B1 · Finding your flow
Polly's weekly adventures and real-world stories.
- La station où personne ne descend Polly follows the first subway line to a curved, tiled station built to impress in nineteen oh four and... Audio
- La Main Ouverte du Port Polly flies into New York Harbor and looks closely at the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France built so... Audio
- La course où le fromage gagne toujours Once a year in England, people chase a wheel of cheese down a dangerously steep hill, and the cheese almost... Audio
- Deux animaux tout neufs, chacun de la taille d'un ongle Scientists in Montenegro just described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- Le jour où un vrai insecte a fait planter un ordinateur In nineteen forty-seven, engineers found an actual moth stuck inside a giant computer, taped it into their... Audio
- La crevette avec un soleil dans sa pince A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so fast that it creates a flash of heat nearly as hot as the surface of... Audio
- La maison partagée entre deux pays In a small town on the Belgian-Dutch border, some houses sit in two countries at once, and the front door... Audio
- Ce que le feu n'a jamais pris Polly takes one last high look at Kanazawa, waits out the rain from the sea, and leaves a city that kept... Audio
- La cuisine au petit matin Before dawn at Omicho market, Polly sees fish laid out on ice in a market three hundred years old, and... Audio
- L'armée qui a perdu contre des oiseaux In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was sent against emus eating the wheat crop in Western... Audio
- Les chimpanzés ont un accent A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls found that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- Internet vit sous l'eau Almost all international internet traffic travels along cables lying on the sea floor, which break... Audio
- L'Animal Qui Fabrique des Cubes Wombats are the only known animal to produce cube shaped droppings, and the corners are formed by uneven... Audio
- La ville qui vit dans un seul immeuble Almost every resident of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building reached through a... Audio
- Tu brilles. Personne ne peut le voir. Human skin gives off a faint light all day long, and a Japanese team photographed it in a sealed dark room. Audio
- Ta carte serait fausse avant le déjeuner Satellite clocks tick faster than clocks on the ground, and if nobody corrected for it your phone would... Audio
- Le déjeuner que tout un pays mange In the Dominican Republic the main meal lands at midday, it is almost always the same three things, and the... Audio
- Ce bleu n'existe qu'à un seul endroit A stony beach in the Dominican southwest, one pebble that is blue all the way through, and the single... Audio
- Cet oiseau dort en volant Frigatebirds stay in the air for days over open ocean, and researchers put recorders on their heads to find... Audio
- Un dîner cuisiné par un volcan On a green island in the Azores, cooks lower a pot into a hot hole in the ground and let the earth slowly... Audio
- Marcher sur le fond de la mer Twice a day the North Sea pulls back for kilometres, and people walk barefoot across the bare seabed before... Audio
- Le château où le roi n'a presque jamais vécu A Bavarian king built a fairy-tale castle on an alpine crag, slept there only a handful of nights, and left... Audio
- Un bras qui sait goûter Octopus suckers contain special receptors that let an arm taste whatever it touches, even in total darkness. Audio
- Le plus gros chèque de l'histoire de l'athlétisme A brand new athletics championship this month paid its winners more than the sport has ever offered before. Audio
- Apprendre à une machine à parler cachalot Researchers are using artificial intelligence to search for real structure inside the clicking patterns of... Audio
- Le battement de cœur lent des arbres Laser scans at night revealed that trees pulse gently every few hours, possibly pumping water through their... Audio
- Des fleurs à trois heures du matin At three in the morning, Bangkok's biggest flower market is more awake than midday, and it never really... Audio
- Le cercle et le bateau du matin The Ring of Brodgar at dusk, then the small practical business of leaving an island, done in four sentences... Audio
- Le grain de quatre-vingt-dix jours In a bar in Kirkwall, a flat dark bannock turns out to be the reason the islands were farmable at all. Audio
