Mathilde Dubuisson

My daughter and I enjoyed our trip very much. It was a great mother/daughter experience. Our hotels were all in great locations, close to the things we wanted to do. As I am 73, I was a little disappointed that some hotels did not have elevators as it was difficult for me to carry my bags up stairs. Otherwise, the hotels were all good, and the staff at the hotel in Bordeaux were particularly helpful and "sympa."

We also enjoyed the excursions arranged by Mathilde through A la Francaise. Two stood out in particular - the wine tasting in Bordeaux with Ben and the prehistoric art excursion with Anne. Both were interesting, well-informed, and simply lovely people. The only disappointing excursion was the one to Cassis, which consisted of a ride to Cassis with little commentary and 2 hours on our own. However, the guide that day told us it was her first week, so the trip may become more interesting. The scenery in and around Cassis was stunning though.

Train travel went well. There were some problems with the car rental because I damaged the car. The deductible was much higher than I expected, but it was noted on the voucher I received right before departure. In future, I think this deductible should be pointed out to the traveler with the option of booking their own car rental separately. That would have saved me a good deal of money.

Overall a very good trip, and I appreciate Mathilde's help with settling the insurance claim.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Madame

Bordeaux

Good location near the old city, but very near a bar that stayed open late. Street noise was very loud until the early hours of the morning. Breakfast was disappointing. There was no breakfast area, so a tote with a minimal breakfast was left on the door. However, the people working the reception was very nice and helpful.

Authenticity & Character

Breakfast, sound proofing

Location

Very central to the old town, but the area was noisy until early morning hours.

Staff

My daughter left a bag in a taxi, and they tried to help her retrieve it.

Cleanliness & Comfort

La Villa des Consuls

Sarlat-la-Canéda

I loved this hotel, but it is not the best choice for older travelers. There is no street access to the hotel, and parking is quite far away, which made dropping off luggage impossible. In addition, there was no elevator. So for me, it was difficult getting my luggage to the hotel and up to my room. For younger travelers, it would be great due to its excellent location.

Authenticity & Character

Nice, big room and a pretty courtyard with tables and chairs.

Location

It was in the heart of the city on a back alleyway, where it was quiet. If handling luggage is no problem, this is a great hotel.

Staff

The staff we met were very nice, but there were very limited hours where the reception was manned.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Le Donjon – Cœur de La Cité Médiévale

Carcassonne

We liked this hotel that was very close to the castle. The hotel provided staff to pick up us and our luggage at a remote parking area. The service was prompt and available for the return to our car.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel de l'Amphithéâtre

Nîmes

Great location very near the amphitheater. There was no elevator, but the man at the reception offered to carry up our bags. Good selection at breakfast.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Aquabella Hotel & Spa

Aix en Provence

With beautiful hotel and grounds, this hotel was our favorite. It was an easy walk to the center of town, and we had a delicious meal in their restaurant.

Authenticity & Character

Beautiful grounds, nice room.

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Novotel Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

Tremblay-en-France

The hotel was just average and really had little character. However, it was very convenient for getting to our departure gate to fly home. It was hard to find because there are 2 Novotels at the airport, and we walked the entire length of the terminal to find we had gone to the shuttle for the wrong Novotel.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Pont du Gard - Entrance tickets to the discovery area

France

The site and the museum were very impressive. Highly recommend.

Landmarks of Bordeaux

Bordeaux

This was a good excursion, but it was pouring rain during much of it. Our guide Margot was a great sport and tried to make the experience enjoyable.

Quality of Experience

The problem was the pouring rain since it was a walking tour.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

n/a It was a walking tour.,

Two wine regions within a day - Saint-Emilion and Medoc

Bordeaux

Fun day; lovely picnic; and Ben was a phenomenal guide. He was knowledgeable and personable.

Paleolithic Art of the Dordogne Shared Full Day Trip From Sarlat

France

Our guide Anne was a great guide and fun person. She answered all our questions and offered suggestions about places to see and wines and foods to try. Rouffignac was not as impressive as Font de Gaume, which I have visited before. However, Rouffignac offers a train while you have to walk at Font de Gaume.

