15.40 - Butter, Belief & Beauty: Exploring the French Paradox
In this FREE le Bulletin takes us from Alpine panoramas to golden buttercups in Normandy, these stories reveal how France connects landscape, flavour, and culture in unforgettable ways. Ready?
Today at a Glance: Your FREE weekly newsletter
Bonjour mes amis !
It’s wonderful to have you back here with me today! Bienvenue !
In this newsletter, you’ll find fresh articles, “Butter, Belief & Beauty: Exploring the French Paradox.”
Watch out for and don’t miss the PAID subscriber edition of le Bulletin on Saturday this weekend: “15.40.a - Reinvention: Lessons from France - It’s not too late to subscribe←
AND IMPORTANTLY, our MyFrenchLife French BookClub is active again. Please let us know if you’d like to read with us in English or in French and share the word - invite your friends - the more the merrier!
BookClub Announcement: #Mona'sEyes
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Since 'Mona's Eyes' (Les Yeux de Mona) by Thomas Schlesser was first published in France on 31 January 2024, I have been posting about it elsewhere in this BookClub group because I was certain such a special (and acclaimed) novel would eventually be translated.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE FOR YOU, yes, all of you.
Bonjour mes amis,
In case you haven’t already had a look, our new community Zine MyFrenchLife.org is looking better every day - Have a peep :)
À bientôt !
Warmly,
Judy - 4.10.2025
1. MyFrenchLife™Magazine new articles
“There are many talented contributors to MyFrenchLife Magazine and I thank all of you for sharing your experiences with us in such an engaging manner.
You take us right across France & deep into many worm-holes. We delight in discovering
and learning more about France beyond the cliché”
Merci
Judy
a) Ever heard of #FranceStack? Check out what happens when ~100 Writers from France come together
by Judy MacMahon
(It Started with a Hill in Southwest France)
I stumbled across Susie Mawhinney’s “A hill and I” the way you discover most good things, completely by accident. Her Substack promised “field conversations and blurry photography from a hill in SW France, wrapped in self-sufficient chaos, memoir obscurities and armfuls of love.”
Oh my, I thought, this sounds way beyond the cliché, and it sounds intriguing.
Reading her intimate stories of rural French life, I found myself utterly absorbed. Here was someone sharing the real, unfiltered experience of living on a hill in Southwest France… not the glossy magazine version, but the beautiful, messy, authentic reality. The kind of writing that makes you feel like you’re sitting beside her, cup of coffee in hand, listening to stories about life in the French countryside.
And that’s when it hit me: if Susie’s voice was this captivating, how many other extraordinary writers from France were out there, sharing their stories to small audiences, completely unknown to the wider Francophile community?
Alors, I thought, we need to fix this…”, I found myself saying.
b) Série Vidéo: 7 Sites sur la Rive Gauche du Lac d'Annecy — en Francais et en Anglais
par Pierre Guernier
Cet article est la deuxième partie d’une série vidéo en français – vous trouverez la traduction anglaise ci-dessous - English below.
Moins fréquentée que la rive droite, la rive gauche du lac d’Annecy a pourtant bien des atouts à révéler à qui prend le temps de la parcourir. Dans cette vidéo, Pierre vous invite à suivre un itinéraire tout en douceur et en contrastes, entre rives animées, petits hameaux pleins de charme, sentiers lacustres et vues panoramiques sur les sommets alentours…” a dit Pierre Guernier.
c) Butter: exploring the ‘French Paradox’
by Alison Eastaway
Les français and Australians tend to disagree in their preference between butter and margarine. The French value taste over the consequences of consuming high levels of saturated fat. Australians accept a less satisfying, palatable experience for a corresponding reduction in harmful fats and calories. Is one right and the other wrong?…” wrote Alison Eastaway.
d) French butter: why is it so delicious?
by Stephanie Williamson
The French are the world’s most prolific butter eaters. Unafraid of fat, they’ll spread butter thickly onto bread, rub it into pastry, and even drop a slice onto warm vegetables.
Producers of the famous Isigny Sainte-Mere butter from Normandy lovingly describe it as “yellow like buttercups, with a faint taste of hazelnuts”.
People come from far and wide to sample French butter. So what does French butter have that others do not?
e) Please Keep your Hands in my Food: Why this butter made people mad
by Amanda Muckerman
“…I was filming a video about Dijon mustard in a village restaurant in Burgundy when the chef said to me,
You should really do a story about Beurre Bordier up in Saint-Malo. That’s what all the big French chefs use.”
Beurre Bordier
“I had never heard of Beurre Bordier, but I soon discovered that it was almost like never having heard of Ben & Jerry’s — it was the butter, renowned both in France and around the world, a gem, but hardly a hidden one…”
2. Merci mille fois
“Thank you for subscribing to ‘le Bulletin’, the newsletter of MyFrenchLife Magazine.”
Judy MacMahon
Chers amis (dear friends)
What a journey this has been!
We’ve strolled the shaded lake paths of Annecy with Pierre, soaking in that balance between calm and beauty. Then, with Alison, Stephanie, and Amanda, we looked at butter not as a simple ingredient but as a cultural mirror—revealing French pleasure, tradition, and even a touch of controversy.
Isn’t it fascinating how butter in France can tell us so much about taste, health, and identity? These stories remind me why I love gathering here with you: to share la vraie France in all its subtle, delicious detail.
Merci for being part of this adventure, semaine après semaine.
And a reminder to consider upgrading your subscription to be able to immerse yourself in the FULL MyFrenchLife experience.
Warmly
A bientôt
Judy
judy@myfrenchlife.org
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