- Le rassemblement sur les récifs Grey seals are hauling out on the low rocks before the pupping season, and the questions Polly has been... Audio
- Construite avec ce qu'ils avaient On Lamb Holm, two army huts hold a chapel that prisoners of war made out of scrap, and the only honest... Audio
- Le village sous la tempête At the Bay of Skaill, a guide with a carrying voice explains a village that a storm returned to the light... Audio
- La chaise près du feu A guesthouse above the harbour, an argument about what counts as a quiet room, and a chair whose whole... Audio
- Le bateau arrive Polly lands at Stromness off the morning boat and works out, one question at a time, how a place with no... Audio
- Dix mille athlètes, une seule soirée d'ouverture The 2026 Asian Games, hosted jointly by Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, bring together roughly ten thousand... Audio
- La banque qui n'accepte que du fromage An Italian bank keeps a vault holding more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- Ton pourcentage de batterie est une estimation A phone's battery percentage is not a direct measurement, but an estimate calculated from voltage and... Audio
- Cette plage est faite d'ordures A sparkling beach in Northern California is made entirely of old dumped glass, smoothed into colorful... Audio
- Aucun quatrième étage, nulle part In much of East Asia, elevators skip the number four entirely, because it sounds exactly like the word for... Audio
- La brume se referme derrière elle On her last afternoon, Polly flies high over the island one more time before fog rolls in and hides it... Audio
- Un village branché sur un volcan Polly finds the same underground heat that cooked lunch also fills a giant public pool and warms homes,... Audio
- Le repas enterré à l'aube Polly watches a cook lower sealed pots into holes heated only by the volcano below, where dinner cooks for... Audio
- Un cratère, deux couleurs Polly finds one huge old crater holding two lakes side by side, one blue and one green, joined underneath... Audio
- L'oiseau que l'on a cru perdu deux fois Polly searches an old laurel forest for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird found only here, once thought... Audio
- Les deux derniers jardins d'Europe Polly finds one of only two working tea plantations left in Europe, started after disease wiped out the... Audio
- Neuf îles, trois plaques Polly arrives over São Miguel, the largest of the nine Azores islands, and learns that three tectonic... Audio
- Départ aux premières lueurs Polly watches one last sunrise with Berta and follows the river out of town. Audio
- Le berger à la porte Polly follows a flock of sheep, a shepherd and his big mastiff dog to the high meadows. Audio
- La rivière qui entoure la ville Polly has a slow day at the river and meets a fox at dusk. Audio
- Les animaux peints des roches rouges Polly visits the red rocks in the forest and finds animal paintings that are thousands of years old. Audio
- La muraille qui grimpe la montagne Polly flies up the old wall to the watchtower and learns its thousand year story. Audio
- Berta et les maisons penchées Berta, an old stone marten, shows Polly the crooked streets and a famous leaning house. Audio
- La ville dans le bras de la rivière Polly follows a looping river and finds Albarracín, a small pink town in the hills of Spain. Audio
- Un café, deux pays In one small town, the border between Belgium and the Netherlands runs straight through streets, houses and... Audio
- Tes messages voyagent sous l'eau Almost everything you send across an ocean travels through cables lying on the sea floor, not through... Audio
- La plage qui brille en bleu la nuit On some warm coasts, the sea lights up electric blue when you touch it. The light comes from billions of... Audio
- L'hôtel qui roule pendant que tu dors On a European night train, you fall asleep in one country and wake up in another, with the Alps outside... Audio
- Le jour où le soleil s'est éteint This week, northern Spain watched the first total solar eclipse over mainland Europe in twenty seven years. Audio
- Polly prend le bus Polly boards the bus downtown for the first time, with a patient capybara at the wheel and one nervous... Audio
- Polly demande son chemin Polly gets lost looking for the library and learns that asking is faster than wandering. Audio
