O.C. sports broadcaster Kent French hangs up the mike to travel the globe with family
In the past two decades, Kent French has become a recognizable face in major league sports in Orange County, serving as a broadcast journalist for both the Ducks and the Angels.
Having worked his way through a series of radio and cable TV sports gigs, the San Clemente resident almost lucked into covering the Angels during the 2002 World Series and, one year later, the Stanley Cup Finals.
French produced broadcasts in front of a live audience at the Disney-owned sports-themed restaurant ESPN Zone, where he was flanked by his own Kent French Orchestra, produced and managed NHL’s first webcast, Ducks TV and covered the team when it finally won the Cup in 2007.
He eventually transitioned to Bally Sports, formerly Fox Sports West, and began regularly hosting Ducks and Angels pre- and post-game shows. Despite the obvious perks, the commitment entailed, at one point, traveling up to 150 days per year, covering 78 Ducks games and 80 Angels games each season.
On top of the formal job duties, the married father of one young daughter also makes regular appearances at charity events and auctions, where he serves as emcee.
“It’s a dream job, it truthfully is. This is what I wanted to do,” French, 55, said in an interview Wednesday. “You’re working weekends, holidays, all that stuff. On the road, you’re not necessarily working every day but you’re gone every day — there is no break.”
Until now. French delivered his last broadcast on Sept. 28, wishing his audience a fond farewell as he embarks with wife Michelle and 7-year-old daughter Everly today on a yearlong journey around the world.
The couple packed up their home and leased it out in August, temporarily bunking in French’s parents’ home in Costa Mesa as they finalized plans for the first stage of their globe-trekking adventure — from LAX to New York City and then on to Portugal, Greece and Croatia before arriving in Malta by Christmas.
The Frenches plan to spend weeks at each stop, which they hope will give them enough time to get a feel for the people, culture and the daily rhythms of life.
Whatever comes out of the journey will be chronicled on the family’s new web platform Frenchitivity, which will feature a travel blog, photos and video interviews with the people they meet along the way.
“It will be like a travel guide in certain ways and will also celebrate culture and community in each of those different spots,” Michelle, 47, explained Wednesday, describing days book-ended by meditation and mindfulness practices with time carved out for writing, video editing and building out the platform.
More than mere Instagram fodder, the end result as they see it now will be a tableau of experiences, interviews and insights gained from the places they visit, activities they engage in and the people they meet.
“We want to have adventures, be a family having an amazing time, then summarize that so it’s of value to someone else,” Michelle said. “Our guiding principle, our North Star, is to provide value.”
The overarching idea is to try and find a new way of living, the couple says, apart from days occupied by the daily grind and routines that can become almost etched into an individual’s DNA over time.
What began as casual conversations about taking time out of busy schedules to travel and learn together as a family morphed into a more formal process of planning, plotting and saving after Michelle wound down her own event-planning business, Sunday Sol Events, in 2022.
After taking a much-needed pause, during which time she earned her yoga certification, Michelle began talking with Kent about taking the leap and going on a journey large enough to spark authentic change in their lives, applying their natural talents and skills in a process guided by equal parts intuition and curiosity.
They placed a large world map on the wall of Michelle’s office and began researching points of interest as a family. The move involved notifying a lot of people, figuring out how to pack up and rent out their San Clemente home and finding a solid homeschooling program for Everly. But they figured, if not now, then when?
“It’s like make believe,” Kent said. “This is something where you sit around the fireplace with a glass of wine and say, ‘If I could dream up a trip, this is it.’ And now, here we go.”
Not every stop in the family’s journey has been fully booked, and that’s intentional. If a chance encounter leads them to a new destination, or a group of people, they want to make space for that.
Everly, whose travels with mom and dad have already taken her to several U.S. destinations as well as to London, also had a hand in the travel planning. For example, New York City was her idea.
“I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty,” the 7-year-old explained.
Other travel goals include petting an elephant for her birthday in February and maybe, just maybe, considering a trip to China when the family plans to be in Asia early next year, so she can visit in person a panda, Hua Mei, that she adopted through a nonprofit earlier this year.
Everly hopes to share photos of some of the international cuisine she encounters along the way in a segment on Frenchitivity called “French Fry,” a nickname her friend coined.
The sky’s the limit for the French family, which only has one goal for the year ahead.
“I hope that we come back better as individuals, better as a family, stronger, and have a better appreciation for what’s important in our lives,” Kent said. “That’s the biggest thing — we’re going to come back in a better place, no matter what.”
“I completely concur exactly with that sentiment,” Michelle agreed. “We’re traveling away to come back home, to ourselves, who we really are and who we want to be in this world.”
Follow their journey on Frenchitivity.com.
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