Adele Bockstedt traveled often and extensively, but as a longtime French teacher, France was her favorite destination.

“There’s something in the air in Paris which makes one think and feel gay,’’ she wrote in her journal upon arriving in the city for the first time, in the summer of 1939. “It’s so different from any other place in the world I’ve seen.’’

She had arrived in Europe from Canada aboard the ocean liner Empress of Australia. Ms. Bockstedt, who was on the staff of the Winsor School in Boston for many years, wrote in her journal about fancy dinners, exotic passengers, and a chance meeting with Sara Delano Roosevelt — mother of then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“The President resembles her greatly,’’ she wrote of Mrs. Roosevelt, whom she described as “very gracious and willing to be photographed.’’ As for the political unrest in Europe on the cusp of World War II, she wrote: “If the President feels safe about sending his mother abroad, I’m sure things will be alright.’’

Ms. Bockstedt, who was nicknamed Pat because she was born on St. Patrick’s Day, died in her Palm City, Fla., home Dec. 8 of peripheral vascular disease. She was 96 and previously lived in Brookline.

A dedicated Francophile, her world travels took her to the West Indies, China, Australia, and countries across Europe. At the Winsor School, she formerly chaired the world languages department. She also was an author of six French educational texts.

An accomplished pianist, Ms. Bockstedt composed a song for her high school class’s graduation ceremony, according to her family. She often was called upon to play songs from the big band era, said Norma Simmons of Camden, Maine, a longtime friend and frequent travel companion.

“Every place we went, everybody wanted her to play piano, and she always did,’’ Simmons said. “She was a lot of fun, and a good, genuine friend.’’

She added that Ms. Bockstedt “had a very soft voice to begin with, and she spoke nearly perfect French.’’ When they traveled to Paris, Simmons said, “even the French couldn’t tell she was American.’’

Nevertheless, Ms. Bockstedt wrote in her journal that she and her American friends were subject to “a royal razzing on the condition of our French by the several French people we have met so far.’’

Undeterred, she continued chatting up French passengers so she could practice the language. In her journal she diligently listed French words that were new to her.

“She made French come alive in her classroom,’’ said former Winsor School director Virginia Wing in a tribute delivered when Ms. Bockstedt retired in 1982. “This school has benefited immeasurably from her humor, her tact, her skill as a teacher, and her sure sense of what is important and worth preserving.’’

Ms. Bockstedt was active on a committee that helped keep the Winsor School on Pilgrim Road and retain its all-girls status.

Harriet Stenzel of Kennesaw, Ga., called her former French teacher “a great lady and a wonderful teacher who was very kind and very thorough,’’ and said she kept in touch with Ms. Bockstedt for many years after graduating in 1970.

Alison Greer of Baltimore said she was struggling with advanced placement French in 1982 when the teacher she knew as Madame Bockstedt suggested they meet for one-on-one tutoring sessions.

“I was far from the only student she saw outside of class,’’ said Greer, who met with Ms. Bockstedt two mornings a week for the remainder of the school year. “She knew what she wanted me to do, and it never occurred to her that I might not deliver. She just wasn’t going to settle for me being mediocre.’’

Born in Auburn, N.Y., Ms. Bockstedt was the first of two daughters of Earl Bockstedt and the former Martha Krause. She graduated in 1936 from high school in Auburn and in 1940 from Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in French.

The following year she received a master’s in French from Columbia University. She also took French and education classes at other universities in the United States and Canada, and at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Ms. Bockstedt taught French, sociology, and history in a Pennsylvania school and worked as a translator in New York City. Before joining the Winsor School staff and settling in Brookline, she also taught French at schools in Connecticut and Maryland, and chaired the French department at the Abbot Academy in Andover.

In a 1995 Christmas letter to friends, she wrote that she drove from Brookline to her 55th college reunion in South Hadley in her “not-so-trusty treasure’’ of a 1971 Plymouth.

“I drove the 90 miles with the thermostat at 250,’’ she wrote. “I guess that I’m lucky that I didn’t blow up along the way.’’

Ms. Bockstedt also wrote about her work as a volunteer reader for the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and said she was “keeping up with local theatre and catching as many of the four bell movies that I can.’’

She was particularly close to her sister, the late Betty Jane Forgham, whose family lived for many years in Haiti. “Aunt Pat flew to Haiti most every Christmas and Easter to be with us,’’ said Ms. Bockstedt’s niece Patty Forgham-Thrift of Orlando.

In 2003 Ms. Bockstedt moved to Florida to be near her sister and other family members. She eventually settled in the Sandhill Cove assisted living community in Palm City, Fla., where she was active in the garden club and social committee, and planned group excursions to concerts, symphonies, and other events, all “in the artistic vein,’’ said Mary Sommer, director of Sandhill Cove.

Even when her health was failing, Ms. Bockstedt was strong, independent, and adept at managing her affairs, Sommer said.

“I don’t think anyone knew to what extent she traveled the world, and that she wrote all those books,’’ Sommer said. “She accomplished so much but she was so down to earth.’’

A service for Ms. Bockstedt will be held at 11 a.m. Jan. 22 in Sandhill Cove.

“She was very vivacious,’’ Greer said of her former French teacher. “And she was so welcoming to the language. She really made you want to keep at it. She spoke with energy, she walked around the classroom with energy, she wrote on the board with energy. She would actually break the chalk because she wrote with so much energy and vigor.’’

Kathleen McKenna can be reached at kmck66@verizon.net.