- Polly commande un café Polly finds a corner cafe, orders a coffee with milk, discovers churros, and stays for a while by the window. Audio
- Polly au marché Berta shows Polly the neighborhood market. Polly asks about an unfamiliar fruit, buys apples, and learns... Audio
- Polly rencontre quelqu'un Polly arrives on a new street, meets Berta the bear over the garden fence, and they agree to meet again at... Audio
- L'Aube sur le Cerro Paranal Polly says goodbye to Camila at sunrise on Cerro Paranal and lifts off east over the Andes. Audio
- Les Animaux du Désert Polly meets the small animals that survive in the Atacama, including the fog beetle that drinks from... Audio
- Le Désert le Plus Sec du Monde Polly drives into the Atacama with site engineer Diego, learning about flash floods, meteorite-rich ground,... Audio
- Cinq Cents Années-Lumière Polly watches an exoplanet transit observation that measures what gases are in the atmosphere of a planet... Audio
- L'ascension du lieu le plus sec du monde Polly arrives at ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama, the driest place on Earth, where four enormous... Audio
- Observer une galaxie Polly watches an observation of an active galactic nucleus 47 million light years away and thinks about how... Audio
- La ville qui a redécouvert une rivière For fifty years, Seoul hid a river under an elevated highway. Then the city tore the highway down, and the... Audio
- Les Anciens Humains Prospéraient dans la Forêt Tropicale Scientists once thought ancient humans avoided rainforests. New evidence from West Africa says they thrived... Audio
- Pourquoi Votre Téléphone S'éteint dans le Froid Your phone shows forty percent battery, then dies in the snow. The battery is not empty. It is cold, and... Audio
- Pourquoi le miel d'il y a 3 000 ans est encore comestible Honey jars from Egyptian tombs three thousand years old are still edible. The chemistry behind a food that... Audio
- Le Match de Tennis qui a Duré Trois Jours The longest tennis match ever played: Isner vs. Mahut, Wimbledon 2010, eleven hours, three days, a final... Audio
- La pieuvre qui a ouvert la serrure An octopus called Inky escaped his aquarium tank at night through a drain pipe, and what it reveals about... Audio
- Dix Kilomètres en Altitude Passenger planes cruise about ten kilometres above the ground. That number is not random: it is where the... Audio
- Le Dernier Train In Tokyo, the trains stop around midnight. Tomas learns this five minutes too late, and discovers where the... Audio
- Ouvrir le Dôme Polly watches the dome of UT1, one of the four 8.2-metre telescopes of the Very Large Telescope, open for... Audio
- Vladivostok Polly arrives in Vladivostok at the end of the 9,289-kilometre Trans-Siberian, stretches her wings, and... Audio
- L'Amour Polly reaches Khabarovsk on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian, sees the Amur River bordering China, and... Audio
- Le Lac Baïkal Polly spends the fifth day of the Trans-Siberian running along Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake on... Audio
- Les Fuseaux Horaires Polly explores the dining car on the fourth day, learning that the whole train runs on Moscow time across... Audio
- Traversée des Oural Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the dividing line between Europe and Asia, on the third day of the... Audio
- Les Forêts de Bouleaux Polly wakes up on the second morning of the Trans-Siberian, watching the birch forests of European Russia.... Audio
- La Gare de Yaroslavsky Polly boards the Rossiya at Moscow's Yaroslavsky Station to begin the 9,289-kilometre, seven-day... Audio
- Adieu aux Pâtes Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus and flies out of Naples toward her next destination. Audio
- L'éditeur de lui-même Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, building a brain that is different in each... Audio
- Pizza et le Long Déjeuner Polly has the long Italian lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria, learning the protected rules of... Audio
- La Peau Qui Voit Polly watches Pasta find food under a coloured plate even though octopuses are colour-blind through their... Audio
- Le Corps qui Pense Polly watches Pasta solve a maze with two arms working independently. She learns that two thirds of an... Audio
- Le Bocal Polly watches Pasta open a screw-top jar to catch a crab, learning that octopus arms taste what they touch... Audio
