French podcasts are a great way to develop listening comprehension and learn from interesting people. I use the Apple podcast app on my iPad to listen to them as I get ready for work. Here are my favorites, for the high intermediate to advanced listener, roughly rated in order of degree of difficulty, from easiest to the most challenging:
1. Change ma vie: outils pour la vie, by Clotilde Dusolier – I met Dusolier when she came as a guest speaker at the summer program I work at in Paris. She was a cookbook author and blogger of Chocolate and Zucchini. In this podcast, however, she talks about a different passion, living a life that is full and happy. A new episode comes out every Thursday and lasts about twenty minutes. Dusolier’s diction is very clear and easy to understand.
2. Dans la tête des femmes, by My Little Paris – This was a short series of five episides produced by a great resource for all sorts of francophile finds. Each is about the important relationships in women’s lives.
3. Indépendente: conseils pour entrepreneuses en ligne, by Eleonore Bridge – I follow Bridge’s eponymous blog. Her podcast, as the title suggests, is about common challenges facing female entrepreneurs. She’s only published four so far.
4. Rives de Seine, by Ville de Paris – This group of twelve episodes is quite delightful and under ten minutes long. The idea is simple; someone strolls up to people who are passing time on the banks of the Seine and initiates a conversation.
5. Transfert, by Slate.fr – I love this one; every two weeks someone tells a story of something unusual that happened to them. Each story is about half an hour long and they’re so engaging that I often end up sharing them with my husband.
6. La Poudre, by Nouvelles Écoutes – This one definitely has the most challenging level of French. The host, Lauren Bastide, interviews guests about issues relevant to women, such as the first female mayor of Paris, the #metoo movement in France, and the rights of handicapped women. The weekly episodes are about an hour long.
Une baladodiffusion (oon bal-ad-o-dif-ew-zee-ohn) is the Québecois word for un podcast. It’s from balader, to stroll, and diffusion, to circulate or to disperse. I’m glad that’s the one that caught on – much easier to say and spell.
I’m always looking for ways to practice French between visits to Paris. I found a Netflix series, originally broadcast in France, called Dix pour cent, referred to as Call My Agent! in English. The story revolves around a Parisian talent agency that is trying to stay afloat after the sudden death of the senior agent. The title refers to the fact that agents typically receive ten per cent of their clients’ earnings.
There is a returning cast of characters with the same type of personal and professional issues that we all can relate to, plus a cluster of more unusual problems that make for an entertaining show. In addition, each episode features at least one French star playing him or herself and appearing as clients of the agency. Some of the big names who appear include Cécile de France, Nathalie Baye, and Juliette Binoche. They look like they’re having fun.
I recently had a French mystery explained for me, the difference between neuf and nouveau, both of which mean “new.” I’ve been reading 
Meurtre à Blackness Road
Vigée Le Brun: 
Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, 
I got a new handbag when I was in Paris. What kind, you ask. Hermès? Chanel? No, I am now the proud carrier of un filet
My Filt bag is so light that I can slip it inside a larger bag in case I go shopping, but it’s surprisingly roomy. I can fit everything I need for the day inside, including my full-size camera! While Filt bags do come in classic natural cotton, they are also available in a wide variety of colors, in solids as well as stripes.
They also have large bags, fit for a load of groceries, so you can be stylish while you save the environment, one plastic bag at a time. Filt does ship all over the world from their website, but the shipping costs can be pretty steep. Since I came home, I’ve seen them in a few shops in the States and I found them online at a reasonable price 
Between visits to Paris, I keep a running list of places I want to go or products I want to try. Sometimes I can’t remember the original source of the notation. This year, I had a particularly ambiguous note: Poudre des Bulgares – sprinkle on top of yogurt.
Now I had a bee in my bonnet. I had to find Poudre des Bulgares. The next step was one that I might have taken first, the internet. I searched for “Poudre des Bulgares” and found it listed as a product by a company called 
I bought a jar of Poudre des Bulgares as yet untried and sprinkled some on my fromage blanc the next morning. And the verdict? Delicious and unlike any other taste. Its primary ingredients are palm sap (who knew that was a thing?), toasted sesame seeds., roasted flax-seed, a little sugar from the French island of Maurice, a blend of vanillas from Madagascar and French Polynesia, and a touch of cardamom, saffron, ginger, orange peel and one perfect dried rose bud. Now that I’ve found it, I’ll definitely be back for more. My quest was both successful and memorable.
