15.02.a - Capturing precious moments: in France or at home — I challenge you
Massive! This edition of le Bulletin is WITHOUT PAYWALL During the holiday period I've been feeling thoughtful, whimsical, inspired & living a little vicariously. Bonne lecture - happy reading
Today at a Glance: your PAID weekly newsletter
Bonjour, longtime and new supporters, and friends… I’m thrilled you’re here with me again this week—bienvenue—welcome. This is your weekly PAID newsletter. You will also have already received the FREE le Bulletin with different content, numbered 15.02, which is in your email inbox already.
Again, I wish you a wonderful 2025. Let’s just say “better than last year,” shall we?
I’ve been very focused and productive behind the scenes. On the one hand, I’ve been enjoying many magical moments and the way you’re capturing yours. In that way, I’ve been feeling inspired by living vicariously!
Once again, I thank you for your financial support, which enables me to continue producing these two newsletters weekly!
Here’s what you’ll find today:
Being inspired by others ‘capturing their magical moments’…
What’s happening in MyFrenchLife Magazine - new articles to read.
If you enjoy this edition, please consider upgrading:
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Why? Well, just to say thank you to them. - they’ll love it as much as you do.
Warm regards
Judy - 11.1.2025
1. Capturing precious moments: in France or at home – my challenge to you
I've been feeling thoughtful, and whimsical, and living a little vicariously as I said.
Most of my inspiration usually comes from inside of me and from my immediate surroundings, but there are times when I’m inspired when immersed in external environments. Other times I’m swept up, or sucked into the world of others… It’s not jealousy, yet I do often inhabit those worlds. At the time I can feel as if it’s my world. I’m fully immersed…so deep....and sometimes I come out floating with inspiration as if I’m living in a cloud.
Many of you have been publicly sharing special moments in time in your lives over the holiday period, I’ve felt swept away by these. Swept away into your lives. Swept away by the way you’ve been capturing these ‘magic moments’. Swept away and in awe, of your lives, surroundings, and talent!
Below you’ll find a random selection of these ‘captured magic moments’ and I CHALLENGE YOU to share your ‘magic moments’ by reposting and attaching your image. I’d love you to take me into your life! I’m looking forward to disappearing into the vortex you create.
Please send photos, drawings, paintings, collages, videos…however you like to express yourself.
There are 17 magic moments I’ve shared below. How many do you have to share with me? I’d love just one from each of you, please :)
C’est parti - let’s Go!
If you, too, are inspired by any of these captured moments,
you may choose to follow them…
i - Joseph Massey ← Dispatches from the Basement
First pic of 2025: tree reflected in a snow puddle.
Year’s End (Winter Solstice)
What began with bewilderment
ends with fatigue. Pixelated
days dispersed into static
we mistook for speech.
We stopped listening
how many shocks ago.
The horror and how it hollows.
One way out
is to locate grace in a walk
and receive a tree’s bare
but bright frequency.
Notice the waxing gibbous
afternoon moon, lucent
above a shuttered
Bank of America.
See starlings
expand and collapse
like lungs exhaling dusk.
Now the long night,
a long silence
if we’ll let it find us.
All images and words copyright Joseph Massey
ii - Chuck Marshall ←
Light, snow, and trees…together they are magic :)
Image credit: All images and video copyright author
iii - Augusta Sagnelli ← Baby Blue/ Notes
iv - Susanne Helmert← perfectlight
“…as a photographic subject, fog is beautiful. taken on my walk this morning using my phone”
Image credit: All images and video copyright author
v - Neil Barker← Meditations on Nature
Image credit: All images and video copyright author
vi - Betty Carslon ← France in Between
vii - Une Bonne Maison ←Morning frost in the French countryside!
viii - Robyn Wilding ←
Image credit: All images and video copyright author
ix - Zoe <- Garden Bliss
Image credit: All images and video copyright author
x - Suzanne Grosso Vidal ← A weekend away in La Baule, France ←
xi - Aminus3 Photography ←
xii - Phineas Rueckert - Becoming French
xiii - Samantha Dior Baker - Draw your world
xiv - Ann Collins
This morning i was gifted a hand-felted snail. i will now faint from the sheer joy of its presence 🐌
xv - Deborah Vass - Still Sketching
I nipped out in my dressing gown this morning to capture four chilly cormorants at sunrise.
xvi - Elyssa Goldberg
when Paris delivers, she really delivers.
purple sunrise with Sacre Coeur in the distance.
xvii - Kelsey Rose ←Absolument !
“I moved to France two years ago today! It has definitely been the COOLEST and most challenging thing I’ve done in my life. I wrote about it for
le Bulletin 🇫🇷by Judy MacMahon—publishing soon!” writes Kelsey Rose
Did you enjoy all of this whimsy and captured magical moments?
…And now I’m sure that you’ve had enough even though I could go on forever!!!
Note: not all of these images are from France.
Now it’s your turn.
Share your images of captured magic moments… → Go!
Judy
Please consider upgrading your subscription to support my work and receive the exclusive PAID subscriber edition each Saturday.
2. New articles on MyFrenchLife Magazine
Keep up with the new articles → published in our Magazine this week.
a) → French recipes: Winter Vegan Minestrone Soup
by Allison Mitchell
This minestrone, while it won’t win any beauty pageants, is one that makes your spoon heavy; it’s so loaded with vegetables and beans and pasta it’s basically a stew. You have to bring your face close to your bowl for the shortest possible journey to your mouth, a winter dish if ever there was one…
Read the entire article and the recipe! ←
b) Marseille: A Coastal Visit — My Guided Tour
by Suzanne Grosso Vidal
Whether you know Marseille or have never been there, you’ll enjoy how Suzanne takes you by the hand and gives you tips to guide you to follow in her footsteps and discover these wonderful: huge vistas and tiny ports.
I have been quite fortunate to spend a lot of time in Marseille, recently. There’s no knowledge like local knowledge and having been shown around by someone who grew up in Marseille. It has been remarkable. Who knew all that lies beneath this mysterious city? Marseille gets a lot of bad press. Some are warranted but like any big city, there are bad, good, and wonderful areas. Here’s what I would do if I had a few days in Marseille. Enjoy taking this walk with me.” says Suzanne.
↓ CLICK IMAGE & read all the articles on MyFrenchLife Magazine ↓
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3. Merci mille fois
“Thank you so much for reading ‘le Bulletin’.
I really appreciate the support you’re all offering across 89 countries, and the 50 states of the USA in which le Bulletin is read. I hope that le Bulletin helps you discover, better understand and then experience France beyond the cliché.
Also thank you for your financial support, it means the world to me, and it helps me continue to produce two le Bulletin newsletters each, and every week “
- Judy
I hope to see you here again next week
Judy MacMahon
Fondatrice
MyFrenchLife.org
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at info@myfrenchlife.org
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I love those natural photos. One of my magic moments was watching my dog Leo’s slightly embarrassed face when he received a portrait sketched by a relative.
How touching to see my photo in your "special moments" post --also quite a few others I recognize from special moments on Substack this year. And I love the drawings, especially the vegetables!
Unfortunately it seems we can't share a photo on a Substack comment! But this was one of my special moments, as I was on the way to the subject of my next article for Le Bulletin! The drive was absolutely ethereal...
https://substack.com/@bettycarlson/note/c-76472712