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

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).

Follow the show and leave an honest rating to support the series.

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.

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

At 24, James Baldwin left America for Paris. He had little money, spoke little French, and had not yet published a novel. So why did he leave everything behind?In this episode of Extraordinary Lives in France, discover how France changed James Baldwin’s life and writing, from his difficult early years in Paris to Go Tell It on the Mountain and Giovanni’s Room, and finally to the beautiful village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where he made his home.Along the way, we’ll discover some surprising details: the restaurant incident that helped push Baldwin to leave America, the famous writers and musicians who visited his home in Provence, and the little room he jokingly called his “torture chamber.”This story is told in clear, natural Slow French for intermediate learners. Turn on the French or English subtitles if you need them, slow down the playback speed, and simply enjoy the story.🇫🇷 Feel Good French: discover extraordinary lives, places and stories in France while naturally improving your French.💌 Stay ConnectedNewsletter: https://shorturl.at/379V0Facebook Group – Retiring in France: / feelgoodfrench Website: https://feelgoodfrench.comWho should I tell you about next? Anyone in minde? Tell me in the comments.#FrenchPodcast #StoriesinFrench #JamesBaldwin #SlowFrench #LearnFrench #FrenchListening #FrenchCulture

Before he became the author of Animal Farm and 1984, George Orwell was a struggling young man living in Paris.

His dream was to become a writer.

Instead, he found himself broke, hungry, and working as a dishwasher in the hidden kitchens of Paris.

In this Slow French story, discover the little-known years that shaped one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century while naturally improving your French.

You’ll also learn authentic French expressions such as:

• être dans la dèche
• être fauché
• ne plus avoir un rond
• toucher le fond
• métro, boulot, dodo

Level: A2–B1

Come for the story.
Leave with better French.

Pourquoi Nina Simone a-t-elle choisi de quitter les États-Unis pour vivre dans un petit village du sud de la France ?

Dans cet épisode de Slow French Story, découvrez l’histoire touchante de Nina Simone, l’une des plus grandes chanteuses américaines du XXᵉ siècle.

Après des années de succès, de combats et de souffrance, elle quitte son pays à la recherche d’un peu de paix. En Provence, elle trouve un refuge. Pas une vie parfaite, mais un endroit où reprendre son souffle.

Une histoire vraie racontée en français lent, idéale pour les apprenants de niveau A2-B1 qui souhaitent améliorer leur compréhension tout en découvrant la culture et l’histoire de la France.

Dans cet épisode, vous découvrirez également du vocabulaire utile, des expressions naturelles et une immersion dans la vie de Nina Simone en France.

00:00 Introduction – Nina Simone arrive en Provence

00:42 Pourquoi quitte-t-elle les États-Unis ?

01:57 Le combat pour les droits civiques

02:55 La France, un refuge pour les artistes

04:05 Une nouvelle vie à Carry-le-Rouet

05:18 « Ne me quitte pas » et le public français

06:24 Peut-on vraiment recommencer sa vie ailleurs ?

07:10 Conclusion

🇫🇷 Bonne écoute !