Chatting with Aussie director Elise McLeod - she's living my perfect French life!

Elise McLeod is a film director and acting coach who has called France home for over 30 years. After travelling there as an exchange student in her high school years, Elise made a decision: once she knew what she wanted to do with her life, she was going to return to Paris to live it there!

Elise has a film Reclaim the Night in competition this week (on 6 June)  in the St Kilda Film Festival. The film is set in Paris telling the fictional story of two best friends, one had the best night of her life and one experienced the worst. Reclaim the Night was originally a movement that started in the UK in the 1970s, protesting about safety for women. 

Elise also has another film she made in the late 1990s, Last Drinks which is playing this Friday night (5 June) at The Astor Theatre in St Kilda, Melbourne. Last drinks is a doco telling the story of the 90s closure of the iconic Prince of Wales Hotel in St Kilda, a landmark many Melbourne people will know of.

Elise and I have been to the Cannes Film Festival together and this chat gives us a little insight into the amount of work that goes into her industry. To escape the busy-ness of her professional world, Elise and her husband Charles have bought a rundown property in the Burgundy region of France. They have now renovated and soon will open for guests to stay, also transforming a huge old shed into a party room, a salle de fête. Elise and I chatted about finding brocantes, connecting with nature in Bourgogne, taking the back roads through France as well as our fave regions and the wonderful quirkiness of those pockets of the French countryside.

So pour a cuppa, or a glass of something French and close your eyes as you sit back and escape to France with us, to hear all about Elise's beautiful French life.

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Louise Prichard is the host of the Loulabelle's FrancoFiles podcast.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Bonjour and bienvenue to the Little Bells Francophiles. Je m'appelle Lou and aujourd'hui I'm welcoming you to episode 201. That's episode 201 in season 7 of the podcast that keeps your French vibes fluttering to help Francophiles around the globe escape to France and immerse in all things French wherever you are listening from today. Alors, aujourd'hui, we're chatting to an amazingly creative woman who has become a beautiful friend over the years. Alice McLeod is an Aussie living and working in the film industry in France for decades now. And I'm so looking forward to chatting to her today to unpack more of her story as well as what's going on for her. So bienvenue to the Little Bells Francophiles, my Bella Mie, Alice. Ça va.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Merci beaucoup, ça va.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Now, Alice, you and I have caught up over the years when I've come to the Cannes Film Festival, which has actually just been on in the last couple of weeks. And you have been there for your work, but we'll come back to chatting about that in a minute. Firstly, I want to unpack a bit about your story. So, how did you end up living in Paris? Did you always have a connection to France when you were growing up?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Yeah, so when I was younger, I took French classes with a very, very close family friend of my family called Louise Ju, and I loved it. And also I was a very precocious reader as well. So I read a lot of French, like I read Simone de Beauvoir at 12, like ridiculous. And so I just always wanted to come and live in France and speak another language. And so I was lucky enough to convince my parents to let me do an exchange program to Libourne, which is near Bordeaux, 30 kilometers from Bordeaux. Um, it was 1989. I turned up there on a train station in the middle of winter in January. It was cold, I spoke no French, and this family surrounded me. And I'd come from a um sort of quite 70s hippie alternative yoga vegetarian family to working class Bordeaux family. And so that's how it all started. And then I came back when I was 19 for six months to Paris and lived by myself in Paris and worked. And when I left Paris at 19, I said to myself, when I know what I want to do with my life, I am coming back and doing it in Paris. And you did. I did. And then I did have the crazy idea to become a director in French as a foreigner, as a woman in another country. Like it isn't a hard enough job as well as it is.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

That's exactly right. So you were obviously then fluent when you first moved there. By the time you'd done all of those stays and those, you know, long-term stays, then you were fluent. Did that really make a difference for you? Like, you know, getting into the industry, making friends, being able to speak the language. I can imagine that was a huge boost.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah, I mean, I don't really remember. Uh now I don't remember. I'm not speaking French, honestly. And I switched between the both. Like I was, I don't know who I was talking to, and I was in French, and I was like, oh no, this person's English. Like, just it's very fluid. I'm moving through the two languages. But now I now I speak two languages badly.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Well, I wouldn't say that, because you know, a lot of your work is actually coaching actors and uh, you know, obviously as a director, so you can't be that bad at expressing yourself because you've got to be able to work that out.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

The French are pretty hard on you, so you know, they still make fun of all the accidents about I do with the grammar and the masculine and the feminine. I have very, very good comprehension. I I can understand everything. I read in French, I uh write in French, and I I can translate, but it's just it's just one of those things. There's things that you don't you never get down. I've got my lovely Australian accent in French.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Oh, really? Oh, they'd love that actually. That's probably a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

