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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: “16.33.a - - It’s not too late to upgrade & read it←
À bientôt !
Warmly,
Judy - 22.8.2026
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 →
Introducing New Contributor:
Richard Holdsworth
I’m a Yorkshireman who left home in 1962 to go to sea. I later studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science before moving to the United States in 1979. My working life has taken me through research and writing, human services, social justice advocacy, and more than a few unskilled jobs. These days I’m retired, writing, volunteering as a shepherd, and spending as much time as I can in France.
I’ve been visiting France since childhood and now spend extended periods there each year. My essays explore the pleasures, misunderstandings and perplexities of seeing France through contrarian Yorkshire eyes. To me, France is rather like a much-loved family cat: welcoming on its own terms, predictable but never fully knowable.
My essays, fiction and poetry have appeared in a wide variety of publications.
Please help me welcome Richard. And now I have the pleasure of sharing his first article with you.
Judy
a) The Soft Tyranny of Faire la Bise
Before I left England for my first visit to France, no one explained the bise, and even if they had, I might have brushed it off with typical Yorkshire terseness. We were always dismissive of public displays of affection.
So, when this enthusiastic Boy Scout set off, I carried the suspicious, paternal warning that the French “do that kissing thing.” Without guidance, it was as if I had been handed a French language primer and told, “you’ll soon pick it up.” I have not fully picked it up (yet).
I can still get slightly terse when someone launches a face toward me with an unpredictable bise expectation…” wrote Richard Holdsworth.
b) I Thought I Understood the French Menu
by Jenny Becker
I thought I understood the French menu.
I speak enough French to get myself into situations I can’t gracefully exit, which I’ve always considered a working level of fluency. I know what a plat is. I’ve eaten enough cheese to qualify for residency. I arrive with confidence.
This is my first mistake…” writes Jenny.
c) Why French Kids Don’t Go to Bed at 7pm: Raising Kids the French Way
by Kamille Longstreet
There was a time, not long ago, when my husband and I were in our ‘Very American Baby Era’ of sleep. For a couple of years, our evenings were run like a well-oiled machine, fuelled by our anxiety to get everything just right for our children. We had the whole sleep package: blackout curtains, white noise machines (set to mimic the whooshing sound of the womb), and baby monitors that would track every aspect of our children’s sleep, including their breathing and the temperature in their room.”
So why set a 7 pm bedtime…” writes Kamille.
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.
…And this le Bulletin is exactly why I love publishing MyFrenchLife™ Magazine.
I love the little ways that France reveals itself in the little things.
A kiss that isn’t quite a kiss. A menu that seems perfectly understandable until you try to order from it. A child’s bedtime that makes an American parent wonder whether the French have discovered a secret the rest of us have somehow missed.
These are the moments when France moves beyond the postcard and becomes much more interesting.
This week, we’ve welcomed Richard Holdsworth, whose Yorkshire perspective and French experiences promise to take us down some wonderful French wormholes. I’m particularly delighted that his first encounter with us is with la bise — because what could be more French, and more bewildering to the uninitiated?
Alongside Richard, Jenny Becker takes us into the delightful hazards of the French menu, while Kamille Longstreet looks at the very French question of how children are raised, and what that tells us about the culture itself.
Three contributors. Three very different perspectives. And, I think, three wonderful reminders that there is always more to discover.
Merci mille fois to Richard, Jenny and Kamille for sharing their curiosity with us — and to all our contributors who keep taking us deeper into France, one story at a time.
And thank you, mes ami(e)s, for being here and travelling with us.
Did any of these catch you off guard?
À bientôt,
Judy
judy@myfrenchlife.org
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