How Story-Based Travel started

Have you ever come home from Europe and realized you spent more time checking off landmarks than actually experiencing them?

Have you ever been on one of those European tours?

You ride around in a bus all day, as you fly be some of the best ruins of ancient  Rome?

Couldn’t you just scream as you go into another stained glass church?  Another museum?

How many times have you been to Europe? France?  The universe is too still.

Do you feel rushed as you go through all these beautiful iconic landmarks ?  How much can you do in one day?

I’ve been quite a few times, it’s become an obsession!  Better than some-ha!  I’ve checked all the boxes too—Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre, Museé D’Orsay, Galerie Lafayette, Galerie Vivienne, and on and on… But, it doesn’t mean I’m done or that I don’t need to go again. Thats what an obsession is.

At some point though, you start wandering through the streets of Paris…grab a cafe and croissant in a cafe and just watch and listen.  The cafe is Le Procope and the sounds echo back to the movers and shakers—Voltaire, Diderot, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Quite a list, isn’t it? How to overthrow a government, excuse me, a monarchy.

What a story? My writing juices were warming up. The universe was being formed.

I have often sat in the Louvre, my favorite spot. Imagining Napoleon storming down a hall, demanding MORE WINE, MORE BREAD, and WHERE IS MY HAT?

Or in the evening drinking my champagne, imagining  Widow Cliquot, sending a bottle back—NOT ENOUGH BUBBLES!

There are some of us who have been to Europe quite a few times…and now we’re ready for more adventure, more stories, more out of our experience.

The other thing I love is a great mystery. So I started writing.

Do you love a good mystery?  Would you like to travel inside a mystery?  Be honest— how many times have you watched The Bourne Identify and thought , “Wow, would that be so fun?’’  (Of course, no bullets and no blood)  but WHAT IF?  How awesome would that be?

What if there were stories , adventures about these cool places in Europe ?  Maybe… about 🍾 Champagne?  Is Champagne just a drink? Or could it be tied to a Pope’s gambling problem ?  Or what about all those fountains in Aix-en-Provence?  Are they just there for show?  You know Leonardo Da Vinci was obsessed with water??  Or the Hope Diamond?  Was it actually cursed?  And where did the Amber Room go?  And who has all those Fabergé eggs?

What if a destination came with a mystery?

At one point my favorite author died—Robert Ludlum.  Who is going to write those amazing stories?  How is my next trip to France different? How do I make these trips unforgettable?

So I started writing historical fiction mysteries.  I have to say The Missing Champagne is my favorite.  Twists and turns and intrigue about my favorite drink—Champagne!

I invite you into the world of Claude & Pierre Habsburg. Two brothers who have been commissioned by their family to keep the wealth in the family.  Claude is cunning, analytical and a history buff.  Pierre is a lady’s man, artistic, creative thinker and good with a sword. (He usually ends up fighting for his lady)  The universe is excited.

These stories became a world, it became Story-Based Travel. It’s all my Francophile items in one place. Sometimes I wander into other European countries , I do hope you don’t mind.

So if you love hidden villages, want to explore more than whats on the itinerary, want to see where the unsolved mysteries take you… come with me on a journey through France’s castles and forgotten libraries. Discover how your curiosity makes a place unforgettable !   Come on an adventure!

Be a spy in a novel!! 

Join The Ministry of Art and History to see what Claude & Pierre are up to now! Can’t wait to meet you!