They love it. I'm not such a fan, but they love it.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Do you know? I actually saw a thing, I don't know what it was on Instagram or TikTok or something, and it was these blokes, these two blokes who are French, and they were interviewing Macron and giving him a quick quiz on whether things were masculine or feminine, and he got, I don't know, there might have been five things, and he got the majority, three out of five wrong, let's say. I can't remember exactly that. Yeah, so you know, you're not alone, you're in good company if you're getting the masculine or feminine mixed up when it's actually the French president can't get it right either. So I think you're okay. He should be getting it right. That's exactly right. Getting lessons at home. But let's get back to your film work. So tell me about what your work involves there in Paris.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

So I work as both an acting coach and a director. Um, I've worked uh as a coach for 20 years. I became a director through I direct theatre in Paris and also I worked as an assistant director for about six years. So I sort of consider after university that was my real schooling. And I'm very well known as a coach where there's not a lot of us here. I coach for acting, not at all for English, not at all for accents. Um, it's really about the acting. And I've directed six short films in the last 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Short film industry in France is very different from Australia. It's very probably I'd say more respected. Uh, there's producers who live by that. Uh obviously, I am working on my first feature as well.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

And I had the chance to do this great film with an Australian artist called Zanny Beg, and we did an art film called The City of Ladies, which was based on a French uh book of the same name, and it's actually considered the first feminist novel ever. It was written in 1402.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Oh my goodness, 1402.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

And at work was and so it was a it was sort of uh there was doc fiction in it, there was documentary in it, there was an experimental film, and it was shown at the MCA in Sydney. And so that was a great project I got to do as well. And all all my films are in French, apart from the very last one that I've done called Reclaim the Night.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Which we're gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah, Reclaim the Night is half in French and half in English. Okay. So I'm getting I'm getting I'll eventually I'll do something in English as well.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Yeah, but you know, the French film industry and even French films in Australia, they are so popular. People love them. So, you know, I reckon whatever language you want to do it in, we're gonna love it. I think. So I'm really excited about this film that Reclaim the Night because you've now got that showing in the St Kilda Film Festival, which is awesome in Melbourne.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

I know I'm so happy because I actually grew up in St Kilda. Well, I had a restaurant there called Wild Rice, and I did my very first audiovisual project in '96. I shot it, so 30 years ago, um, which is a documentary called Last Drinks, and it was about the closing of uh the Prince of Wales pub. And so we we did a documentary where it was supposedly closing, um, which didn't close but just changed hands, but it's spirit changed, and we had interviewed lots of uh musicians and punters, and so we that's being shown at the St. Audrey Festival at the Astar, and then the next day my film Reclaim the Night is in competition, which I didn't think it would be because I didn't do it in Australia myself in French, um, but it is because I'm Australian, so that made me very happy. So it's the first time I have uh not just one, but two films in Australia where I grew up.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

That is just phenomenal. I'm so thrilled for you. I think it we absolutely you should be congratulated because I know how hard you work. I know how hard you work actually, even the networking that's required, because I've been with you in Cannes and I've seen you go flat out and you are meeting with people, even if you're absolutely stuffed at the end of the day, you have to go to particular parties. Everyone goes, Oh, what a shame you've got to go to a party. It's not like that. It's actually going there to connect with people to get work and talk about your projects and to meet producers, and then you get funding for your projects. It's actually a seriously huge party of work, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, it's funny because I think uh as a younger person, I had no idea that that was half the job, and I thought I just had to work hard and people would discover me. And then that's the advice I give to young people now. I'm like, half our job is actually making contacts and creating a network that of people that you want to work with and want to work with you.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Yeah. And that's much easier for you, obviously, in French than only being able to speak English and trying to do that in France. So that's another boost for you having that fabulous second language. Now tell me about Reclaim the Night. What's it about?

SPEAKER_00 9:01

So Reclaim the Night. I don't know. Do you know does the title mean anything to you?

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Yes, so the safety for women and there's been the whole movement.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

So Reclaim the Night was actually a protest that I went to when I was a teenager in Melbourne, and it first started in the 1970s in England, um, and it was a response to women being uh attacked or murdered or abused at nighttime. And so the idea is to have safety for women at night. And so the the short film is a fiction inspired by actually me being attacked at night in Paris at Halloween. And so it's a story of two best friends who come together and celebrate Halloween together, and one has the best night of her life and one has the worst night of her life.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Oh, I love that. I mean, I don't love that she had the worst night of her life, but I love the concept of that story. That's that's great. It'd be very powerful when you can see the juxtaposition of the two of them having the same night, supposedly the same experience and completely different experiences.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah, exactly. And one's one's about liberation and reclaiming the night for its freedom, and one's the reason why we need that is you know the violence that can happen.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Yeah. I know that recently there have been rallies, I think in the US, that I think there were some in Australia as well, and they named them Reclaim the Night, as I recall them. Yeah, yeah. So it's something that started in the 70s but still going, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Exactly. And I and I actually remember with my girlfriends going to it when we when we were teenagers in Melbourne.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

It doesn't exist in France though.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Really?

