I recently discovered something that genuinely meant a great deal to me.

A few people booking my walking tours through French Riviera Traveller mentioned that they had found my website through Rick Steves’ France guidebook. Curious, I contacted his team and learned that French Riviera Traveller is listed in the French Riviera section under “Helpful Hints”:

“Travel writer and Riviera resident Jeanne Oliver runs frenchrivieratraveller.com, an extremely helpful website for visitors.”

Considering how long I’ve worked in travel writing, that small paragraph felt surprisingly emotional to read. I first heard Rick Steves’ name back in 1990 or 1991, shortly after arriving in Paris and beginning to write for The Paris Voice. I vaguely remember one of the editors mentioning that he knew this American travel writer guy who was doing remarkably well with his self-published Europe guidebooks. He may have written for The Paris Voice as well or had just been passing through Paris at the time; the travel-writing world felt much smaller then.

Since then, Rick Steves went on to become one of the most trusted names in travel. I went on to write numerous guidebooks for Frommer’s and Lonely Planet. I began to specialize in Croatia and for years divided my time between Croatia (croatiatraveller.com) and the French Riviera (frenchrivieratraveller.com and riviera-beaches.com). Like many independent travel publishers, I built these websites slowly over time: article by article, walk by walk, photograph by photograph.

Long before social media algorithms and AI summaries began reshaping the internet, travel websites were often deeply personal projects. Mine certainly were. I’ve always been less interested in producing quick lists of “top things to do” and more interested in helping travelers understand places more deeply: their history, atmosphere, neighborhoods, contradictions, and everyday details. And, like Rick Steves, I knew that visitors need granular details to help them navigate new places–transport, costs, communications, local customs.

But it was the desire to provide a deeper, more meaningful experience that eventually led to my book Nice Uncovered, which entailed countless hours wandering around Nice researching obscure historical details that most visitors walk past without noticing.

So what means the most to me about this mention, besides the visibility, is the feeling that careful, independent travel writing still matters.

The internet is changing rapidly. Search engines increasingly answer questions directly instead of sending readers to the people who spent years building expertise on a subject. In that environment, loyal readers and genuine word-of-mouth recommendations become more valuable than ever.

I think that is why this small mention resonated so strongly with me. Rick Steves has long championed thoughtful, curious, independent travel rather than superficial tourism, and those are values I have always tried to bring to my own work as well.

So if you’ve been reading French Riviera Traveller over the years, booking walks with me, sharing articles, or recommending the site to others, I thank you! Independent websites survive because readers continue to find value in them, return to them, and tell others about them.

And if you discovered French Riviera Traveller through Rick Steves’ guidebook — welcome! I’m very glad you’re here.