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Clancy Goes to France
The richly detailed beauty of France unfolds along the back roads as a mother and young daughter set out on a unique adventure. The journey, which begins as a fundraising challenge in aid of Multiple Sclerosis, is testament to the reliability of Clancy, a vintage Peugeot with a colourful history of traversing hundreds of thousands of miles in extreme conditions. Blending a mother's devotion to her loved ones and the thrill of the open road, Clancy Goes to France is an inspiring story of how life should be about shared experiences and the appreciation of simple pleasures. This memoir celebrates the lessons passed on from parent to child and illustrates how a love of travel binds the generations of a family. The story lends itself as a travel guide to France's most alluring destinations and includes practical tips for making the most of travels with young children.
196 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 29, 2015
11 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Emma Kate Herbert
3 booksEmma Kate Herbert was born in a small village near Bath in the UK in 1972.
After twelve years living in Thailand, New Zealand and Australia she returned to England in 2011 and has since embraced her love of geography, travel and culture; she takes great pleasure from being able to share her experiences through her writing.
Emma can often be found driving in France together with her young daughter and an old car with 1 Million KM on the clock, in fact many of her stories come from these adventures which take them off the beaten track to some beautiful places.
When asked why she writes?
"I write for my own pleasure and to put our memories down in words, but I also hope to inspire others along the way"
After twelve years living in Thailand, New Zealand and Australia she returned to England in 2011 and has since embraced her love of geography, travel and culture; she takes great pleasure from being able to share her experiences through her writing.
Emma can often be found driving in France together with her young daughter and an old car with 1 Million KM on the clock, in fact many of her stories come from these adventures which take them off the beaten track to some beautiful places.
When asked why she writes?
"I write for my own pleasure and to put our memories down in words, but I also hope to inspire others along the way"
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 20, 2021
I love reading travelogues, especially about France. My husband and I have made several tours en France with our bikes in tow and we have cycled several of the tour de france roads and cols from various French bases over the years. Part of the experience for me is the detailed advanced planning and anticipation of the trip, not only to maximise our expectations but also reduce any untoward stress associated with driving abroad on the wrong side of the road/car in a foreign country within limited timescales.
I was really looking forward to this book given the reviews and hopefully getting some hints and tips of new places to visit. I really do admire Emma for taking on this challenge as a single adult with a 3 year old and for a great cause (MS), but what struck me immediately, despite her "months of planning", was her evident total lack of planning. Her intended route was way too ambitious given her limited timescales and she had conflicting goals. She wanted to meander down the minor roads to be in the moment, make memories with her daughter and look at the scenery and yet she was continuously stressed about the tight timescales and lack of places to pull up on the minor roads. This caused her not to be in the moment and to be feeling ill and stressed most of the time because of the pressure of driving and lack of time.
I totally agree with her that going by car and ferry is a great way to do these trips. However I felt she had a superior and condescending attitude towards people in modern cars using motorways. She seemed unable or unwilling to appreciate that these people have a different goal to her, which is to reach their destinations in a quicker, more stress-free way to maximise their limited leisure time in the soaking up the delights of their chosen destination. I fall into this category and am not ashamed of it. Horses for courses. She seemed to be derogatory towards "tourists" and yet she herself was a tourist.
I'm all for an honest insight of these endeavours but I just felt that she complained all the way round, and about things that if she had planned properly would not have been such a shock or so difficult. I hope Emma learned a few lessons from this trip and that her future trips (to visit all the places she intended to but didn't have time to) were more successful. I also hope her Dad is doing ok and that she plans and enjoys her future trips more given this experience. I highly recommend taking a bike with her next time to get the true French experience :-)
I was really looking forward to this book given the reviews and hopefully getting some hints and tips of new places to visit. I really do admire Emma for taking on this challenge as a single adult with a 3 year old and for a great cause (MS), but what struck me immediately, despite her "months of planning", was her evident total lack of planning. Her intended route was way too ambitious given her limited timescales and she had conflicting goals. She wanted to meander down the minor roads to be in the moment, make memories with her daughter and look at the scenery and yet she was continuously stressed about the tight timescales and lack of places to pull up on the minor roads. This caused her not to be in the moment and to be feeling ill and stressed most of the time because of the pressure of driving and lack of time.