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah. I mean they have a lot of movements, but that's one that has never really come to France.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Wow, that really surprises me.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

And apparently just before I shot last year, so I shot some of it in on the 8th of March for International Women's Day and the protests there. And the night before they've actually programmed a sort of reclaim the night protest, and the prefecture, the police department, refused the authorization to do a protest at night.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

That's just ridiculous. I mean, that that's the whole point, isn't it? It's absolutely the whole point. But you know what would be great for my film. You know what I think is really sad though, is that it started in the 70s and we're still having to fight for it now. You know, it's it's still considered, you still hear those kind of comments like when a woman gets attacked, oh her dress was too short, or this or that. And you think, what era are we living in? Like, seriously, a woman needs to be able to walk down the street and be safe and not actually have concerns about being attacked. But of course, that isn't the case. That's not reality. And it's a shame that well, I'm I was born in the late in the end of the 60s, beginning of the 70s, and and I'm in my late 50s. So it's been over 50 years and they still can't seem to get it happening for people, which is I think a tragic indictment on the way in which our society doesn't value that.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Also, they uh oh yeah, it's just we've still got so much work to do. Yeah. And if you look at the political environment of the world right now, uh the first rights that then start to get lost again is women's rights.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Yeah, the first thing. The first thing that goes, and we're seeing that women be stripped of rights in a number of places around the world and places where I never thought I would see it, but it is something that's so important. So your work is so important as a statement, but also to connect people to France when they're not there. So, you know, because it's set in Paris. So it's it's in English and French, you're saying?

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Yeah, because the two best friends, one's American and one's French, and they to get together and they speak English together, and then in the rest of the world, the main character, Ulea Amara, she um speaks French. Okay, and so we want that. I sort of like that because it's similar to how I live, you know. I'm I'm moving through two languages, part of my life's French, part of my life's English.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

It's realistic, it's the way the world works.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

And and so I've got the actress Ulea Amara, is this fantastic French actress who won a César for the very first feature film that she acted in. And I was lucky enough to get her on my short film because I coach her actually. Oh, wow. Oh, that's amazing. I know, and then I I had the absolute joy of meeting Jasmine Van Denter, who's the producer, and also the main actress in uh the other main actress who's American. And so we've been working together for a couple of years as well. Oh, good team, great team.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

So can listeners of the podcast who are hearing this now, can they come to see it in Melbourne?

unknown 13:39

Yep, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

It is, I'm pretty sure you have to look on the St Kilda uh Film Festival site, but it is 4:30 on Saturday, the 6th of June. Perfect. And guess what? I'm gonna be there. I'm so excited. Yay!

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Well, I will put the link for that on the website so that people can go in, have a look, and then if they're in Melbourne and if that's something that's going to float their boat, then they can absolutely come along and see that.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Yeah, and for those who are nostalgic about the 90s and the Melbourne music, uh music scene and St Kilda, come on the Friday night, it's at 7:30 at the Astor, which is such a beautiful old cinema. I can't believe we're showing it there.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

I love the Asta, it's brilliant. That's where they have the opening film most years for the Alliance Francaise Film Festival. So there are movies there a lot, but they have a French film there then. Um, and obviously, you know, being in St Kilda or just next to St Kilda. That's East St Kilda, isn't it? Yeah, that's East St Kilda there, yeah, right over the road from St. Mary's.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

I remember seeing the the double they do double screenings when we're younger.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Mm-hmm. I used to live around the corner from there. I used to see these beautiful home.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

And classic movies.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Yes. I love that they put the classic movies on because you don't get to see them on a big screen much anymore. You also don't get to see short movies on the big screen that much. So that's why this is so good.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

I think it's such a shame that we don't have shorts before before features like they we used to.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

I just love that idea.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Yeah, I I think it actually it's it's such a brilliant idea. And it's it'd be good if there's French short films that they could go in the film festival, put a short on before the main feature in that. Same with just when you've got a theme going, you could put one on that runs with a theme. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

I did have an idea with my mum, but I don't think I'll ever do it of starting a short film festival in Bright, you know, up there. It's such a beautiful ski just in autumn. But you know, we're we're too ambitious, too many things to do in life.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

I know it's just so much to do, and and just not enough hours in the week or hours in the day, or just not enough time. Because I've kind of thought of doing uh at home here of having a big screen and doing bush movie nights here. So, you know, we can play your. So you do that. That's such a good idea. I know. So I will do it one day, but you know, by the time I do everything else that I've got planned in my life, I could be, you know, 675 by the time I get around to doing it. But anyway, it's on the list. It's on the list.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

I put on that idea as well. With our uh we have a country house in Burgundy, and uh we we bought this old ruin uh 14 years ago that me and my husband have completely done up, and we've got this great big shed, which is in we call it the hangar in French, and we've transformed it into a uh sal de fet, a party room. Love it, and so it's got tomates on the ground, and it's got an open kitchen, and we've got a big wall which would be perfect for um doing screening. Yes, that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Well, I was going to ask you about your Burgundy place because obviously I've missed you in Cannes this year, as I haven't come across at that time, unfortunately. But I'm very much looking forward to coming to your place in Burgundy at some stage because when I'm back in France, I I love Burgundy. It's just one of my favourite places, so I will love to come and visit you there. Now, that old place that you've renovated with Charles, it must be a lovely escape from the hustle and bustle of Paris. And he's also a fabulous cook, isn't he? So you not only is the you know great escape, but you've got him cooking, and he's very handy, so you know you've got the whole thing going.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Best bloke of the world.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

Best bloke in the world, exactly. So, what are the plans there? You've got you might show movies on that big wall, but what else?

