In 1998, Marie-Claire d'Agonnier was a 28-year-old mother of two, living a quiet life with her husband and France.

Then, one day, the facteur, her mailman, delivered a letter with an unusual stamp, the apple.

All of a sudden, I saw that this letter was different. On the envelope, the table was American.

In the envelope, there was a letter written by the mother.

Marie-Claire didn't know anyone in America. And when she tried to read the letter, the mystery deepened.

The letter was written in Vietnamese.

Marie-Claire didn't know anyone who could read Vietnamese, but she remembered one Vietnamese man who worked in a photo store nearby. So she brought the letter to him.

The man took the letter. He read it in silence. Then he looked at it. He had the same language. He told me, it's a mother. She is looking for more than 20 years.

Bienvenue and welcome to the Duolingo French Podcast. I'm your host, Gauthain Vouthou-Welle.

Every episode, we bring you fascinating true stories to help you improve your French listening and gain new perspectives on the world.

The storyteller will be using intermediate French and I'll be timing in for context in English.

If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again. We also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com.

Marie-Claire stared back at the shopkeeper. He had just told her her mother had been looking for her for more than 20 years.

Tears were rolling down his cheeks. She was stunned.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't cry. I didn't say anything. I didn't do anything. I took the letter and I went home.

Though the letter came as a shock, Marie-Claire had known for some time that the man and woman who raised her weren't her biological parents.

At 10 years old, I started to ask myself questions about my family. I went to the village school. One day, another little girl told me,

you know, these are not very parents.

Even though they were the unthinking words of a child, they rang true for Marie-Claire.

The man she knew as her father was French and white, and the woman she knew as her mother was half Vietnamese.

I knew I was born in Vietnam. In the war, we were left to come to France when I was six.

So I asked myself questions. I wrote them in my newspaper.

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