Polly-Vous Francais?

 I have been traveling to France for more than four decades and argh, I am an inveterate collector of exhibition posters.  So timely! But what to do with the collection?  Wallpaper a bathroom?...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2021/09/what-do-you-do-with-your-exhibition.html

It's been a while since I have posted to Polly-Vous Francais!  I am happy to report that I am now in the "Triangle" area of North Carolina, where there is a vibrant French and Francophile commun...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2017/11/lhexagone-dans-le-triangle.html

Today I was at a meeting of French and American dignitaries to discuss French/American cultural activities.  Just my cup of thé! The American organizers asked the ranking French diplomatic of...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2016/11/seating-arrangements.html

Is it possible to imagine the sheer excitement and thrill and bone-chilling what-the-hell-am-I doing  anxiety when you are about to embark on a move to Paris? Well, that was me, one decade ago...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2016/02/o-panic-o-thrill-im-moving-to-paris.html

I love my collection of vintage Paris postcards.  I add to it every time I am in Paris, usually at lingering but somehow way-too-short trips to the Marché aux Timbres or the Marché aux Puces ...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2015/02/booksellers-on-seine-post-card-version.html

Today I received a notice from a reader that someone was using a photo from my blog, which had been doctored and captioned,  for a hateful and racist post on a Facebook page. Steam poured out ...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2015/01/stealing-paris.html

A lovely, if somewhat dark, 1928 carte de voeux that I found at the Marché aux timbres in Paris. Bonne année cards haven't always been images of popping champagne corks, fireworks, and glitt...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2014/12/heureuse-annee.html

How to celebrate New Year's in France? Here are mouth-watering and intriguing suggestions ...from 60 years ago. The 1954 December issue of Plaisir de France had the following delightful colu...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2014/12/suggestions-for-celebrating-new-years.html

I'm a huge fan of the blue doors in Paris. Some days, when I was living in Paris, when I didn't quite know what to do with myself, I would just wander the streets for hours snapping photo upon...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2014/08/looks-like-paris.html

When I was in college, I spent summers waitressing in a perfect, perfectly charming historic inn in Maine. One of the delights was to be assigned to a table of summer "residents" -- guests wh...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2014/08/lessons-from-mrs-goodfellow.html

Denis Josselin  photo © Caroline HENNEL If you are in Paris this Sunday, April 6, do yourself a favor and hightail it over to the 12e arrondissement to the Quai de la Rapée to see acclai...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2014/04/high-flying-sunday-on-seine.html

This painting of Paris, entitled “Boulevard Clichy, Paris,” hung in our house all of my childhood. To me, it was Paris – everything that Paris could and should be. The café –its server...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2014/03/boulevard-clichy-1950s.html

.   So here you have it.] “WHAT FRANÇOIS HOLLANDE DID WAS BRUTAL;  IT GOES BEYOND MERE BETRAYAL,” HE SAYS IN THE SPANISH EDITION OF VANITY FAIR, REVEALING NEW DETAILS ABOUT THE BREAK-U...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2014/02/valerie-trierweilers-brother-recounts.html

Ah, the language of love. It's just so... fundamental! So I bring you some of the basics, in French. A is for aimer A is also for affection and affectueux or affectueuse B is for bai...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2014/02/10-little-french-words-to-know-for.html

from a postcard I bought Souhaits de Bonheur.  Happy wishes of the season.  Which is of course, what I wish to all of you. But take a look at this image. Is it me, or do I depict an exis...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/12/seasons-greetings.html

It's the holidays! Time for some shopping, or at least a little window-shopping, n'est-ce pas? This Manhattan pooch must have some French blood, as he demonstrates, literally, comment faire d...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/12/this-dog-takes-phrase-leche-vitrine-to.html

Paris vitrines (store windows) never fail to delight and inspire. More often than not, they make me stop in my tracks. And snap photos if my camera is handy. A few weeks ago I spotted this one...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/11/le-crocodile-in-paris.html

Like this: Pasteur statue, place de Breteuil. 

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-do-you-say-boo-in-french.html

Seen on the streets of New York.  Is black the new black?

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/10/bonjour-black.html

Forty years. Forty years ago today, I boarded an Air France flight at Orly to return from France to the U.S.  It had been a magical summer. My first time ever in France. A life-changer. T...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/08/that-first-magical-summer-in-france-40.html

We all know by now, don't we, that Paris more or less shuts down in August.  Some of us revel in the peacefulness of a quiet Paris .  Others are challenged by the many, many boutique and local-...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/08/fermeture-annuelle-photos.html

 Wow. Tonight was opening night of Les Liaisons Dangereuses , directed by John Malkovich, part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Actors warming up on stage before the play begins Wow. I ...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/07/les-liaisons-dangereuses-signed.html

Vintage post cards of Paris (or anywhere, for that matter) are delightful, and are easy and unique souvenirs to bring home. This is a sweet one -- Une pensée de Paris, a play on words since p...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/06/post-cards-from-paris-thought-and-kiss.html

My most chic acquisition during my Paris visit was a lorgnette. Wandering the stalls of the Marche aux Puces at Vanves, I was enthralled at all the offerings but tiring of needing to take my r...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-lorgnette-from-paris.html

Most of this recent visit to Paris, I just wasn't interested in taking photos.  It seemed too clicheed, too... I don't know what to call it.  Everybody and their brother are taking photos of ...

https://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-few-iconic-views-of-paris.html