Feel Good French | Slow French Podcast & Stories

In 1920s Paris, Sylvia Beach takes the risk of publishing James Joyce’s Ulysses. Discover Shakespeare and Company and its community of writers in slow French, with French and English subtitles displayed together in the Spotify video.

Extraordinary Lives in France · Season 2, Episode 12
With Déborah from Feel Good French.

How did Sylvia and Adrienne Monnier find the money and readers to bring Ulysses into print? Explore this English-language lending library and the freedom writers sought in Paris.

Expressions: se serrer les coudes (support one another); ne pas avoir froid aux yeux (be bold); avoir du pain sur la planche (have a lot of work ahead); tomber à pic (arrive at the right time).

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Listen next: Ernest Hemingway and the lost suitcase.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0GIxVck63Ofnw13FtQ0StM

CHAPTERS
00:00 A small bookshop takes a publishing risk
01:00 Meet Sylvia Beach in Paris
01:39 A lending library and a community
03:07 Why Paris attracted American artists
03:42 Adrienne Monnier, across the street
04:17 James Joyce and Ulysses
05:12 Finding the money to publish
06:04 A telegram and a birthday deadline
07:03 The bookshop closes; the lending continues
07:42 Hemingway and a question for you

Music: “Cafe Regrette” by Asher Fulero.

Image sources and credits (video version):
Sylvia Beach (right) and James Joyce (left), doorway — photographer unknown; published in The Publishers Weekly, 12 Apr 1924, p.1261; scan Internet Archive
Margaret Anderson, 1951 — Dick DeMarsico / New York World-Telegram & Sun
8 rue Dupuytren, 2013 — Jim Linwood; CC BY 2.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_first_Shakespeare_and_Company_Bookshop,_8_Rue_Dupuytren_-_Paris_2013.jpg
Odéon bookstalls, 1917 — Charles Lansiaux / Paris Musées, Musée Carnavalet; CC0
Hemingway lending card — Sylvia Beach Papers, Special Collections, Princeton University Library. Courtesy of Princeton University Library; No Known Copyright
https://shakespeareandco.princeton.edu/members/hemingway-ernest/cards/
Ernest Hemingway, Paris, c.1924 — photographer unspecified / JFK Library, EH 5738P; public-domain release, VRT 2011070410000468
Rue de Seine, 1924 — Eugène Atget / Paris Musées, Musée Carnavalet; CC0
La Rotonde, 1924 — Agence Rol / BnF
12 rue de l’Odéon, 2014 — David McSpadden; CC BY 2.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:12_Rue_Od%C3%A9on,_Paris_May_2014.jpg
Adrienne Monnier in her shop, c.1925 — Henri Manuel; CC BY 3.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photographie_d%27Adrienne_Monnier_dans_sa_librairie_par_Henri_Manuel.jpg
James Joyce, c.1918 — Camille Ruf
Adrienne Monnier’s back room — Henri Manuel; CC BY 3.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adrienne_Monnier_dans_l%27arri%C3%A8re-boutique_de_sa_librairie_par_Henri_Manuel.jpg
Ulysses, 1922 print-run page — James Joyce / Shakespeare and Company; scan Erakis
Ulysses first edition — The Little Museum of Dublin; CC BY-SA 4.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ulysses_by_James_Joyce_-_first_edition,_1922.jpg
Rue de l’Odéon today — Ralf.treinen; CC BY-SA 3.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_rue_de_l_odeon1.jpg
Café Voltaire, place de l’Odéon — Eugène Atget / Paris Musées, Musée Carnavalet; CC0
Licences: CC0 https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ; CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ ; CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ; CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ; CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ . Photos fitted, cropped and animated; CC BY-SA image adaptations retain their respective licences.

