15.04 - A multi-talented American moves to French Basque Country + a very personal Paris Tour
This FREE edition of le Bulletin introduces a new Magazine Contributor who shares stories about: moving to France, life in Toulouse, then moving to Basque country & marrying. We also take a Paris tour
Bonjour and francophile friends… I’m thrilled you’re here again this week — Bienvenue/welcome.
In this edition you’ll find:
What’s happening in MyFrenchLife Magazine - new articles.
Next…further down in this newsletter we’ll welcome a new magazine contributor and read her first article: ‘Moving to France: Finding my toddler-like footing in always-enchanting France’,
If you enjoy this edition, please note that every week there is another entirely different version of le bulletin exclusively for paying subscribers. This week that edition is ‘15.04.a How France keeps its artisan food culture alive. Look for it in your inbox (or here)!
Merci mille fois.
Judy - 25.1.2025
1. Let’s explore & read the new articles in My FrenchLife Magazine
Did you know there are many articles in MyFrenchLife Magazine, where savvy francophiles love to immerse themselves and indulge?
Thank you to all Contributors to our magazine. I love that your articles take us from one end of France to another and constantly remind us of the rich culture of this wonderful and diverse country.
Merci.
Judy.
→ Here you’ll find the most recently published articles:
a) → The JB Walking Tour of Paris
by Jenn Bragg
JB Walking Tour Paris: my dear friend Jenny from the US. I want to show her some of my favorite places in Paris, so I’m calling it ‘the JB Walking Tour of Paris’. (Throughout my adult life people have called me ‘JB’, including Jenny.) So I thought, since I’ll be busy showing her around, this could be the theme of this week’s newsletter.
Read the entire article and follow the tour←
Please consider upgrading your subscription to support my work and receive the exclusive PAID subscriber edition each Saturday.
↓ CLICK IMAGE & read all the articles on MyFrenchLife Magazine ↓
2. → Welcome to New Contributor Kelsey Rose
I’m delighted to welcome Kelsey Rose as a regular contributor to MyFrenchLife Magazine. She writes for us from French Basque country, having recently married and moved from Toulouse.
Kelsey Rose is the Archivist of the Eames Office, a freelance historian and writer, a hobbyist photographer, a modern architecture preservation advocate, and a French learner.
She describes herself as:
As an incredibly curious, sentimental, and sensitive person, it’s easy for me to attach importance to stories and places. So, most of my life and work have revolved around history and geography. My educational background is in Art History (with an emphasis on the Modern Era) and Museum Studies, with a Master’s in Archives. You’ll see that my writings are soaked in my admiration and care for historic places, objects, and the people who came before us.
I’m American and I live in the South of France.”
I’m sure that you’ll enjoy her articles!
Here is the first one about her move to France.
So…
C’est parti - let’s go !
→ Moving to France: Finding my toddler-like footing in always-enchanting France
by Kelsey Rose Williams Barthés
I was 32 years old when I arrived, exhaustingly jubilant, on French soil with my petite black cat, two oversized suitcases, and my desktop computer. My expansive book collection remained in transit. Seventeen cardboard boxes were suspended above and over the Atlantic Ocean, just as I had been. Thirty-two years quickly transformed into an age of two. With my sense of wonder heightened, I began the chapter I define as “my second childhood.” I’d be role-playing as a toddler this time—and a French one, at that!
I’d experience the amazement of discovery, the introduction to new foods, the learning of social norms, and a self-built version of the French language. Life was beginning again, almost as if from scratch. Dedicated to helping me assimilate and feel at home was my sweet husband who, at the time, held the title of ‘boyfriend.’ We serendipitously met years prior thanks to the Eames House, where I worked as an architectural guide and occasional conservationist.
Enthusiastically, we remained in touch, and after COVID restrictions closed and reopened borders, I bought a plane ticket from the West Coast US to Paris. I had never been to Europe, and this fact scratched at me incessantly. Plus, I was a year into my serious Duolingo French language streak. France and I—we were overdue for our rendez-vous.
Enchanted and wide-eyed
The handsome and kind man in question whisked me away from Charles de Galle airport. We spent our first date eating razor clams in a jazz café in Montmartre and then visited Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye with wide eyes. I was busy checking off so many bucket list items in one day while feeling the tingling of love—both for this person and this new-to-me culture. I was absolutely enchanted. A year and a half later came my across-the-globe move. Not to Paris, but to the South of France, to a rose-tinted city called Toulouse. Oh, the dramatic, soul-replenishing things we do for love, language, and exploration!
Image credits: Watching jazz in Montmartre, Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, Le Centre Pompidou,
eating at Bouillon Julien, the Eiffel Tower as seen from the steps of Le Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.
All images copyright Kelsey Rose/author.
Navigating the unfamiliar
What came along quickly after the move were the little things: understanding meters and grams, navigating the unfamiliar rules of the roads on a vintage Honda scooter, learning how to mail a letter at the post office, attending doctor appointments topless, or confusingly converting Celsius to something that made more sense to me. The big things thunderously rumbled me after a few months passed: mostly the loneliness of being separated from 98% of the people I love dearly. Complaining that you’re gloomy while residing in France—to Americans—is unfathomable, even to the one who was living the experience.
Scenes from life in Toulouse. All images taken by the author.
…and two years after
Exactly two years after moving countries, I am not quite a four-year-old French person yet. Being an immigrant doesn’t allow you to grow in a linear way like a “normal” life does. I continue to oscillate between feeling like a stumbling, goofy toddler, and seeming linguistically twelve.
On my best days, I am more akin to the peaceful, self-assured version of me—beaming and soaking in my good fortune. Us two lovers planned and experienced a tiny, warm-hearted wedding in the Basque Country.
Then, we moved to that region of France, settling in a small seaside Basque village called Ciboure. I am continuing my Duolingo streak (4 1/2 years without one day missed!); I abandoned my strict vegetarianism for chorizo and paella; and I am constantly amazed by the kindness and patience of every person I encounter. Quelle aventure !
Scenes from life in the French Basque Country. All images taken by the author.
All of my moments of learning include taking mental and physical notes of the cultural differences between America and France. My knowledge of art, architecture, and design has heightened and sharpened itself through a French lens—a cherished realization.
In my future writings here, I hope to share more about the above-mentioned Villa Savoye, Audrey Hepburn exploring 1960s Paris, and how I am enveloping my days in curiosity and growth in this enticing, perplexing, trés incroyable second beginning at life.
I’d love to hear whether you’ve moved to France from elsewhere and how that experience changed your perception of your inner and outer world. Please share in the comments below.
Kelsey Rose
3. “Thank you for subscribing to ‘le Bulletin’ newsletter” Judy MacMahon
That was fun, wasn’t it?
I hope to see you here again next week
Judy MacMahon
Fondatrice
MyFrenchLife.org
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So over-the-top excited to be a new contributor. Merci mille fois, Judy!
I can relate to the feeling of being a toddler in France.