16.16 - Doucement: France in the Small and the Devoted
In the FREE le Bulletin Edition: A city that built a shrine to six years. A beautiful thing made for someone gone. Candles at breakfast on a school morning. Three contributors, three quiet devotions.
Today at a Glance: Your FREE weekly newsletter
Bonjour mes ami(e)s !
It’s wonderful to have you back here with me today. Bienvenue !
Continuing the new profile features of MyFrenchLife™ Magazine Contributors from last week. This week, get to know: Emily Monaco.
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: “16.16.a - Édition littéraire: Ce n’est pas une librairie—This is Not a Bookshop. This is France - another whopper … It’s not too late to upgrade & read it←
À bientôt !
Warmly,
Judy - 25.4.2026
1. A New Chapter for MyFrenchLife™ Magazine Contributors - check out these new profiles
Profile #2 - Emily Monaco
To Find THE LIST of MyFrenchLife™ Magazine CONTRIBUTORS:
[https://myfrenchlife.org/p/contributors-myfrenchlife-zine ]TO FIND EMILY MONACO’s WORK:
[https://www.myfrenchlife.org/t/emily-monaco]
2. 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”
Judy
Our list of valued Contributors →
a) A city, Molière, and a chair
by Betty Carlson
Pézenas has worked hard to stake a claim on France’s famous playwright
“Say hello to Jean-Baptiste!” joked my French husband as I headed out the door to Pézenas, Hérault, Occitanie.”
“Ah bon? Molière wasn’t born in Pézenas? I was convinced he was…” said my crestfallen French husband as I broke the news to him upon my return.”
Molière, né Jean-Baptiste Poquelin and considered France’s greatest playwright, was born in Paris in 1622 and died there in 1673.”
But between 1650 and 1656, he and his Théâtre Illustre stayed and played a number of times in Pézenas, where he was supported and protected by Armand de Bourbon, the Prince of Conti…” writes Betty Carlson.
b) How long
by Lara L Barkat
How long?”
(Combien de temps?)
How long until I find the just-right thing? And do it in the just-right way? To create the just-right result?”
I wanted to do a photo shoot with ma maman’s little blue Limoges creamer and clusters of grapes (les raisins). But then I got blue on my mind.”
The blue took me to another Wedgwood. A Ralph Lauren “Empire” cup with an image on the bottom, in gold, of a man playing polo.”
These tea niceties have nothing to do with the person for whom I wanted to make these photos. And the person for whom I wanted to make these photos will never see them, can never see them.”
Imagine a world where we made beautiful things for people, just because,… writes Laura L Barkat”
Read the full story→
c) Embracing September
by Kathryn Ivey
This article was originally published in September & republishing here now as we ease into our Spring/Summer ‘26.
How is it almost the last week of September? “
The whirlwind of la rentrée, the official period of back to school and regularly scheduled programming in France, began on September 1 and left me whirling as well. “
The morning rush of getting kids fed, dressed, and out the door has replaced our languid summer mornings of easing into the day with pancakes on a random Wednesday. However, we do try to ease into the weekday mornings by sitting down together for breakfast, even for a quick bowl of yogurt and berries or some speedy scrambled eggs. “
We light the candles on the table in the morning during breakfast, even during the school/work week, as a way to start our day in peace, and our kids love it (and fight over who gets to blow them out!)…” writes Kathryn Ivey.
d) Ce n’est pas une Librairie, Part One
by Judy MacMahon
“…In French, a librairie is a bookshop. A bibliothèque is a library. The English speaker wanders into a library expecting to borrow books and leaves having spent a small fortune? This is, depending on your perspective, either a design flaw or the whole point.”
Magritte painted a pipe and wrote beneath it:
- Ceci n’est pas une pipe. This is not a pipe.The places I’m about to tell you about are not, strictly speaking, librairies.
They are not bibliothèques either.They are something France has been quietly and with great conviction building for a very long time: places where books are held, loved, argued over, and passed down through families like a form of memory.
Introducing you now to two Paris-based book dynasties…”
3. Merci mille fois
“Thank you so much for supporting my work and reading ‘le Bulletin’.
Merci mille fois d’être ici, mes ami(e)s. Thanks for being here.
What a gentle, generous edition this has been.
Betty Carlson took herself off to Pézenas with her husband’s cheerful “Say hello to Jean-Baptiste!” ringing in her ears, and came back with a story about a city that has spent four centuries staking its claim on six years of Molière. I love that. The audacity of it, and the devotion. Very French, and very worth the trip.
Laura L Barkat stopped me in my tracks this week. A blue Limoges creamer, clusters of grapes, a Ralph Lauren teacup, and behind it all, a person who will never see the beautiful thing made in their honour. I don’t want to say more than that. Just read it.
And Kathryn Ivey, lighting candles at the breakfast table before the school run, even on a Wednesday, even when everyone is scrambling for their shoes. That lovely image has evocatively stayed with me all week. La rentrée (back to school season) as a philosophy: the belief that even the ordinary morning deserves a little ceremony. I think France understands something about that which the rest of the world is still catching up to... I know that Autumn has passed us by, but we know it’s back with us every year :). However, right now we’re celebrating the early signs of summer!
Thank you, Betty, Laura, and Kathryn, for bringing your France to us this week.
Oh, and not forgetting our new Contributor profile feature - looking at you, Emily Monaco - we’re in awe of your energy, skill, and work - félicitations.
And thank you, dear readers, for being here, for reading wth such care, and for being part of this wonderful global community of francophiles. It means more than you know.
À bientôt,
Judy x
judy@myfrenchlife.org
PS: Oh, and there’s an article from our French Culture Deep Dive Collection, Part One of a two-part series exclusively for Annual Subscribers and Mighty Supporters. It’s all about two Paris-based book Dynasties. I loved researching and putting this one together. …and next Wednesday you’ll receive Part Two.
Are you ready?
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