HeyJaredThe French Life Journal
Your front-row seat to la vraie vie française—unfiltered stories, hidden gems, and the glorious, messy, and often baffling adventure of learning French and living in France.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 6
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
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- Jul 13, 2026
Latest issues
Au revoir tourists, bonjour autumn (opens the original)
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Yesterday I woke up feeling cold in the morning for the first time in months. I’ve still got my lightweight summer duvet on the bed, and I had to wrap it around my entire body and tuck it in beneath me like I was on a camping trip trying to keep the spiders out. I lay there for a moment, genuinely delighted. Then I went to my kitchen and made porridge, which in our house is the unofficial signal that autumn has arrived.September didn’t start brilliantly, as we all went down with gastro one by on
Socrates, snail shells and school dinners (opens the original)
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If you were doing a word association test, what word pops into your mind when I say “school”?For me, it’s “stuck.” Especially when I think back to high school, where I was on a countdown to leave from day one. Being extremely shy and a serial blusher didn’t help, and nor did the enormous plastic NHS specs that took up most of my face. School felt like one long popularity contest where I was at the back of the queue. But woe is me! At the end of the day, school goes by in a flash when I look back
The road trip that cured us of road trips (opens the original)
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My eldest and I like to swim lengths in the pool and stay somewhere with character, even if the bathroom is somewhat unpredictable. My husband and youngest want high-thread-count bedding, a lounger, and absolutely no unexpected plumbing issues. We are, it turns out, more of a villa-and-pool kind of family. However, we are completely united on one thing: we should never, under any circumstances, do a road trip again.This isn’t just a holiday thing; it’s simply how we are. Our house is a calm envi
The country that taught me to eat properly (opens the original)
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Bonjour,Thank you for being here and for your support. This is my first paid essay, and it’s a personal one. Right, let’s begin.As an 80s child, I grew up in the era of supermodels, with models Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington gracing the magazine covers. Next up came the 90s…peak ‘heroin chic’ season featuring Kate Moss on huge billboard posters e… Read more
This summer in Provence has scared me (opens the original)
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As I write this on a smoke-filled Saturday afternoon, my garden in Provence smells yet again of burnt trees and ash is raining down from the sky. Forest fires or ‘incendies’ as we call them here in France, seem to be the depressing buzzword of the season. News headlines from around the world talk about large blazes destroying acres of forest and wildlife. A work colleague living in Romania sent video footage of fires burning near where he lives, which looked terrifying. And nearer to home, there
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