Our Provence and Côte d’Azur Road Trip: Live from the NEC Inspiration Stage
Join us live from the NEC Inspiration Stage as we share the story behind our unforgettable road trip through Provence and the Côte d’Azur.
In this presentation, recorded at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, we take you behind the scenes of our South of France journey — from lavender-filled countryside and historic hilltop villages to dramatic coastal drives and Mediterranean views.
We cover:
✅ Why Provence and the Côte d’Azur are perfect for a road trip
✅ How we planned our route and balanced coast vs countryside
✅ Highlights, surprises, and lessons learned along the way
✅ Practical tips to help you plan your own South of France adventure
Whether you’re dreaming up a future European road trip or simply looking for travel inspiration, this talk is packed with insight, stories, and honest reflections from the road. Sit back, get inspired, and start imagining your own journey through southern France.
We are Richard and Jackie and we live in the UK. We retired from teaching at the age of 51 in the summer of 2022. Our plans for early requirement include relocating to the Yorkshire Dales, developing our forever home and travelling the UK, Europe and eventually the world in our VW campervan Nelson.
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Many thanks,
Richard & Jackie
13 Comments
I really enjoyed your talk on the Wednesday and even with the microphone issues you were great. Keep doing the good stuff. Paul.
1st stop NEC, next stops world stadium tour and BBC series! 😀
knowing you so well from your channel Karen and I were nervous for you. We're so pleased it went well. You are a lovely couple and deserve every success. Keep going Love from New Zealand.
Thought you came across as genuine, knowledgeable and friendly and presented extremely well – we stayed in Mont Saint Michel in Menton while doing an interrail its a long walk from the train station to the camp site
Aww ypu are both so awesome on that stage 😊❤
Karen
Great presentation and well inspiring! Keep it all flowing to us "you tubers"
You did amazingly well! Very interesting talk, beautiful pictures. Impressed that you could do without looking at any notes. If I can make one suggestion for future talks – there’s bound to be more: you can repeat/summarise the audience question before answering it if they don’t have a mic to use. It helps everyone understand what you are replying to. Great work!
Brilliant presentation! Well done. Have an amazing ski trip.
Fantastic you two, brilliant talk, very informative, I feel,like when I eventually bump into you in booths I need to ask for your autograph 😁 enjoy ⛷ xx
Ps can I ask where is your screen from, can’t remember what you said , I’m after one for my vw. I’m thinking rainbow 🤔 thanks 😊
I knew you would be great! Just like doing an assembly, like riding a bike – you never forget. I hope that you have gained some more subscribers from this talk. Maybe next year, you will be doing a talk followed by a book signing….
I really enjoyed this one brought back some happy memories of holidays years ago in France. Inspired me to want to go back again. Congratulations on your presentation you smashed it
We were at the talk on Thursday, and found it thoroughly entertaining and informative. We thought you presented very well and were a little surprised at how at ease you both appeared to be ☺️ Maybe your teaching experience helped with that, being used to speaking to groups of people. Not something I would be comfortable doing 🤣 Bravo 👏🏻
Brilliant! Thank you both for creating this video, it was amazing to see you both talking so passionately, as you always do about your adventures. Looking forward to Sunday’s video. Big thanks to Robbie for recording that session as it was especially helpful for those of us who couldn’t make it to the NEC. It just shows how the community work together. Have a great skiing trip.