I totally agree with her that going by car and ferry is a great way to do these trips. However I felt she had a superior and condescending attitude towards people in modern cars using motorways. She seemed unable or unwilling to appreciate that these people have a different goal to her, which is to reach their destinations in a quicker, more stress-free way to maximise their limited leisure time in the soaking up the delights of their chosen destination. I fall into this category and am not ashamed of it. Horses for courses. She seemed to be derogatory towards "tourists" and yet she herself was a tourist.
I'm all for an honest insight of these endeavours but I just felt that she complained all the way round, and about things that if she had planned properly would not have been such a shock or so difficult. I hope Emma learned a few lessons from this trip and that her future trips (to visit all the places she intended to but didn't have time to) were more successful. I also hope her Dad is doing ok and that she plans and enjoys her future trips more given this experience. I highly recommend taking a bike with her next time to get the true French experience :-)
February 13, 2021
I was disappointed. In the mid-80s, just after the EU opened the borders we did what I called a "Grand Tour".
We were in a Citroen with or two children, then aged 3 and 7 and although our trip was a little more ambitious and we were camping in a frame tent, I was expecting to see more similarities.
We had the advantage that there were two adults to share the load, and Emma's story amply demonstrates the difficulties faced by a lone adult with a small child. It doesn't help that she is a somewhat nervous driver.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the places she visited, but as she admits, her itinerary was far too ambitious for her and her car. I did get rather irritated by the repeated references to the superiority of Clancy as compared with a more modern vehicle. I get the family connection but don't need the repetition.
She also seemed to have survived on a diet of baguettes and sandwiches. I appreciate the budget problem, but it is possible to eat well and cheaply in France and it was our experience that we could interact with the natives, even with my schoolboy French. Having a long, pretty and well-behaved three-year-old was a positive asset when it came to eating in restaurants - the French have no problem with providing an empty plate for a toddler to share their parent's meal.
We were in a Citroen with or two children, then aged 3 and 7 and although our trip was a little more ambitious and we were camping in a frame tent, I was expecting to see more similarities.
We had the advantage that there were two adults to share the load, and Emma's story amply demonstrates the difficulties faced by a lone adult with a small child. It doesn't help that she is a somewhat nervous driver.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the places she visited, but as she admits, her itinerary was far too ambitious for her and her car. I did get rather irritated by the repeated references to the superiority of Clancy as compared with a more modern vehicle. I get the family connection but don't need the repetition.
She also seemed to have survived on a diet of baguettes and sandwiches. I appreciate the budget problem, but it is possible to eat well and cheaply in France and it was our experience that we could interact with the natives, even with my schoolboy French. Having a long, pretty and well-behaved three-year-old was a positive asset when it came to eating in restaurants - the French have no problem with providing an empty plate for a toddler to share their parent's meal.
February 22, 2021
If you consider a fairly tame holiday in France a ‘challenge’ and you’re into uptight navel gazing, this is the book for you.
May 22, 2015
A lovely read.
