Ponckle was offered a job as a stylist with the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, who were constantly touring around Europe. She immediately fell in love with France and took up with one of the dancers, a Haitian named Hernst, a relationship which eventually led to divorce from her first husband.

All her sisters had by then settled into stable marriages, but Ponckle was the wild child of the family and couldn’t help herself from exploring the world through new lovers and friendships. Everywhere she went, men would worship her and propose marriage. When Ken found out about Hernst, he drove all the way to Paris and tried to run Ponckle over outside the theatre where she was working.

With the marriage over, Ponckle continued travelling around France, spending a summer in Cannes with two English friends, Paul and Robin. This was the 1950s, when hardly any British people ventured further south than Paris; Ponckle hitch-hiked all over the country with her two male friends, eventually renting a small apartment in Cannes.