Aix-en-Provence Gourmet Historical & Walking tour

Aix-en-Provence

Good tour that ended with a cheese and wone tasting at the end. Tour guide was competent but not extraordinary,

Half Day in Cassis

Aix-en-Provence

The area was beautiful, but the tour was really just a ride to Cassis with one stop at an scenic viewpoint.

A special trip to Paris and Colmar, France with my sister was made much easier with help from Mathilde and Kim Kim. It was such a comfort to have accommodations, tours, museums and train tickets all arranged in advance. The need didn’t arise but there was extra security knowing that we could call the Kim Kim team with any problems during our trip.
We had a very special tour guide in Colmar where we learned more about the Alsace region and appreciated the history and beauty of the area. And Paris was beautiful as ever. How exciting to see the city as it prepares to host the Summer Olympics. The advice to book museums early in the day was very good. Prior to our trip, it was very helpful to have a phone conversation with Mathilde to answer our questions and ease any travel anxieties. Vive la France!

Mathilde was excellent in responding promptly and revising the trip as we expressed our wishes in terms of the locations we wanted to visit and budget as well. When Mathilde was away, Kevin stepped in and was very helpful as well. In one situation when we needed help, Valentine also stepped in and offered to switch our hotel but we did not need to move, although the offer was very nice.
We had a fantastic time, sometimes challenging but very satisfying overall. For further commentary see a couple of my blogs below, and you can see all my blogs on the time we spent in France at andrasthehun.blog on wordpress or click on and-r-as-the-hun.ca. I copied two of the blogs below describing our unique experiences in Aix-en-Provence.

Finding Our hotel in Aix-en-Provence, France (blog published at andrasthehun.blog)

The travel agent reserved a place for us in Aix-en-Provence and the GPS in the Peugeot 208 indicated a map showing how to get there. The rush-hour traffic engulfed Kathy driving the car and I assisted navigating the road. Crowds of people walking across the street made driving more challenging. And the roundabouts, of which there were more than traffic lights, complicated driving by sprouting many exits and lanes that we had to assess in trying to find the right exit.
Some exits were just lanes. Once the GPS directed us to take the next right, which was a lane that took us into an underground parking that we toured searching for the exit. On exiting, the inserted ticket triggered the gate to open, and we sped out.
The car rental agent switched the GPS to English from French and a serious-sounding, deep-voiced female directed us to our destination with a UK accent. We learned some new expressions such as “bear right” which means to turn right.
The rush of traffic, the crisscrossing pedestrians, and listening to the deep UK-accented voice combined to make us highly nervous driving in a town new to us, and we wanted to get to our place fast. But that was not to be.
With the hotel address typed into the GPS, the GPS directed us to turn left into a lane right after going around the Rotunda, a central square in Aix. In the fast-moving traffic, we did not notice the small lane quickly enough and missed our turn in the rush-hour traffic. We were frustrated and used some words not appropriate in a blog. After recalculating, the GPS moved us around a few kilometers to come back to the Rotunda again. By that time with our nerves frazzled, we missed the turn lane yet again, being pushed by the cars behind us on our tail.
The third time around Kathy slowed down ignoring the honking behind us and we entered the single lane promising to lead us to our hotel. The next left turn ordered by the GPS left us facing a few bollards not allowing us into the single lane. Stumped, we stopped trying to analyze the situation before the honking became overbearing and people yelling at us to get a move on. We had no choice. We moved on while Kathy, in her utter frustration showed a finger to the woman driver behind us shouting at us.
At this point, having driven around for over an hour and a half, I said, hell with the hotel reservation, let’s take another hotel anywhere in Aix. Then we realized that we needed gas to continue our search. I clicked on Waze on my cellphone and looked for the nearest gas station. Still, in rush-hour traffic, we missed a few gas stations because we could not get to the right lane from the middle lanes fast enough. We filled up at the gas station that we finally reached, where a friendly soul directed us to a suburban hotel twenty minutes away. We were happy though with a full tank of gas and redirected the GPS to find the hotel.
Khalid, the hotel receptionist, was sorry but said his hotel was full and he came with me to two adjacent hotels to speak French to the other receptionists, which he said would help us, poor Canadians, find a place to sleep. Walking back and forth among the hotels afforded me time to discover that Khalid came from Tunisia and he became excited to hear that I loved Tajine.
The horrible option of sleeping in the car came to my mind, should we not find a hotel. But that idea also created a problem; where to find a place to park? Parking in Aix seemed nonexistent. When I shared this idea with Khaled, he would not hear of it, he said he would make sure to find a place for us.
But the nearby hotels were full as well. Khalid called another ten hotels to no avail. By this time, it was dark, and we were totally tired out and the impossible scenario of finding a quiet spot to park and sleep in the car has become a real option. Instead, Khalid suggested we leave the car at his hotel’s parking garage and take a taxi to our hotel, wherever it was. Since it was an offer to park free in the garage, and we were too tired to think, we accepted his offer. We took our overnight bags and waited for the taxi he called.
The taxi followed the route we had taken previously around the Rotunda, but instead of going off to the left where we had gone three times, the driver took the next right which was Cours Mirabeau where our hotel was. When confronted with bollards at the entrance – Cours Mirabeau is closed to traffic except for delivery vehicles and taxis – the driver inserted a card into a slot on a post next to him to make the bollards sink into the ground. And then we drove onto rue Mirabeau and found our hotel.
The next morning, after surveying where we were, we took a taxi to retrieve our car and returned to park it in the nearby parking garage. The instructions to our hotel would have been clearer if instructed to seek a garage, and not the hotel, which was inaccessible by car. But since the hotel has a street address, the GPS took us on a futile trip.
In retrospect, the travel agent should have told us to park first with an address for a garage and instructions on how to reach the hotel next. Instead, the address to the hotel was provided with the suggestion that we park in the nearest parking garage. But we were happy just to find the hotel located along a wide sidewalk full of outdoor cafes with crowds of people. Nobody paid attention to us entering the hotel.

