It’s wonderful to have you back here with me today! Bienvenue !
In this newsletter, you’ll: - Meet Guest Robert Fay and learn about the French Foreign Legion, - Then we’ll dive deep into Rodin and his Burghers of Calais with Caroline McCormick Calarke, - Next, we visit Cessenon-sur-Orb, - Keith Christiansen shares what he calls his ‘French Days’
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2. I thought that you’d like to know what’s been going on in the PAID version of le Bulletin.
Here is a little peep…
I started publishing articles/stories, good news about off the beaten path, ity-bity tiny French villages, the challenges facing them, and some pilot studies being conducted to revitalise and save the communities in these villages.
I asked the PAID subscribers if they’d like more stories like these, and this is what they said!
They’re definitely interested in hearing more about these French villages and how some of them are being reinvigorated. - 86% positive - Wow, such clear instructions - 57% are as excited about this topic as I am! - 14% have no interest - I invited them to hit the comment button below…and tell me what else they’d like to read about. You may choose to do the same thing.
If this is of interest, you may choose to consider upgrading your subscription because there will be more to come; they’re such positive examples of France reviving itself.
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Introducing a Guest to MyFrenchLife Magazine and le Bulletin: Robert Fay.
By exception, I introduce you to Robert Fay. And this is how Robert describes himself:
My book reviews and stories have appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books,Chicago Quarterly Review, The Millions, The Quarterly Conversation, The Rumpus and others. I’m a former monthly columnist for 3 Quarks Daily. My work has been written about in The Paris Review Daily, by Andrew Sullivan in The Dish, Lit Hub Daily and the Poetry Foundation, among others.
Image credit: Robert Fay.
I’m a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Boston. I now live in Oregon with my wife
In his guest article robert writes: “In the spring of 1960, a 19-year-old Englishman named Simon Murray marched through the dawn streets of Sidi Bel Abbès in French Algeria. It was a North African garrison town serving as command headquarters and recruit depot for the French Foreign Legion. Murray had just joined the legendary corps a few days ago in Paris, and was now being hustled to basic training”.
“In the spring of 1960, a 19-year-old Englishman named Simon Murray marched through the dawn streets of Sidi Bel Abbès in French Algeria. It was a North African garrison town serving as command headquarters and recruit depot for the French Foreign Legion. Murray had just joined the legendary corps a few days ago in Paris and was now being hustled to basic training.
“Certainly, there was something romantic about it all,” Murray recalls in his 1978 memoir Legionnaire. “Perhaps there was a faint chill of fear just below the surface, but it was smothered by curiosity . . . I was conscious of the fact I was treading my own path, maybe for the first time. It was the sensation of free-falling downhill, aware of a gathering momentum, aware that I had left the brakes behind in Paris, but somehow I knew that I was going to be O.K.–I would come through.”
It was peculiar that an upper-middle class English teenager, one who had attended a public high school (i.e., private)wanted to enlist in a French mercenary army for low pay and a fast-track to war. But logic wasn’t at play here”.
After two years here, I do understand a lot about French culture - I think. Yet there are things a lot of things that I still don’t quite grasp & I run into them constantly. When things go sideways for me, in my head, I call them “French Days.”
When I say French Days, I don’t mean the French version of Black Friday—Les French Days. This is not discount shopping. French Days for me are when France is feeling extra France, and it’s determined to remind me that I’m, well, not from around here. I am not French - and it feels like everyone in France is out to prove it to me on the same day.” writes Pierre.
If ever a French town and its river were synonymous, it’s Cessenon-sur-Orb in L’Herault, Occitanie
Wide, and just the right flow for swimming, snorkelling or just sitting on the pebble beach watching the world go by, the river Orb epitomises that particular French way of cool self-indulgence without seeming indolent.
So much happens in and around a French river; there are no restrictions….” writes Nick
The Siege of Calais & 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 when I came upon Rodin’s The Kiss…”
“Thank you for subscribing to ‘le Bulletin’ the newsletter of MyFrenchLife Magazine.” Judy MacMahon
Chers amis (dear friends)
Reading through this collection of stories, I'm struck by how each contributor found something uniquely transformative in their French experience. - Whether it's the raw courage Robert captures in his Foreign Legion piece, - Keith's delightfully honest struggles with everyday French life, - Caroline's soul-stirring encounter with Rodin's art, or - Nick's peaceful communion with the river Orb - a common thread of France, awakening something profound within us.
After reading Robert's Legion tales and Caroline's Rodin reflections, I'm even more convinced that France has this extraordinary way of calling us to our deeper selves. It challenges us, inspires us, and sometimes confounds us (as Keith so perfectly illustrates!), but it always leaves us richer for the experience.
What French story is calling to you? Is there a moment when France revealed something unexpected about yourself that you'd be willing to share with our community?
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Thank you so much fabulous MyFrenchLife contributors: Caroline McCormick-Clarke, Keith Christiansen and Nick Garnett for your as always interesting articles that I’ve published this week in the magazine and le Bulletin newsletters.
The Légion Etrangère article was fascinating -- I live near the Larzac plateau, where they have a base. I always hear about them, but didn't really know much about the conditions for joining, etc.
Thank you so much fabulous MyFrenchLife contributors: Caroline McCormick-Clarke, Keith Christiansen and Nick Garnett for your as always interesting articles that I’ve published this week in the magazine and le Bulletin newsletters.
Judy
The Légion Etrangère article was fascinating -- I live near the Larzac plateau, where they have a base. I always hear about them, but didn't really know much about the conditions for joining, etc.