The article familiarizes the readers with the stay of A. Pelczar (1937–2010) in France and his encounters with mathematicians working and staying in the prestigious Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette (IHÉS) and Université Paris XI (Faculté des Sciences d’Orsay). The future founder of the Kraków school of dynamical systems had an opportunity to meet the following mathematicians, among others: M. Artin, A. Grothendieck, N. Kuiper, B. Malgrange, J. Mather, P. Deligne, R. Thom, Ch. Zeeman.
The article was written thanks to the memories of Jacek Bochnak, the companion of Pelczar in France, nowadays a renowned professor of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