- La Baie de Naples Polly arrives in Naples and is welcomed into the world's oldest marine biology institute, where she meets a... Audio
- Quitter la Vallée Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas and flies west out of Yosemite, watching a peregrine hunt swifts on her... Audio
- La Voie Lactée au-dessus de Glacier Point Polly watches sunset from Glacier Point and stays for the Milky Way, looking through a park astronomer's... Audio
- Demi-Dôme Polly rides thermals up the 1,500-metre north face of Half Dome with a flock of swifts, reaches the summit,... Audio
- Le Faucon Plongeur Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive from El Capitan, learning how the falcon's third eyelid and... Audio
- Le Séquoia Polly visits Mariposa Grove and perches on the Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia nearly 3,000 years old,... Audio
- En Route avec le Ranger Tomas Polly spends a morning in Ranger Tomas's truck, learning how he tracks bear feeding in wildflower meadows... Audio
- Au-dessus de la Vallée Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, takes in its U-shaped glacial geology, watches climbers on... Audio
- À travers le miroir Polly arrives in Tromsø for the Midnight Sun Marathon, befriending Astrid and helping Mikkel during the... Audio
- La tasse vide First day at a new office, a small lesson about asking before assuming. Audio
- Numéro quarante-sept A small injury, an old magazine, and a waiting room that teaches patience. Audio
- Le train pour Grenade An overheard phone call on the train turns a long trip into a kind of company. Audio
- La mauvaise librairie A simple coffee order leads to a strange conversation about a bookshop that doesn't exist anymore. Audio
- Perdue à Lisbonne A wrong turn on a steep street becomes the best part of the trip. Audio
- La chambre 304 a une vue A late check-in turns into a small gift when the hotel runs out of rooms on the lower floors. Audio
- Une table pour une A traveler eats alone in Madrid and discovers the waiter is the real star of the meal. Audio
- Le Secret de la Pyramide de Sel Polly arrives at Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni where she meets Joaquín, a guide torn between tradition and... Audio
- Là où le ciel rencontre la terre Polly arrives at Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni salt flats where she meets Joaquín, a veteran guide facing a... Audio
- La Voix de la Montagne Polly helped Kaspar Brunner discover that his musician's dystonia enabled a revolutionary echo-based alpine... Audio
- Le Chant de la Montagne Polly helps Kaspar Brunner discover his musician's dystonia enables revolutionary echo-based alpine music,... Audio
- Le Son du Silence Polly helps Kaspar Brunner discover that his musician's dystonia enables him to create revolutionary music... Audio
- Bataille musicale en montagne Polly meets Emma Hartley, a researcher studying alpine acoustics, who helps Kaspar discover his musician's... Audio
- L'Écho Brisé Polly meets Emma Hartley, a British doctoral student studying alpine acoustics, who suggests that Kaspar's... Audio
- La Chambre d'Écho Polly meets Emma Hartley, a British doctoral student studying alpine acoustics, who suggests that Kaspar's... Audio
- Murmures dans la brume Polly arrives at Mount Rigi in Switzerland and meets Kaspar Brunner, an accomplished alphorn player... Audio
- Le cercle se referme à La Boqueria Polly's investigation reveals an undercover operation targeting counterfeiters who've infiltrated... Audio
- Le chasseur devient la proie Polly's investigation reveals an undercover operation targeting counterfeiters who've infiltrated... Audio
- Le Goût Amer de la Trahison Polly's investigation reveals that Valentina is an undercover agent pursuing counterfeiters who've been... Audio
- Polly dit au revoir à Buenos Aires Polly, a curious parrot, visits Buenos Aires and helps transform a rivalry at a tango festival into a... Audio
- Polly et la Danse de l'Unité Polly and her companions face an unexpected challenge when a rival group claims to host the true tango... Audio
- La Compétition Surprise Polly, Diego, and Isabel face an unexpected challenge when a rival group claims to host the true tango... Audio
- Le Vol Important de Polly Polly the parrot helps Diego and Isabel counteract misinformation threatening a tango festival in Buenos... Audio