I received a free copy of this book from the author for an honest review. I love to read memoirs and about other's travels and this book is a nice mix of those two genres. This book tells of single parent Emma and her little daughter Lola's travels through France on the back roads. Lola's three and she will have her fourth birthday when they are on the thirty-fith day of their trip. They had been planning their trip six months. The trip was for charity and in one of her dad's cars. Her dad suffers with MS. It would be an adventure, she didn't envisage everything would go smoothly, even with all the planning, and that's the whole point, it would be an adventure and she'd just take it as it comes. Clancy is not just an oldish car-he's a forty year old vintage car! Their road trip will cover 3,000 miles. Clancy has already got 1 million km on the clock so she had no worries about him letting her down. Lola knows what's coming, she's excited, she has been on a shorter trip to France before with Emma and Clancy. This is lovely descriptive writing of the area, it sounds idyllic and provides heart warming reading. I always love to read about foods in my reading and in here the author makes it sound yummy, you can almost smell the food. I love this writing about special places they visited. Her father was diagnosed with MS at the age of thirty-nine. Now he has another condition so travelling is much more difficult for him. Although her dad can't go, Emma decides to make the trip, she could take pictures as she goes to show her dad and a money raising idea is born too. This book is well presented and accurate. It provides nice easy reading, very pleasant. She tells about travelling by ferry, they can sleep undisturbed in a cabin as opposed to packed tight in a plane. Entertainment in the evening etc-all this info about the ferry is all good info to me as I've never been on a ferry, I didn't know all of this. All this sounds lovely, a great choice of words, lovely travel writing here. Descriptions of areas sound wonderful. She tells that she had lived in Thailand in the past. I found I was wanting a bit more information about this as she gave a couple of tasters but it wasn't really expanded on much. I found it pleasing the way she talked about the car as if it's a person but then it has been one of the family for years. Heartening to see her attachment to it. Her joy in this trip is beautifully expressed in her writing. Such sweet writing. It's lovely, cosy reading. Lovely detailing about the surroundings. She certainly makes the area sound very appealing in her writing. A very pleasant read which often made me smile. I felt it would have been nice to include a few photos in the book, but, in the kindle edition I had, there weren't any. There's a useful travel info section at the end of the book with routes travelled, where they stayed details etc. My only tiny criticism is it got a little bit repetitive-it's useful sometimes to be reminded later of some details, especially if you read a book over a matter of quite a few days with big breaks, it can just refresh your memory, however, I just felt there were things mentioned again a few too many times; later on I was shouting out "I KNOW!!!!!" at the book. The things I am talking about are the mentions that Clancy has one million km on the clock, reminders of Lola's age, the reasons why she is doing the trip/spending quality time with family etc, and her preference for traditional maps rather than GPS. I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to future books from Emma Herbert about her travels.
I received a free copy of this book from the author for an honest review. I love to read memoirs and about other's travels and this book is a nice mix of those two genres. This book tells of single parent Emma and her little daughter Lola's travels through France on the back roads. Lola's three and she will have her fourth birthday when they are on the thirty-fith day of their trip. They had been planning their trip six months. The trip was for charity and in one of her dad's cars. Her dad suffers with MS. It would be an adventure, she didn't envisage everything would go smoothly, even with all the planning, and that's the whole point, it would be an adventure and she'd just take it as it comes. Clancy is not just an oldish car-he's a forty year old vintage car! Their road trip will cover 3,000 miles. Clancy has already got 1 million km on the clock so she had no worries about him letting her down. Lola knows what's coming, she's excited, she has been on a shorter trip to France before with Emma and Clancy. This is lovely descriptive writing of the area, it sounds idyllic and provides heart warming reading. I always love to read about foods in my reading and in here the author makes it sound yummy, you can almost smell the food. I love this writing about special places they visited. Her father was diagnosed with MS at the age of thirty-nine. Now he has another condition so travelling is much more difficult for him. Although her dad can't go, Emma decides to make the trip, she could take pictures as she goes to show her dad and a money raising idea is born too. This book is well presented and accurate. It provides nice easy reading, very pleasant. She tells about travelling by ferry, they can sleep undisturbed in a cabin as opposed to packed tight in a plane. Entertainment in the evening etc-all this info about the ferry is all good info to me as I've never been on a ferry, I didn't know all of this. All this sounds lovely, a great choice of words, lovely travel writing here. Descriptions of areas sound wonderful. She tells that she had lived in Thailand in the past. I found I was wanting a bit more information about this as she gave a couple of tasters but it wasn't really expanded on much. I found it pleasing the way she talked about the car as if it's a person but then it has been one of the family for years. Heartening to see her attachment to it. Her joy in this trip is beautifully expressed in her writing. Such sweet writing. It's lovely, cosy reading. Lovely detailing about the surroundings. She certainly makes the area sound very appealing in her writing. A very pleasant read which often made me smile. I felt it would have been nice to include a few photos in the book, but, in the kindle edition I had, there weren't any. There's a useful travel info section at the end of the book with routes travelled, where they stayed details etc. My only tiny criticism is it got a little bit repetitive-it's useful sometimes to be reminded later of some details, especially if you read a book over a matter of quite a few days with big breaks, it can just refresh your memory, however, I just felt there were things mentioned again a few too many times; later on I was shouting out "I KNOW!!!!!" at the book. The things I am talking about are the mentions that Clancy has one million km on the clock, reminders of Lola's age, the reasons why she is doing the trip/spending quality time with family etc, and her preference for traditional maps rather than GPS. I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to future books from Emma Herbert about her travels.