SPEAKER_00 17:21

So at the moment, uh Charles is just doing up another um uh old stables and turning that into three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a lounge room, and then we've got the big house. So eventually we're gonna have five bedrooms and four bathrooms and three lounge rooms, and so we've got a few different ideas. One, I'll do acting workshops for actors there. We'll do some artist residence, and then I'm gonna organise for Australians and Americans and English uh sort of tours so that they come make their base at our place. Uh, Charles will be cooking for them, and then we'll also obviously go out to some of the fantastic French restaurants as well. And uh we're not far from Chablis, so we're only 45 minutes drive from Chablis, which is my favourite white wine. And then we're also close to Sancerre, so there's all the and then Fontainebleau, the chateau over there, and then Verzelet, which is this famous small, little beautiful town in Burgundy with a uh cathedral on it. And so it's the idea is sort of to invite people to Burgundy after they had their Paris time and discover that region uh with little day trips and good food and fun.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

You must be not far from Avalon as well, is you near there?

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Exactly. So Veselay is just after Avalon, so we're about I think an hour maybe depends because there's a really slow drive you can do to Veselet, which is an hour and a half, but you you take all the little roads. I think Avalon's probably more like 40-50 if you take the freeway.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do love to get off the main roads and get off the freeway. I'm always banging on about how when you go with slow travel, you take the back roads. That's when the magic happens. You just stumble across stuff that just, you know, little villages that you didn't even know existed, and little restaurants. And some of my most favourite memories from France are when I I didn't expect to be doing something, and all of a sudden I've stumbled across a little place, and that's just got something magical there that has stayed with me forever. And I'll probably never go back there to these particular places, but it's such a special thing when you're driving along and you you come over a hill, and then all of a sudden you see a village over the rise, and especially if it you're driving in the morning and there's a mist and the village is just waking up and you can go and get a pastry and a coffee and and sit and just watch people as they start their day. And I just love doing all of that. And I think that when you're doing it in a place like Burgundy, there is such a beautiful warmth from the people and all of the places that are there. I just I can't rave about it enough. And I have people that call me quite a bit to plan their trips and their, especially their road trips, and they say, Oh, I don't know which place to go to. Do I do this one or that one? And I'm always saying, look, go with what's good for you. Like have a look and see what each region offers. Go with what's right for you, but do not exclude Burgundy off the list because Burgundy is often not seen as such a big tourist hotspot, and that's what's good about it.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

I know exactly. Well, the drive, one of the fantastic drives is from our place, and then you drive all through the little roads to Switzerland. And it only takes, like if you do a slow drive, it's about six hours, but it's you go through Bern, it's so beautiful. Like that, and in autumn, springtime or autumn is just magic at that time. And I like going to do you go to uh Ville Grenier's, you know that outdoor secondhand markets? Yes, yes. That is the best way to discover all different little towns.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Actually, recently on the 1st of May, they would have had their great big bricant weekend. In Burgundy, there's bricants everywhere on May Day, and everyone goes berserk with their bricants.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Yeah, they're sort of every weekend there. Starting from spring all the way through to autumn, you can have yeah, there's even a little book where there's all the outdoor those outdoor markets that you can go to.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Oh, love it. Love it. Actually, I did go to one that was near Bone, and it's an outdoor market, but it's kind of, you know, things are there on consignment, but there's an outdoor section and there was an undercover section. The outdoor section, clearly that stuff never goes undercover or it's just there because there were vases and or even just glasses and crockery, and we're tipping the rain out of the cups from the night before onto the ground. It's just covered in, just covered in, you know, stuff that's blown onto the from the trees and all that kind of stuff. But you you can actually probably get a good bargain because it's a little bit weather beaten and it's good. It's really good.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the only frustrating thing when Australian Australian friends come and when I take them to the markets, they're like, that's all this crockery and all this beautiful old stuff. And it's like, can I really carry it back home?

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Yes, I can. Yes, I will. Yes, I can. Absolutely. Or buy another bag. Yeah, I will. I'll pay for the extra luggage sometimes. So do you get to travel much? I know you got a car. Do you get to travel much with your with your work around France?

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Yeah, when you've got a film there's a lot of film festivals. There's a huge amount of short film festivals as well. So when you're selected, you get to travel around all France, really. I've been to all sorts of places. I remember one time I was actually at the you know there's an Australian New Zealand Film Festival at Saint Hopie?

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Oh, I didn't know that. No.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Oh really? There's an um by this fantastic French man called Bernard Boy, and it's called uh Antipod. And so he he has uh a week-long festival in Saint Hopi in like October. Um, so I've I've been lucky enough to have a few films selected there. And um one year I had one short film that was there, and then I had like three other festivals in the same week, and I had my mum with me, so I was just hopping around on the train, going to all these different festivals, taking it taking it to discover these places, and we were seeing my film.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

What a beautiful way to just travel around and then with purpose. I love it. Yeah, yeah.

unknown 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

So what would you say is your favourite if you had to pick one spot in France, not Paris where you live, and not Burgundy where you live, where you've got your two places. But what would be your favourite place to go to in France, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 23:16

This is the problem with France. Is if you I've driven a lot around France. We've done tons of road trips together, Charles and I, and we've got friends everywhere. And when you drive around, France is so incredibly beautiful. You sort of understand why they're so goddamn arrogant.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Yes, it's like I mean, it changes constantly. Um I mean, that's a really mean question. So I'm gonna say uh at the moment, I'm really into Bretagna. Into Brittany.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Oh yeah, same.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Yeah, I love Brittany. The food is fantastic, the beaches are great, the stone houses are beautiful. I go to the Finistère Nord, where I've got different friends. I'm lucky enough to just like go and stay with friends everywhere. But I also love the Cavenne north of Montpellier, all that area. It's really beautiful in those sort of like hills and rivers and and and set where there's you know that beautiful town and the lake with all the oysters and oh gorgeous. Then you go to Provence.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

I know.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

And then I haven't even mentioned where I grew up, where I went first, was over near the southwest in Bordeaux and Libourne and Biarritz and all that. So I don't know, there's so many places I love.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

People often ask me, you know, what's your favourite place in France? And it changes every time I go, and it changes even every week when I'm here, depending on what book I'm reading, or you know, what kind of thing I've seen or what shots I've seen on Instagram. Normandy sticks out as always being a bit of a fave. Chinon has always been a fave. Oh, yeah. In the Wire Valley. I love, love, love Shinon. But I went to Brittany, when was that, a year or two ago?

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Yeah, I've been close. I'm really close to the Loire Valley. I can get to all those chateaus within an hour and a yeah, yeah. And riding tours around there, riding a bicycle around there is just incredible. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Well, they have that big it's in June, I think. They have the bike ride, and I can't recall what it's called now, but where they all have to ride vintage bikes and they dress up in 50s gear and and they ride for, you know, all day and drink wine all the way along the along the route, and it sounds like so much fun. So yeah, I think that actually there's a picturesque aspect to every single region of France. There's a brilliant food aspect because they've all got the different foods. Most of them have got some kind of wine or Normandy. I love the cider. There's just so much good stuff, it's very hard to pick just one. So I know it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

It's funny because you talked about Normandy and I'd totally forgot about Normandy, but Normandy was the place that I really used to go a lot, like 25 years ago when I first was here. So it's like it's different people, different activities in your life to bring you to a different region.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

But I I think the great idea is actually just to choose a one region and explore that.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Yeah. I've actually started doing that each time I go. Instead of trying to drive from one end of the country to the other, I'm now focusing on one region or two regions next to each other and spending because from Australia it's a long way. So we don't reg, unless we've got to go for a purpose, we don't regularly go just for a couple of weeks. You normally go for quite an extended period of time. So I like to go for about six weeks, and that six weeks is obviously a bit of Paris, a book end of beginning and end. But then you've got a good four to five weeks where you're just exploring one or two regions next to each other, and you can really take it slowly, delve into it, and immerse into it. And I think that doing that with Burgundy around where you are, that's just such a beautiful, fabulous area. And and at different times of the year, you see different stuff, you know, because at the time of the year when they do the harvest for the wine, there's so much going on. Yeah, and then this time of the year or in May, when they're actually out there cutting off all the little bits of the buds that go in different directions as well. There's just always something going on there.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

And in in Burgundy, there's also like that really beautiful natural parc national. Um in the Morve, that is just so beautiful, and there's great rivers to go swimming in. I do um I love swimming, and so I go I swim a lot in rivers around where we live.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

Yes, actually, our mutual friend Ruby Bookaboo, she has told me how she loves to go to your place in Burgundy and then just get down the river because she loves swimming in the ocean or in a river. And uh that's one of her favourite things to do. She says, I can't wait to get to all this place, I've just got to go and swimming in in somewhere that's natural. It's kind of like for her version of grounding, I think.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah, yeah. I'm a bit the same. I always need to know where the swimming spot is.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yeah, yeah. So now, what are your plans with your film after the St Kilda Film Festival?

SPEAKER_00 27:49

So now it's just a wedding game, finding out what other festivals we get into. We've really really just started, so and then hopefully I'll be get travelling around France and other fantastic places at the end of the year going to festivals. And uh right now I'm working on my first feature.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

Oh, is that a secret? Or can you tell us anything about that?

SPEAKER_00 28:09

I can tell you about it. It's called The Heart of the Pelican, and it's a road movie about three sisters who have to travel across France because their mother has decided to end her life in Switzerland by euthanasia because their mum's got early onset Alzheimer's, and she lived through it with her own mother, and she she was there for her own mother, and she doesn't want to live through it herself, nor does she want to inflict it on her daughters. And so it's a real it's a sort of intimate story about how we deal with death that's gonna come and the big choices of someone else within a family. Um it's and also obviously because I like to have pretty well sujet engagé, we say in French, uh sort of important subjects, but always treated with a little bit of humour, a uh sort of bit poetic with the sort of ridiculousness of life in those times of uh drama or trauma, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Yeah. That's so important though, isn't it? That's how we cope with those times, I suppose. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

And also I love a road movie. I've always loved a road movie.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Yeah, oh I do too. Um because it look it you can you can actually travel vicariously through the characters in the movie.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

And in fact, obviously, I also chose that they the drive that they do is through Burgundy and to Switzerland because it's just so beautiful. Yeah, life life is beautiful as well in those moments of complication.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

I think that that's part of the um the complexity of life, but then when you can see the beauty in in the relationships, in the people, in everything surrounding those times, it's it's kind of special when you can tease it apart and look at it without it being it's it doesn't have to be morbid. It's just it's it's real life, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Yeah, and and living is so important in the face of adversity.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Yes, yeah, oh absolutely. In fact, we see that more and more at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Actually, my last two short films, Songlines and The Teaser to the Heart of Pelican, I actually shot in Burgundy, and that was so much fun shooting in the country. It would have been and the people were so nice, and it was just so beautiful, and then we everyone stayed at that at the house and Charles cooked for them, and it was just a magic, magic moment.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

It would have been brilliant. That sounds like all your worlds colliding together.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Love it, love it. So, how did you choose Burgundy? When you were choosing, because you were in Paris initially, how did you choose that as the place, or did you just stumble across the place that was for sale? How did that come about?

SPEAKER_00 30:43

We actually for years were going to Normandy to a friend's country house, an American friend, and they just lent it to us. And Charles obviously did lots of work there, and we did a veggie garden for them and stuff, and so we knew we wanted a country place, and then they sold their place, but it was way too expensive for us. And then we had a very really good friend, actually, another Australian, French Australian, Dominique Delaney, who I work with, she's in cinema as well. She has a house in the same town as us, and the first time we went there was about 25 years ago, and so we knew that village from from her, and we don't have any money. Legal situation was a little bit dodgy, and uh we went and visited a place once just for fun when we were staying at hers, and obviously we we couldn't buy it, and then like four years later, we were in Australia, and I get this email from this real estate agent saying we've got this property, and it was in douchey, and it was at a price range we could do it, which was 40,000 euros, and it it was an abandoned house for 30 years, and we went and looked at it, and we're like, Okay, we're gonna buy it.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

Done.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

So it was sort of under under a good star. And I think when we first sent photos to friends and family, particularly in Australia, they thought we were absolutely insane, and where they never didn't know that we were actually capable of doing anything with that. And it's one of those things where now I'm like, if I knew what it took, probably wouldn't do it. Naivity is fantastic when you've got a big project.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Yes, I was looking at houses for ages, and I've just in the last probably in the last year or two, I've just said to Paul, realistically, how much time are we going to be there now that our kids are really settled into lives here in Australia? We're going to want to be back here for lots of life events with them. And we're not French, so we won't be able to live there with unless we can get visas for it. So I thought we're probably going to only be there for maybe 12 weeks of every year. How much can we renovate? How much can we get it done? And do we want to spend that 12 weeks a year that we only get to go to France just renovating and working on a house? And so I thought, you know what? I think I'd rather just rent other people's houses that are already done and do that now. Or come and stay with you. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

Exactly. You've got a you've got a room in that place. Charles and I have no children, that's just us. We're like, there's tons of rooms. Come and say, it's fantastic. Absolutely. It's changed my life though. I we literally are there every single weekend. Like I spent half my time in Paris and half myself time in the country. In fact, tonight, today I haven't got work this afternoon, so I'm gonna go down for the night and then come back tomorrow morning.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Oh, yeah, it's like we I just take the train, it's an hour on the train, half an hour in their car, and there's trains every hour, so I go very, very frequently.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

Do you just leave your car at the train station down there?

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Yep, and it's free.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

But we all have crap cars here, so it's like we we then have nice big cars, nice cars and big cars, they're all like crap.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

But that's okay, because then you know no one's gonna nick a crap car, so it's fine. Just leave it there and off you go. Perfect. Now, Elise, we often ask three questions on the little bell's francophiles, and I'm very interested to hear your answers. So, first thing, and because Charles is such a great cook, this will be an interesting one to hear your response. What is your favourite dish to order when you're out in France or perhaps to cook at home?

SPEAKER_00 34:08

This is I am literally the worst person for this question because I'm vegetarian. No, but I love that and it's good. I know French food is just not fabulous for vegetarians.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 34:23

You know, like you know, traditional food, you really got the like now, it's a lot better because things have changed finally. But I spend a lot of time eating goat's cheese salad and ratatouille.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Oh yeah, yeah, true, true. Gosh, I love a ratatouille.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, so uh I don't know. I we probably should have asked Charles that. He would say like confit de canard.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

Both eating out and um and cooking it himself. Um, so yeah, I think I have to bypass that question. I'm terrible. I mean, I'm a huge foodie, and so are the French, but we just don't marry totally.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

No, and I think when I've eaten out with you in Cannes, you had just like the vegetarian pasta or a risotto or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

It's it's it's there's one dish. There's one dish on every menu that's for vegetarian in France, probably.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Yeah. And it's often not very French, but I know I mean there is like the uh there's this thing called coca with in the south of France, which is like these pasties with this sort of tomato-y olive sort of thing, which is really, really yummy. Um, and I think the the what I do like in France is now I eat fish. I started eating fish since I live in France, and I love oysters. Going out and having fresh oysters in the market uh on a Saturday or a Sunday is just fantastic. Beautiful. And I have them quite often at home, so I'm a big oyster fan.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

I love the oysters up in Normandy, and when I've had them in Enfleur, and it's right there, you know, they come in and they're fresh, and they just got them that day. And the oysters and the mussels they have up there. Oh my gosh, I love them. The mussels in the cider. Oh, it's nothing better.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Yeah, and moon threaten, then you can't go past a good moon threaten like Normandy or Bretagne. That's fantastic. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

In fact, I love I love a galette. Oh, I did that cheese.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

I totally, totally I love all the French cheeses.

SPEAKER_02 36:19

Yes, oh, I'm obsessed with the cheese.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

And I've got a really good cheese lady at my tiny little market in my town who does the biggest collection I've ever seen of goat's cheese and sheep's cheese.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Well, see, that's good for me because I can't have cow dairy. So goat and sheep over there, brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

So when you come and visit, you are definitely taking. She does like this really it's called a chev creme, and it's like a cam and bear, but out of um goat's cheese.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Oh, fantastic. What's your favourite cheese?

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Oh la la. Well, all that I get every week that creme de chev. I also get a gouda, a gouda chev, which is really good.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

A gouda chev. So from a goat. Oh, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Yeah, it's really good. And then I like the brevis from the sheep's ones from Task as well. And then I like rock fur, which is brebe as well, which is sheep as well. Yeah, so I'm not I'm not fussy about my cheese. I can I'll eat anything. I like the small ones as well. Yep, same.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

The really runny ones, the stinky ones, the blue ones, all of them. I don't discriminate them on all of them.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Yeah, I'll be happy with anything.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Yeah, I could roll around in the stuff and I still wouldn't have enough of it. Fantastic, fantastic. Now, you might do this for work a bit, but even just when you're driving around, do you listen to French music much?

SPEAKER_00 37:33

French music, yeah, a bit, yeah, yeah, yeah. Culturally, I'd say I read a lot of novels in French and I watch a lot of French cinema. Music, it's funny because I DJed with the News Eve for some friends recently, and I put on a lot of French music, and obviously they're all French friends, and they're like, Oh, it's okay, Alice, you now can get you citizenship. Yeah. Oh, but did you want to know my favourite song at the moment?

SPEAKER_02 37:59

Yes, I do because we've got the Little Bells Francophile's fabulous Frenchie Spotify playlist, and I just keep adding to it. It's like way over a hundred songs on it now, and they're all different, eclectic. Some are like the old classics, some of them are just like, you know, there's Angelle, there's all these other different artists. So it's really good, and I just listen to it. I often listen to it when I'm driving around in France because there is so much English music on the radio in France. There's so much Australian music on the radio in France, but I listen to this often when I'm driving around. And obviously, when I'm at home here in Australia too, I I listen to it and I love it. What's your suggestion?

SPEAKER_00 38:33

So it was a hit last year. It was called Bleu Soleil, featuring Louisa.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Yes. I think I know that one.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

It's really pretty. It's sort of sort of talking about, I mean, it's a real summer bit, and it's like she's talking about having her feet in the water and being free and doing whatever she wants, and it's it's very pretty. It's very feel-good.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

That sounds like a perfect day, actually, doesn't it? Being free with your feet in the water.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Yep.

unknown 38:59

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

Well, I will look that one up and I'll whack that onto the playlist. That sounds like a great addition. Now, the last question for you, beautiful Elise. Can you tell me, talking about perfect days? Describe for me your favorite French day.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

Uh that's just describing my life, isn't it? Because I love that.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Don't even say that I'm so jealous as it is, but yeah. So just give us a little insight to well, what is that like?