- Le Mystère du Tango Polly the parrot joins Diego and Isabel in Buenos Aires, where they learn of a potential plot to disrupt a... Audio
- Une Rencontre Surprenante à La Boca Polly the parrot, exploring Buenos Aires, meets Isabel, a talented artist in La Boca, who is capturing the... Audio
- Polly et la Musique de Tango de Buenos Aires Polly the parrot arrives in Buenos Aires and meets Diego, a tango musician preparing for a local festival.... Audio
- Adieu à Paris In Paris, Polly helps Isabelle solve the mystery of a missing painting and returns it to the artist. They... Audio
- La Danse de la Découverte In Paris, Polly helps Isabelle solve the mystery of a missing painting and returns it to the artist. They... Audio
- La Surprise à Montmartre In Paris, Polly the parrot and Isabelle solve the mystery of a missing painting. Returning it to the... Audio
- La Poursuite sur le Pont des Arts In Paris, Polly the parrot and Isabelle solve the mystery of a missing painting by confronting a mysterious... Audio
- Le Mystère du Tableau Disparu In Paris, Polly the parrot and Isabelle, a writer, meet Monsieur Dupont, an elderly artist, whose painting... Audio
- Le Secret près de la Seine Polly and Isabelle embark on a walk along the Seine, where they meet Monsieur Dupont, an elderly artist.... Audio
- Polly Arrive à Paris Polly the parrot arrives in Paris, the City of Light, and lands in a charming café in Le Marais. There, she... Audio
- Les Secrets de Marrakech Polly the parrot and Fatima, guided by a mysterious map, explore the hidden depths of Marrakech, uncovering... Audio
- La Surprise du Marché Secret Polly and Fatima, guided by a mysterious map, uncover a hidden courtyard and a secret market in Marrakech.... Audio
- Une Surprise dans le Labyrinthe Polly and Fatima, guided by a mysterious map, uncover a hidden courtyard in Marrakech. As they continue... Audio
- Le Secret de la Fontaine Murmurante Polly and Fatima, guided by a mysterious map, uncover a hidden courtyard in Marrakech. They decipher an... Audio
- La Carte Mystérieuse et la Porte Secrète Polly and Fatima, following a mysterious map, discover a hidden courtyard in Marrakech. They uncover an... Audio
- Une Rencontre Inattendue Polly the parrot, alongside Fatima, continues to explore Marrakech, where they encounter an elderly... Audio
- Polly dans les Rues Magiques de Marrakech Polly the parrot arrives in Marrakech, where she meets Fatima, a traveler trying to navigate the city's... Audio
- Étoiles et Histoires Polly and Amir reflect on their adventure under the stars, cherishing the lessons learned and the deepened... Audio
- Les Secrets de la Tombe Inside the lost tomb, Polly and Amir discover a chamber filled with ancient treasures. However, the tomb is... Audio
- Le Tour du Désert Despite initial frustration, Polly and Amir manage to find the hidden entrance to the lost tomb as night... Audio
- Dans le Désert Polly and Amir journey into the desert, guided by the clues from the box, to find the entrance to a lost... Audio
- Le Mystère du Masque Magique In Venice, Polly the parrot and historian Isabella continue their quest to uncover a legendary document.... Audio
- Une Carte Étrange Polly, a curious parrot, arrives in Venice and notices a young woman named Isabella, who holds a mysterious... Audio
- Le voyage de Polly à Venise Polly, the curious parrot, arrives in Venice, a city of canals and rich history. As she takes in the sights... Audio
- Adieu à Marrakech Polly says goodbye to Marrakech, having helped uncover a treasure that preserves the city's history, and... Audio
- Le Secret Révélé Polly and her friends solve a riddle that leads them to a hidden key, unlocking the treasure chamber and... Audio
- Une Course Contre la Montre Polly, Leila, and Omar team up to find the treasure, racing through Marrakech as obstacles arise, including... Audio
- Polly Arrive à Marrakech Polly arrives in the vibrant city of Marrakech, soaking in the sensory-rich atmosphere of Jemaa el-Fnaa and... Audio
- Polly et le Langage des Anciens Polly, the curious parrot, delves into the mystery of Echoing Canyon's cryptic echoes. Guided by local... Audio
- Polly et la carte mystérieuse Polly the parrot visits an Italian village and helps a boy named Luca understand an old treasure map. They... Audio
- Polly et le Mystère du Canyon Écho Polly the parrot, exploring the American Southwest, discovers a mysterious echo in Echoing Canyon that... Audio