May 20, 2015
This memoir about an unusual road trip in France ticked so many of my boxes I couldn’t wait to start reading it.
We join Emma, her 3 year old daughter Lola and their 40 year old Peugeot (Clancy) as they make a 3000 mile road trip around France, recording what they see every day to share with Emma’s father whose MS and cancer mean he is unable to return to France. I felt it was a lovely thing to share her experiences while fundraising and raising awareness about MS along the way. I loved the author’s passion for her subject, her determination and her honesty about the ups and downs she experienced and although I’ve read many travel memoirs in France this one really does offer something a bit different.
The responsibility on Emma’s shoulders as the only adult in charge of a vintage car, a three year old, plus all the driving, route planning and decision-making made for an exhausting challenge where she often struggled to live up to her own expectations of her dream trip. I think she did a marvellous job and really shouldn’t be disappointed at what they failed to see, as from personal experience no matter how many road trips you take in France, there is always more to see.
The pace of the book was good and her descriptions of France kept me interested, but I did struggle a bit with the flow, as I felt there was a lot of unnecessary repetition in the narrative. While this never stopped me wanting to read more, I would have had a more enjoyable read without the sense of déjà vu.
What I loved more than anything was Emma’s attitude of seizing the moment and taking the adventure and I couldn’t help feeling Lola is one very lucky little lady to have a Mum like Emma and I hope they continue to travel and make memories together. I also hope that through this book she is able to encourage others to make their own memories.
We join Emma, her 3 year old daughter Lola and their 40 year old Peugeot (Clancy) as they make a 3000 mile road trip around France, recording what they see every day to share with Emma’s father whose MS and cancer mean he is unable to return to France. I felt it was a lovely thing to share her experiences while fundraising and raising awareness about MS along the way. I loved the author’s passion for her subject, her determination and her honesty about the ups and downs she experienced and although I’ve read many travel memoirs in France this one really does offer something a bit different.
The responsibility on Emma’s shoulders as the only adult in charge of a vintage car, a three year old, plus all the driving, route planning and decision-making made for an exhausting challenge where she often struggled to live up to her own expectations of her dream trip. I think she did a marvellous job and really shouldn’t be disappointed at what they failed to see, as from personal experience no matter how many road trips you take in France, there is always more to see.
The pace of the book was good and her descriptions of France kept me interested, but I did struggle a bit with the flow, as I felt there was a lot of unnecessary repetition in the narrative. While this never stopped me wanting to read more, I would have had a more enjoyable read without the sense of déjà vu.
What I loved more than anything was Emma’s attitude of seizing the moment and taking the adventure and I couldn’t help feeling Lola is one very lucky little lady to have a Mum like Emma and I hope they continue to travel and make memories together. I also hope that through this book she is able to encourage others to make their own memories.
Want to read
February 25, 2016kindle 179 travel memoir
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews