16.30 - The Writer Who Refused to Stay Dead
FRANCE AS IT HAPPENS—a century old literary obsession, a spring that turns objects to stone, and raising toddlers in Paris
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Bonjour mes ami(e)s !
It’s wonderful to have you back here with me today. 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: “16.30.a - A Coat, A Dead Novelist, A Toddler in Paris - It’s not too late to upgrade & read it←
À bientôt !
Warmly,
Judy - 1.8.2026
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 reminder that ‘The Writers Room’ now resides here →
a) Joris-Karl Huysmans Is Dead
by Elisabeth Sauvage-Callaghan
I spent most of the second half of the 1990’s in the company of a French writer who had been dead for close to a century. A few years later, I paid him a visit in Paris.”
I read Joris-Karl Huysmans’ novel À Rebours (Against the Grain or Against Nature) in the spring of 1992, because it was on the reading list for my Master’s degree in French Literature. This “novel without a plot,” hailed as the ultimate masterpiece of decadent literature, blew me away. I fell in love with its quirky recluse protagonist and with Huysmans’s jeweled vocabulary, tortured syntax, vast erudition, endearing gruffness, and sardonic wit. Eager to know him better, I read two more of his novels for an independent study project. Soon, I decided to write my doctoral dissertation on the representation of temporality in his works…” wrote Elisabeth Sauvage-Callaghan.
b) The Petrifying Fountains
by Debra Fioritto
We were on our way to a cheese farm.
Kathy and I had been driving since morning, a quiet route through the Auvergne, the kind of country drive we’d been taking together for twenty years.
Then we came around a bend and saw the sign: “Fontaines Pétrifiantes”… wrote Debra Fioritto.
c) Paris with les petits enfants
by Kathryn Ivey
I’m only 3.5 years into living life in Paris as a mother.
Raising kids in Paris has been a completely different landscape from exploring the city sans enfants.
However, I have found that there are so many simple joys here that are magical in the eyes of a toddler and for older kids, too. My oldest is 3 years old, and my youngest is 1 year old, so I’m always seeking out activities to get us out of the apartment, burn some energy, and hopefully introduce them to some culture and beauty along the way…” wrote Kathryn Ivey.
2. Merci mille fois
“Thank you for subscribing to ‘le Bulletin’, the newsletter of MyFrenchLife™ Magazine.”
Judy MacMahon
Merci mille fois d’être ici, mes ami(e)s. Thanks for being here.
These three pieces today, all in a very different register, and yet look how they almost rhyme: a man refusing to be forgotten, a landscape doing something impossible slowly, and even a small child making the same old streets new again. That is rather the point of what we do here, isn’t it? France keeps offering fresh proof that curiosity never really finishes its work.
And that, perhaps, is FRANCE AS IT HAPPENS this week.
À bientôt,
Judy
judy@myfrenchlife.org
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