They fall in love in Paris without speaking each other’s language. So why don’t Miles Davis and Juliette Gréco build a life together?
In 1949, a concert at Salle Pleyel brings Miles and Juliette together. Follow their walks along the Seine, the contrast with a difficult dinner in New York, and his return to France to create the music for Ascenseur pour l’échafaud, starring Jeanne Moreau.
A story about love, recognition and the barriers between two worlds, told in slow French with French and English subtitles by Déborah at Feel Good French.
French conversation group
Would you like to discuss the episode in a small French conversation group? Join the waiting list here.
Expressions explained
de fil en aiguille — one thing leads to another
se heurter à — to come up against an obstacle
porter tort à quelqu’un — to cause someone harm
If you want to say “Déborah, continue this series!”, follow the show, leave an honest rating and share your thoughts in the comments.
Chapters
00:00 Miles & Juliette: love without a shared language
01:00 Miles Davis arrives in Paris, 1949
01:40 A backstage encounter at Salle Pleyel
02:26 Juliette’s circle: Sartre and a different welcome
03:49 A difficult dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria
05:04 Back in France: Ascenseur pour l’échafaud
07:11 Sartre asks: why not marry?
08:22 Nina Simone and a question for you
09:22 Join the French conversation group
Music: “Cafe Regrette” by Asher Fulero; “The Jazz Messenger” by Vendla / Epidemic Sound.
Image attribution: “Parijs 1949” by René Defonseca / Family Defonseca; family archive Smiley Toerist. Cropped and animated; adapted image under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Source photograph | License

Learn French through the true story of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald on the French Riviera. In Saint-Raphaël in 1924, Scott works on The Great Gatsby while their marriage reaches a crisis. Years later, Zelda writes her own novel about their shared life—and Scott objects. How can two people live the same story and disagree over who may tell it?

In this episode of Extraordinary Lives in France, Déborah tells their story in slow, clear French for intermediate learners and francophiles.

Expressions to learn:
• marcher sur les plates-bandes de quelqu’un — to enter territory someone considers theirs
• avoir son mot à dire — to have a say

Want to discuss the episode in a small French conversation group? Join the interest list: https://tally.so/r/0Q4DqZ

#SlowFrench #LearnFrench #FrenchListeningPractice #FrenchPodcast #ScottFitzgerald #ZeldaFitzgerald #FrenchRiviera #movetofrance #FrenchStories

Jackie Kennedy wants to bring the Mona Lisa to the United States. Louvre curators fear the journey could damage it. How does a former student of French, with no elected office, help turn a dinner promise into a national art loan?

In this episode of Extraordinary Lives in France, follow Jackie from her year in Paris to her work at the White House, her friendship with André Malraux and the painting’s journey in 1962–63. Listen in clear, slow French, with useful expressions explained as the story unfolds and French and English subtitles in the video version.

Would you like to discuss this story in a small French conversation group? Join the interest list here: https://tally.so/r/0Q4DqZ

Expressions in this episode:
- la soif de connaissances — a thirst for knowledge
- le patrimoine — cultural heritage
- un prêt — a loan

If you enjoyed this episode, listen next to Julia Child’s story about the French meal that changed her life.

Photo credit: Mona Lisa photograph by Fred Romero, cropped for video, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Mona_Lisa_(31319341901).jpg | License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Other archival images: Wikimedia Commons, JFK Presidential Library and Museum, and Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Music: “Cafe Regrette” by Asher Fulero.

#JackieKennedy #SlowFrench #LearnFrench #FrenchListeningPractice

At La Pyramide in Vienne, young Anthony Bourdain waits in the car with his brother while their parents enjoy a French meal. Later, on an oyster farmer’s boat in Arcachon Bay, he gets his own chance to impress them. Why did tasting one raw oyster stay with him long after he became a chef, writer and traveler? Listen in clear, slow French, with useful expressions explained as the story unfolds.

Would you like to talk about this story in French? I’m forming a small conversation group for listeners of Extraordinary Lives in France. Tell me about your French and availability to join the interest list; I’ll let you know when enrolment opens: https://tally.so/r/0Q4DqZ

Expressions in this episode:
• avoir du caractère — to be strong-willed
• prendre goût à quelque chose — to grow to like something
• les coulisses — behind the scenes
• savourer — to take time to enjoy
• les mois en « r » — the traditional oyster season, September to April

#SlowFrench #LearnFrench #FrenchListeningPractice #AnthonyBourdain