16.07 - The France Nobody Tells You About — Until Now
Inside this FREE le Bulletin you'll find: A medieval siege, a Queen who accidentally changed the world, and a film festival that proves French cinema is gloriously unstoppable worldwide.
Today at a Glance: Your FREE weekly newsletter
Bonjour mes ami(e)s !
It’s wonderful to have you back here with me today, at the beginning of a new year! Bienvenue !
In this newsletter, you’ll find these wonderful fresh articles taking you to France beyond the cliché,
Don’t miss the PAID subscriber edition of le Bulletin in your inbox: “16.07.a - From Rodin to Royal Scandal: Your Weekly French Deep Dive .“ It’s not too late to upgrade & read it←
À bientôt !
Warmly,
Judy - 21.2.2026
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
Our list of valued Contributors →
a) The Siege of Calais and Auguste Rodin’s Burghers of Calais
by Caroline McCormick-Clarke
The Hundred Years’ War: the Siege of Calais and the Burghers of Calais as portrayed in opera, paintings, and Rodin’s renowned sculpture.
I first came across Auguste Rodin in late Summer 1987 in London, where I was completing the final part of my M.Sc. in Geophysics at Imperial College. It was a summer of U2 and Madonna concerts in London and geophysical fieldwork in the wilds of Snowdonia, Wales. I was soon to start my training and 28-year career in education, having decided that the oil and gas exploration industry was ultimately not the career for me. Whilst I loved travel (still do), I desired a home of my own, love, and a family, where I could put down my own roots.
A fellow student and friend took me to the Tate museum, where I stood in awe upon encountering Rodin’s The Kiss.
b) Film Review: Australian French Film Festival 2026 is on! — Ozon
by Cynthia Karena
It wouldn’t be a French Film Festival without a François Ozon film. The Stranger (L’etranger), is Ozon’s vision of Albert Camus’ novel about an unassuming expat under trial for murder in French-colonised Algeria. What an unmissable mix – Ozon and Camus!
French stars
Impressive French stars such as Isabelle Huppert, Laure Calamy, Daniel Auteuil, and Marion Cotillard are always worth watching. Huppert features in The Richest Woman in the World (La Femme la Plus Riche du Monde). (Note that Huppert will be in Australia in March for her solo stage performances of Mary Said What She Said at the Adelaide Festival.)
The film is based on the real-life scandal of Liliane Bettencourt, the billionaire heiress to the L’Oreal fortune, when she befriends Pierre-Alain Fantin, a dandy writer and photographer in Paris. Family and friends are not happy that her attention and money are focused on someone other than them.
Laure Calamy is in The Party’s Over! (Classe Moyenne ) andWhat is Love? (C’est Quoi L’amour?), Daniel Auteuil is in A Private Life (Vie Privée), and Oscar-winning Marion Cotillard stars in The Ice Tower (La Tour de Glace).
Read the full article, there’s much more→
c) The Queen Who Wore Her Underwear in Public
by Judy MacMahon
[PART OF OUR FRENCH CULTURE DEEP-DIVE COLLECTION YOU’LL FIND HERE]
A white dress that looked like underwear sparked outrage, collapsed industries, and helped fuel a revolution. Marie Antoinette proved fashion has consequences. We keep forgetting.
So Alexander Fury’s written this piece in the Financial Times comparing Marie Antoinette to Kim Kardashian, and honestly? I think he’s being too kind to both of them. Because what Marie Antoinette did with fashion wasn’t just about being famous or controversial or excessively wealthy. She accidentally changed the entire world through what she wore. And two hundred and thirty-two years after her execution, we’re still so dazzled by the pretty dresses that we miss what actually happened.
The V&A is currently showing a massive exhibition about her, which closes in March 2026. Manolo Blahnik is launching a whole collection. When a diamond that passed through her hands came to auction in June, it sold for nearly fourteen million dollars—double the estimate. We cannot stop looking at her, talking about her, buying things connected to her. But we keep telling ourselves the wrong story.
The Scandal Nobody Understood…
Read the full story→
What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear from you.
2. Merci mille fois
“Thank you for subscribing to ‘le Bulletin’, the newsletter of MyFrenchLife™ Magazine.”
Judy MacMahon
Bonjour mes ami(e)s
France keeps doing this to me. Just when I think I know her, she hands me something extraordinary. This week, it was Caroline McCormick-Clarke taking us all the way back to the Hundred Years’ War — and then to a summer in London in 1987, standing before Rodin’s The Kiss for the very first time. That kind of writing, where history and personal memory intertwine so beautifully, is exactly why I love what we do here.
Cynthia Karena rounds us out with the Australian French Film Festival, and I defy anyone to read her piece and not immediately want to buy a ticket. Ozon and Camus. Huppert and Cotillard. It’s almost too much richness for one festival. Almost. Did you know that this is the largest French film festival outside France? The festival spans 9 weeks across 18+ cities and 40+ venues nationwide: 3 March – 26 April 2026. The 36th edition, last year, achieved a record-breaking 198,893 admissions!
And then Judy — well, I wrote that one myself ;), and I’ll admit it got away from me in the best possible way. Because Marie Antoinette’s scandalous white dress is one of those stories that keeps unravelling the more you pull at it. Intriguing! Fashion, revolution, power, consequence. She deserves every word!
À bientôt, mes ami(e)s. Judy x
Judy x
judy@myfrenchlife.org
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