Bienvenue/Welcome to our first newsletter on Substack!

If you’ve just joined our community or if you’ve missed recent le Bulletin newsletters … well, let me bring you up to date.

le Bulletin is the weekly newsletter of MyFrenchLife Magazine which provides your weekend French immersion… with our most recent magazine articles to help you become a more savvy Francophile with a deeper understanding of France beyond the cliché.

Each week I write two newsletters

• one FREE and

• the other is for PAID subscribers, with a preview to give free subscribers a tempting peep into what they’re missing out on.

Each newsletter is numbered you’ll notice. For example: 14:38 is a free newsletter that goes to all and 14.38.a goes to paying subscribers. The content of each newsletter is unique.

What do the numbers mean?

This is the length of time I’ve been writing le Bulletin… 14 years and 38 weeks in this case.

Why do I love you to comment and drop me a note?

Putting these together is a lot of work, and I love to hear from you… all your comments, likes, or reposts make me feel wonderful! Merci d’avance

In addition to our most recently published magazine articles, each le Bulletin:

• showcases the work of others suited to our Francophile readers around the world, and

• what I refer to as my ‘Missive‘: a conversation of sorts, between me & you.

  The topics of my ‘Missive’ are wide-ranging and sometimes surprising, they are pretty much impossible to categorise, other than to say that they are in general uplifting, philosophical, and in various ways relevant to all Francophiles, no matter where you live or what age you are…

I share more personal notes and thoughts with paying subscribers

So… I’m thrilled to have you here reading each week - bienvenue - welcome.

A little story about how I started MyFrenchLife Magazine and le bulletin Newsletter

Since 2010 ‘le Bulletin’ has been on the Mailchimp platform but now… well, we’ve grown up a bit more, I guess at 13 you could say that we’re a teenager and we’re experimenting and stretching our wings! ‘le Bulletin’ is now safely and comfortably ensconced on the Substack platform, which specialises in newsletters from writers and also enables us to offer you our readers, both, free and paid versions. You get to choose.

I started MyFrenchLife.org and ‘le Bulletin’ way back in 2010 and it’s been a huge and ongoing ‘love job’, I adore it, but the costs do mount each year: from a new website recently, to annual hosting server cost, plus digital tools, and much more, it all adds up…

By moving ‘le Bulletin’ to the free/paid model, I’m hoping that some readers will choose the paid newsletter version, which will enable me to try to offset some of our costs. MyFrenchLife.org will still remain a free Magazine, and we will still have a free version of our newsletter - we remain a contributory/ participatory community where members are actively involved. We love this! We love being involved!

I love that you choose to get involved and contribute in so many ways!

By choosing a paid subscription to ‘le Bulletin’ you’re choosing yet another way to contribute and to help me support this growing, exciting, global francophile venture. The cost of a yearly subscription is less than 1 euro a week! It is not too different from buying me a cup of coffee or hot chocolate each month! Just one each month!

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity!

Congratulations, you are now a ‘le Bulletin’ subscriber (free or paid). You can always contact me here: info@myfrenchlife.org. If you have any questions or problems, then please let me know, and I’ll do my best to help you!

As a subscribed member of MyFrenchLife.org your ‘le Bulletin’ arrives in your email inbox every Saturday – enjoy! And don’t forget to drop me a line from time to time - I love hearing from you.

Judy MacMahon
Fondatrice
PS: see the recent articles from MyFrenchLife.org below this photo

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Here are just a few recent articles from MyFrenchLife.org Magazine… more here

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Where to eat in Paris: Top 10 local favourites – high-end to good ‘go-to’ places

How many times have you asked for advice about "Where to eat in Paris"? The best tip is to ONLY rely on recommendations from locals, not tourist sites! Which are your Top 10 favourite Parisian restaurants? Do you have others to add to this excellent list? Dive in to explore this fabulous list. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about eating in Paris.

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Creative Immersion in Pays de la Loire: The Nantes Writers’ Workshop

The Nantes Writers’ Workshop is an intimate, immersive workshop for fiction and non-fiction writers at all stages of their creative endeavors. The inaugural workshop will be held June 26-30, this year, 2023. Whether you’re looking to set aside more time to draft new work, get perspective on a finished piece, or build a writing community, we’re excited to welcome you…

Note: If those dates don’t work for you then express your interest now and be kept informed about future workshop dates - perfect for your next trip to France - read about it here.

This writers’ workshop is the continuation of our series: CREATIVE FRANCE. We are on a mission to share with you a carefully curated selection of creative workshops and retreats all around France. So stay tuned! Make sure that you and your creative friends are subscribed...

Emily Monaco and Anna Polonyi together, will be your hosts, mentors, teachers, and guides.

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Did you know?

Did you know that MyFrenchLife.org, our magazine is ranked #2 website about France?

Discover the top 100 websites about France here.

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Did you know?

And before I go, I’d like to remind you that we have a Book Club, and it’s called #Bookchat MyFrenchLife - see below, to see where you’ll find it, and here is the direct link.

I invite you to join us - just leave a comment, to tell us that you’re joining us.

We’re currently reading ‘My Cousin Maris Schneider’ by Vanessa Schneider and translated into English by (author and translator) Molly Ringwald.

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Merci mille fois... for being such a loyal reader of le Bulletin & my weekly Missives featured in each newsletter.

The fact that we all have so much in common is one of the things I enjoy about this community and I refer to this as the 'French Thread' which connects us: 
I see it as an endless thread of red silk connecting Francophiles globally.
- see the MyFrenchLife logo
- the 'M' is made of silk thread. 

Please send me a message at any time, I love hearing from you - rants, suggestions, creative ideas, collaborations, and opposing views are all welcome!

I'm grateful that you read 'le Bulletin', please know that I really enjoy putting these together for you weekly...

I hope that you are well!
À Bientôt
Judy x

PS: I would greatly appreciate it if you'd message me and tell me why you enjoy 'le Bulletin' and why you might be inclined to refer it to a friend.
PPS: Please consider upgrading your subscription to a paid subscription. It would help me enormously as I work on this huge global project of helping Francophiles experience France beyond the cliché.
PPS: Don’t forget to check on ‘NOTES’ here on le Bulletin on Substack, I’ve been filling is with whimsy, ponderings and francophile wonders… just waiting for you to find it.

Merci mille fois !