We are Claire and Emmanuel ROBINSON, a brother, a sister, a polyglot, a lover of the French language, a traveler, an epicurean…
After our first intense professional lives, we decided to slow down a bit to share with you our love of our beautiful French regions. It’s been 9 years since Claire took the plunge, and publishes travel guides around the world that have become references for road-trip lovers. For Emmanuel it is a new life that begins!
In all simplicity and independence, we indicate you through this blog the visits which marked us the most, the landscapes which impressed us the most, our most beautiful culinary discoveries…
If you agree, we offer to be your local guides!
Region Lovers
Region Lovers was born in August 2022. Emmanuel was back from a stay in the Lot et Garonne with beautiful experiences in his head, Claire was leaving for new adventures in Spain to enrich her travel blog started 9 years earlier.
It was while walking along the beach in Le Havre, our family home port, that we had the idea of developing the blog that Claire has been writing for the past 9 years, on the French regions.
We have chosen to start with Normandy, where we have our roots, and with the Loire, where Emmanuel lives, but we intend to share with you very soon new regions where it is good to travel and vibrate.
There is so much to say and do…
Our ethics
All our opinions are independent and guided solely by our travel experience and taste.
As we have always done, we have made the choice torefuse any remuneration to tell you about such or such place, hotel or restaurant on our blog. We travel anonymously and pay all our bills at the normal price.
We also try to avoid intrusive advertising to provide you with the most enjoyable reading experience possible.
To allow us to live our passion and continue to bring you the maximum of information, we count only on you:
- by buying us a coffee
- by purchasing one of our guides
- by choosing your hotel or car rental through one of our affiliate links (we get a small commission, without increasing your purchase price)
- by following ourrecommendations to purchase articles or books related to your trip
Our ambition:
- inspire you to choose your next travel destination
- to provide you with all the practical information you need to plan your trips
- allow you to get the most out of each of your visits
- propose itineraries that cleverly combine places and experiences
- open yourself up to experiences that fully engage your senses
Normandie Lovers
Normandy is where Claire and Emmanuel were born and raised. Claire returned to live there in 2014, after a long international journey, and Emmanuel makes long stays there very regularly.
If we are so attached to our region of origin, it is because it mixes green countryside, limestone cliffs, rough sea, impressionist lights…
What we like about Normandy
You will have understood that what we like in Normandy above all are the landscapes. Having grown up in Le Havre, we have become accustomed to being bathed in the lights that so inspired the impressionists. We do not count any more the evenings when banks of pink and blue clouds come to combine in the sunset to offer us a unique spectacle each time.
From the limestone cliffs of the Alabaster Coast through the green countryside of Pays d’Auge without forgetting the rough and endearing moors of the Cotentin, there is inevitably a place that will captivate you. And if you really resist to so much beauty, you will not be able to remain insensitive in front of this natural and architectural madness that is the Mont-Saint-Michel.
But this territory is also a land of history because of its opening towards the Channel. Place of Homeric wars with the English during nearly a millennium, Normandy will remain in the contemporary history, for the landing of june 6, 1944 which put an end to the 2nd world war. When you look at the tide of white crossesat Colleville Cemetery, your heart goes out to those thousands of young Americans. They died on our Normandy beaches fighting in the name of a certain idea of humanity.
To recover from these emotions, you will always find a good table to taste the warm cuisine of Normandy. After many years of using cream and butter, it has become a little more sophisticated, but it is still a source of great pleasure for us. And when we hear, Camembert, Pont L’Évèque, Livarot or Neufchâtel (the 4 Protected Designations of Origin), our taste buds wake up. When we see a tray arrive with dozens of Norman cheeses, they panic.
Normandy is one of the oldest tourist destinations in France due to its proximity to Paris, so you will find a great offer both in terms of accommodation or cultural and sporting activities to do alone or with your family.
We love our native region, the diversity of its landscapes, its tormented history, its soil, its generous gastronomy… and of course the Normandie Lovers!
The Normandie Lovers community
As you can see, we love Normandy, and we hope that after your trip, you will join us in the community of Normandie Lovers!
To inspire you, to put a smile on your face during the grey days and to live at the rhythm of the Normandie Lovers, all year long, we have opened an Instagram account, TikTok and a Facebook Group. Feel free to share the content with your friends and followers
On Youtube, you will find the little videos that make you feel good.
Finally, stay connected to the Region Lovers community via the e-newsletter, the best way to receive inspiring and useful information directly to your email box.
We strive to write the most accurate and complete posts, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make mistakes! Also, we have opened the possibility for every reader to become an“oops!“, because “oops, we are sorry for this (small) mistake!”… We are counting on the finicky ones to continue to improve this blog and make it as useful as possible for everyone.
About Claire and Emmanuel (and their family…)
Claire, the tireless blogger
Claire likes to connect with nature, to find the practical advice essential to the traveler, and especially to get up at dawn to enjoy a place in absolute silence…
Claire founded in 2013, ZigZagroadtrips.com, the reference blog on roadtrip.
After several years in the health world, notably in Australia, but also in Germany and France, Claire decided in 2013 to devote herself to her passion for travel. From trip to trip, from guidebook to guidebook, from page to page, his little company, ZigZagRoadTrips, has become a reference for anyone who wants to plan a roadtrip. Her scientific mind and generous nature, pushes her to give all the advice to be useful to travelers.
And she also likes to taste the local specialties!
Emmanuel, the insatiable curious
Emmanuel has been accompanying Claire since the launch of ZigZagRoadTrip, but it was not until 2022 that he decided to leave his job (a bit sad…) to devote himself to blogging. Lover of words, authentic epicurean and devourer of all forms of culture, he wants to share with you his discoveries, his gastronomic and cultural pleasures. He grew up in Le Havre and lived in Nantes and Angers.
And their wonderful family…
They embark on the adventure with Eugenie, Emmanuel’s daughter, who was born in Anjou and shares their love of life. We warn you, she’s a real happy chatterbox!
And as “family is sacred”, their parents, Hélène and Ernest, come regularly with them, because for tourism and curiosity, there is no age limit!
