamer as a child and still consider time when we can stop, ponder and dream as being invaluable to our daily routine and mental health.Ĭarole: You have interviewed lots of interesting people from around the world, all connected to France, in some way and now have over 80 episodes. I’m the sort of person who wonders what kind of lives people have when I’m looking at cottages whilst driving through a little village, or what life was like in a particular period of time for the ordinary people as well as the infamous characters of history. In some ways I have always had a curious mind. ![]() I have spent much time interviewing people to mediate for them and assist in finding ways forward, so communicating to tease apart a situation comes naturally now. For the last 15 years I have worked as a Union Organiser with a large part of my role representing people at work. ![]() I was also a teacher for more than a decade which requires skills of inquiry and analysis. Lou: I have a background from my youth in performing arts, including editing and recording. Carole: Have you previously worked in radio or interviewing or are these new skills you developed for your podcast? ![]()
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