Entering Our Apartment in Aix-en-Provence, France (blog published under andrasthehun.blog)

Talk about security! I thought we would get a key from a receptionist and go to our room in a hotel. Not so. We were registered at Les Suites Du Cours in Aix-en-Provence, which we thought was a hotel – but discovered later that in Aix, at least, a hotel is a type of townhouse in the center of the old city, they used to be houses of the wealthy. Our hotel room turned out to be an apartment.
Let me start in the beginning when we received instructions on how to access our “self-registration” where we would be staying tonight. Although we had the street address, the instructions on how to enter our accommodation from the travel agent came the day Kathy drove from St. Remy to Aix-en-Provence, about an hour’s drive.
I was surprised; I expected a hotel with a lobby and a receptionist. Not so. We received an algorithm on how to enter this place via ten successive emails that mirrored a five-page manual on entering this place, the latter also sent via email!
Challenged by digital codes and fobs and keys in the instructions, I was apprehensive about our arrival; what if we could not follow the instructions and were left on the street with no receptionist? Although we had a phone number, what if they do not work at night or not at home? And would my French be good enough to communicate with them?
When we arrived at the address with two backpacks, after being lost for three hours, we faced a large, ornamental door, shown in a picture on the five-page instruction manual. The door at our address was in the middle of outdoor cafes, with people occupying all the tables, oblivious to the new arrivals.
So, we started by punching in the four-digit code to open the ten-foot-high historical, ornamental, heavy door; it clicked and we pushed it inwards. The door was very heavy with springs so strong that I had to lean into it to keep it open. Total darkness awaited us inside the twenty-foot-long vestibule, and I fumbled to find a light switch, indicated by three lighted dots on the wall ten feet away from us. We searched for the mailboxes, as instructed, opened the door, and looked up the next code to open the number 5 mailbox, our apartment number. We punched another four-digit code a few times with no success until I realized that the star after the four digits was part of the code and not the end of the instructions. Two sets of keys fell out of the mailbox for our next set of doors.
A fob was attached to both sets of keys and one of the fobs opened the next door, leading to the staircase and the elevator. This part of the building was also totally in darkness but by now we knew to look for the light switch. With only our backpacks, we decided to walk up the stairs instead of using the elevator even though the twenty-foot ceiling made the stairs long. The instructions were that only one person and a suitcase could be in the elevator at one time, and yet another key to use it. At any rate, our apartment was only on the second floor, we reasoned, and Kathy was worried she might get stuck in the ancient elevator.
Having reached the second floor, we tried to use the old-fashioned elaborately molded key to open the large, ten-foot-high ornamental door. We were tired and the key was obstreperous, it would not work. I was unsure whether I put it in the right manner and twisted it around in all directions. Finally, I banged on the door in frustration, expecting someone to be around to help us or tell us to get out of there but nothing happened.
Then the realization struck us that in France, the second floor is actually on the third level. The ground or first floor is the “rez-de-chaussee”. So, we hauled our baggage up to the next floor in the dark again since the lights worked for a short time only and we had to find the next switch on the next level. This time the old key worked. Finally, we arrived in our “hallway”, but it was pitch black again, and fumbled in the dark to find a switch.
