16.37 - Are you accidentally doing France wrong?
Tomas k - Senior News Editor 
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 !
In this newsletter, you’ll find three wonderful fresh articles taking you to France beyond the cliché.
And later today, PAID subscribers will receive the 16.37.a edition of le Bulletin — with a new Deep-Dive Essay that began with some missing Pushkin, a very clever deception at the Bibliothèque nationale de France… and sent me somewhere I really wasn’t expecting.
Not PAID yet? It’s not too late to upgrade and have tonight’s edition arrive in your inbox →
À bientôt !
Warmly,
Judy
19.9.26
The MyFrenchLife™ French BookClub is back. DISCUSSION EVENT ADVANCE NOTICE
We’re about to start reading Live Fast (Vivre Vite) by Brigitte Giraud, 2022 Prix Goncourt winner. Now’s a great time to get the book and start reading, in French or English; our discussion will be in English as usual.
Watch for the Announcement: Mid-November date, details, and RSVP link.
I’ll be hosting together with returning co-host and valued contributor Keith Van Sickle, who suggested this book.
I’m looking forward to many of you joining us in a lively chat across multiple time zones as usual…. More later
Judy
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) Brovès: village fantôme in the South of France
by Suzanne Rietmeijer
Brovès lies a stone’s throw from the Gorges du Verdon in the Haut-Var. Clearly visible from the main road, this small village now stands abandoned. When its residents left in 1974, it wasn’t by choice: the French government forced them out. The village had to make way for a large military training ground and has been a ghost town ever since…” wrote Suzanne
b) How to Appear French (Without Fully Understanding Anything)
by Jenny Becker
I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong.”
That’s the part that makes it difficult.”
Because nothing ever stops. No one corrects me. There’s no moment where someone leans in and says, quietly, this is where you missed it.”
And yet, every so often, something shifts.”
There were… signals.”
A pause that lasted half a second too long.”
A look that didn’t quite match the words that followed…” wrote Jenny
c) The story behind Rue Madame & Rue Monsieur in Paris
by Jenn Bragg
Walking in Paris is like going on a treasure hunt, which is one of the reasons I love it so much. “
Many streets are named after someone important in French history, and street signs often give a little information about these figures…” wrote Jenn.
Coming later today for PAID subscribers…
The books were still there. Except they weren’t.
Someone stole valuable nineteenth-century books from the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
The clever part?
They left books behind.
Facsimiles good enough that, for a while, nobody realised the originals were gone.
I went looking for the story behind the missing Pushkin and found fake books, an arm sling, a bakery bag, 170 stolen volumes… and eventually a question I hadn’t expected to be asking at all.
What happens when the very thing that makes a great library possible — trust — is also what makes it vulnerable?
That’s where tonight’s French culture Deep-Dive Essay took me.
→ [Upgrade to PAID before tonight’s 16.37.a arrives]
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.
Well, where did our Contributors take us this week?
Suzanne took us to a village in the Haut-Var that France quite literally emptied, but whose people still refuse to let it disappear.
Jenny had me smiling at all those tiny signals that apparently tell us we’re not quite as French as we thought we were.
And Jenn sent us walking through Paris, looking up at street signs and wondering who on earth Madame and Monsieur actually were.
Merci, Suzanne, Jenny and Jenn. Three women, three very different stories, and three more reasons to look at France a little more closely — FRANCE AS IT HAPPENS
And merci to you, mes ami(e)s, for coming along with us.
Keep looking up at the street signs. Keep noticing the pauses. And perhaps keep an eye out for the occasional village fantôme.
Who knows where we’ll end up next week?
À bientôt !
Judy
judy@myfrenchlife.org
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