SPEAKER_00 39:22

I've been here for I've been here for 30 years. And that's only this time. That's a long time. I've lived in France way longer than I lived in Australia. I lived 19 years, and here I've been about 34 or up. Um uh so depends where I am. So I'll pretend that I'm going to b I'm in both places. So in Paris, I get up and I walk to work, which I love doing. I don't like what my biggest complication about Melbourne is being in a car all the time. So I walk to work with my dog, and that's get to my office about 20 minutes later, and I've got I've got a fantastic view onto Rue Montagoy, which is this like pedestrian street in the centre of Paris. So that's a really nice space. Uh, I love sitting in a cafe at some stage of the day and just having a coffee and just l listening to people and watching people, you know, that's one of the pastimes in France is observing human beings, and uh, that's one of my favourite things. Uh I love riding my bike in Paris as well. It's just great, you just get around and see everything, and that's really lovely. Uh perour when everyone's having a drink, even just walking around while they just watch people, it's great. Um, and then I do like love going to any of the hundreds of galleries or museums that exist. And I do like the seasons, I like how everyone everyone, everything changes, you know, the light changes, the people change, there's different sort of behavior. Um, and then if I go to the country, I love markets. I am absolutely the biggest fan of food markets. One time I was in Spain and I was trying to find a market, and we couldn't find one, me and Charles. We were in this tiny little town, and they sent us off, and someone took us sent us to the supermarket, and I was so disappointed. And then as we were leaving the town, I saw the market and I literally danced down the street. I was so excited. So I love going to a market. I don't know, yeah. I guess it's sort of pretty much me. Food, human beings, culture, walking.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

And when you're doing all of that, you you're obviously immersing in that culture, but also the architecture of wherever you're at. You know, I love the way the architecture changes from one part of France to the other. I love the architecture of buildings in in Paris and walking around and actually looking up, not always just looking down at my feet or or not at a phone all the time, you know.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Yeah, do you know the artist called Invader in France? And he's been doing little tile invaders. He started in Paris literally about 30 years ago, and now he puts those little um the they're but they're all over the world. There's some in Melbourne and stuff, but now there's actually an app that you can you've got, and you can like take a photo of them and you get points, and so it's really good because it just makes you look everywhere as well. It's such a great thing because you've got to have family like, oh my god, there are this, and there it is. And there's a lot of street art in Paris as well, which is fantastic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love, love, love that.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Actually, I might put that app, I'll put a link for that on the website too, if I can find it. So people can actually download that.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

I can send you, I'll send you a thing of it if you want.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

I think there's at least three in Melbourne. But they're all over the world. There's tons in Paris. And I think he started literally 30 years ago. I first photo about it in 97.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

Is he a little bit like um Foo or like Banksy when they how they started and they just had things on the wall?

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

Yeah, yeah. Love that. Well, merci so much for spending this time with us today, Elise, because I have loved feeling like I'm back in France with you. And I can't wait to see you when you're in Melbourne, which is only, you know, a week ago. I know, with your film Reclaim the Night. And I'm dying to come and see that. So I will see you there on the 6th of June.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

And I've got just a last question. When are you coming back here?

SPEAKER_02 43:18

Well, I could come back this year if I can wangle it. One of my sons is saying, Mum, why don't we just go over and do a couple of weeks of road trip? And I'm very tempted to just take off. But I'm also, you know, I know, I know, I should just go and do that. But now that I'm living in the country here and I've got a market every weekend around me, and I've got all these other things, it's a place that I'm actually loving living in. Not that I don't want to go back to France, but I've never been here through all of the seasons because I go to France for such a long time. So I'm actually really enjoying being here through all of the seasons for this year, but then I'm absolutely beside myself of not not going to France. In fact, the to the point there have been tears, you know, there have been tears. So I I am definitely coming back next year. Going for a very long trip next year. But um, you know, and I'm not sure whether that'll be May, June, or July, but this year it's gonna take some time. You'll have to come see us next year. Absolutely, definitely. Yeah. I I've heard so much about it, and I think I think I missed a weekend when Ruby had asked me to come. I think I arrived on the Sunday and she was going there on the Friday or something, and so I've missed a couple of times when things were going on. So I'll definitely have to do that. Allo, seed two, a cell affanal, should we? That is all for another Little Bells Francophiles episode. I hope that you've enjoyed being transported to France with me and the lovely Elise McLeod today. We're now into the seventh year of the Little Bells Francophiles, and in this season we have already had some fabulous chats, and there will be more across the year with some more authors coming up: Precant hunters, Parisian cooks, or people who've made the leap and followed their dream to move to France, plus loads of other French stories via our podcast chats. To be notified when new episodes are released, subscribe on your favourite podcast platform, or follow Little Bells Francophiles on Insta, and that's where you will also find lots of my personal French photos, as well as some from our Little Bells Francophiles guests. For all of the links from today's chat, head to the Little Bells Francophiles website to blog post number 201. That's episode deux an. Or just pop the word Elise E-L-I-S-E into the search bar at the top right on the Little Bells Francophiles website and this episode will pop up. The website link is in the show notes to today's episode as well. Then come and join me next time on the Little Bells Francophiles and we can all escape to France together. Au revoir, lovely Elise.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Au revoir. Merci. Oh it was a pleasure to speak to you, Louise. It was so nice.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

Au revoir de moi, Louise Prichard, bonjony, ERBN Tomesami.