In this hallway, several double doors faced us which, I thought would lead us to the kitchen, bedroom, etc. I heard voices behind one of the doors so I went there and burst in to let the intruders know that we reserved this unit. American voices greeted us in a friendly tone, and they said that they had reserved this unit for five days and our apartment must be behind another door opening from the “hallway”.
Three apartment units opened from this hallway and we, apparently, reserved one of these but we did not see numbers to indicate which one. Each unit had a set of double doors in front of the locked door units themselves – the unit number itself was a small number on the inner door, not visible from the hallway. The ornamental double doors, we speculated, were probably the original doors to be kept for historical purposes, and the inner doors, where our keys worked, were modern, lockable ones.
I was embarrassed for bursting in on the American visitors, apologized, and went to another door in the hallway where one of the keys on the second set of keys worked. Finally, we arrived at our apartment. The “hallway” served three apartments; I mistook the word hallway for our apartment’s lobby.
Once we settled into our bright place, we engaged in a friendly discussion with the neighbors and imbibed a glass of wine to calm our frazzled nerves, I reflected on the amount of security installed here. We needed two digital codes, a fob, and two keys to enter our apartment! Was this necessary? Is this overkill? Is the crime rate in France high? I did not know. But I thought the five barriers to mount to enter an apartment were beyond the pale. But perhaps when you get used to this system, it becomes simple. At any rate, we felt secure to leave our passports in the room when venturing outside.
Now you might think this entrance to occupy your hotel/apartment was frustrating, irritating and unnecessary. It was. But at the same time, to me, it was a puzzle to solve. It was fun. I used to do sudoku and now I do wordle. The satisfaction of solving puzzles was similar to solving this real-life puzzle to get into our accommodation.

Contacting KimKim and especially Mathilde was the best decision my wife and myself made for our 3 week trip to France. We had never used a travel specialist to organize an entire vacation in the past but now realize it will be the only way we will travel in the future. Mathilde was assigned to our initial request and she was extremely fast at getting back to us with a suggested itinerary. We told her that we wanted to start in Paris for 3-4 days and then end up in southern France for the last week of our holiday. We are quite active and wanted to see as much as possible during our stay and asked her for some information walking tours, wine and e bike tours as well as many other things. Our stays during the 3 weeks were in Paris, Normandy, Mont St. Michel, Loire Valley, Bordeaux, Aix en Provence and Nice. WIth regards to transportation, she handled the private transfers to and from the airport in Paris and everything in between which was a combination of train and car rental. All of the hotels that she booked were fabulous!!! Where Mathilde really excelled was all of the tours that she organized and arranged on our behalf. From the full day small group tours in travel vans or e bikes to the 1/2 day private historical tours. She booked 2 private boat tours, one in Paris and the other on the Mediterranean in Nice. Some of the tours we drove to ourselves in the beautiful French countryside which was great as well!!! All of the guides were very friendly, knowledgable and a lot of fun. Additionally, they spoke very good English. As we reflect on our holiday, we both feel it could not have been any better than what Mathilde put together for us. We will always treasure our very special trip to France because of you!!! Merci, merci, merci.