Bon et bien voilà. Ça c’est fait. Je n’habite plus à Paris. J’ai quitté la capitale hier et me voici maintenant temporairement chez ma maman à Vienne… en France pas en Autriche… avec mes chiens! mes amours! mes bébés Sophie et Bruno, AKA Soso and the Bru.

 

 

Apart from the packing and the cleaning, which are nobody’s favorite things in the world et je ne suis pas une exception, je suis contente d’avoir vraiment profité de ma dernière semaine en tant que parisienne. La canicule was not cool, pun intended, canicule meaning heat wave. Crazy heat n’est pas pour moi, surtout dans un pays not fond of AC. I’m telling you, if I do get the gorgeous Chartres apartment, la première chose que je ferai sera d’investir dans une climatisation because intense heat does not help with productivity!

 

À cause de la chaleur, on ne peut pas dormir, so the next day one feels like poop parce que sleep deprived, mais aussi parce qu’il fait si chaud que le corps ne bouge pas et le cerveau ne comprend rien. Such a waste of time!

 

Malgré tout, je suis si reconnaissante d’avoir vraiment pu et su profiter de mes derniers jours avec mes amis parisiens Flo & Mika:

 

Samedi, we ate at my favorite vegan restaurant Sol Semilla à côté du Canal Saint Martin, nous nous sommes promenés le long du canal jusqu’au Parc de la Villette where we watched people fly (did you see my Instagram video c’était génial!), puis nous avons marché jusqu’au Parc des Buttes Chaumont, one of my special places in Paris parce que oh la la c’est si joli, charmant,  ravissant, bucolique, délicat, romantique, and oh so 19th century! Then we walked to the 20th arrondissement pour dîner dans un autre super resto vegan Le Fait Tout, délicieux et si créatif, je vous le recommande vivement!

 

 

Dimanche, nous nous sommes retrouvés au ciné pour aller voir un documentaire au MK2 Parnasse, and, totally random comment but, on the way there, I saw these two stunners:

 

 

Surprenant et sublimes, n’est-ce pas? Surtout la rose…

 

I walked all the way from home to the cinema of course comme toujours, et j’ai choisi the path which makes me traverser le Jardin du Luxembourg que j’adore:

 

 

Mardi soir, rebelote Sol Semilla (addicted? moi? nooooooon mais pas du tooouuuut!!!) puis ils m’ont raccompagnée chez moi et je leur ai donné toute la nourriture qui restait dans mes placards, so much food they won’t need to shop pendant at least deux semaines je crois ha!

 

Et mercredi, hier, le jour du départ, Flo m’a aidée à porter mes montagnes de valises (vidéo sur Instagram) à la gare de Lyon (please don’t get confused, it’s called gare de Lyon because that’s its direction, but it is in Paris and not in Lyon!) so that bags and I could all arrive at destination on the correct platform. She had even taken the time le matin to bake me some petits gâteaux au matcha sans gluten, sans sucre, et sans produits laitiers using all the food I had given her the day before. How sweet is that? Given that my TGV was leaving at lunch time, the little cookies became mon déjeuner. Parfait!

 

Et tout ça accompagné de moult messages de mes amis partout dans le monde pour me souhaiter un bon voyage! OMG SO MUCH LOVE SERIOUSLY I AM ONE LUCKY BLESSED GIRL.

 

Au revoir Paris. Bonjour la nouvelle vie. Quelle nouvelle vie? Je ne sais pas encore mais let’s just say no matter what, it’s going to be exciting, n’est-ce pas? Dans mon train j’ai commencé de lire la biographie de Giacomo Casanova which took me directly from Paris to 18th century Venice, la bellissima Venezia, as a reminder that delight could forever be found in so many different places. I’ll be alright.

 

Ma maman est venue me chercher à Lyon (called gare Lyon Part Dieu and not gare de Lyon, still following me?) puis j’ai conduit sa voiture jusqu’à Vienne où j’ai retrouvé d’abord mon petit Bruno puis ma grosse Sophinette. Mon ami Laurent a passé la journée avec nous, nous nous sommes reposés dans le jardin public, puis nous avons dîné tous ensemble et voilà!

 

 

 

From now on, but I cannot tell you for how long, I shall be sharing pictures of la belle Vienne avec vous sur Instagram et Facebook. In case you don’t know Vienne, c’est une ancienne capitale de l’empire romain dans laquelle se trouvent encore:

 

-le temple romain built for Augustus and his wife Livie

 

-l’amphithéâtre dans lequel se déroulent de nombreux concerts et spectacles (but of course not right please go away stupid covid merci beaucoup)

 

-les ruines du jardin de Cybèle

 

-une partie du cirque

 

-ainsi qu’un incroyable musée dans lequel j’adore emmener mes étudiants qui viennent passer une semaine à Pélussin pour le French Immersion Course.

 

 

C’est tout pour now : Au revoir Paris / Bonjour Vienne.

 

——————————————————————————————————————————-

 

Learn French online with Virginie

Join French Truly’s online school, either by buying the French online course(s) of your choice or by becoming a monthly member. See more details about the membership at the bottom of this page

Each French online course is packed with video & audio files along with written material, to make it as fun, easy, and user friendly as possible for you! Come and learn French online with me!

 

French online course #1: 600 WORDS

In this course, you will find 15 videos (+ 10 bonus ones) to help & accompany you every step of the way through the course + for each word, each sentence, each expression, each conjugated verb, I have created an audio file of my voice, slow and slightly faster speed. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.

 

Did you know…

You can converse (speak + understand) in French with only 600 WORDS?

The average French person only uses between 300 & 3,000 WORDS?

This means that if you can master a relatively short list of words, you’ll be able to express yourself like the average French person! Plus you’re much more likely to understand the French when they talk back to you!

 

This course will teach you…

1- How to speak French

2- How to pronounce French

3- How to make French sentences

4- How to conjugate all the most common French verbs

5- How to polish your results

6- How to self evaluate your French

More info HERE

• It should take you about 30 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 10 lessons
• This course is designed for a beginner / intermediate level. If you are intermediate but feel like you could really reinforce your foundations, you will love it.
• You can join whenever, either by buying the course or by becoming a monthly member giving you access to my French online courses from $10 / month. See more details about the membership at the bottom of this page

 

Online course # 2: PERFECT PRONUNCIATION

In this course you will find 11 videos + 150 audio files + 92 pages PDF format to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. In some parts of the videos, my face will appear close up and profile so you can easily see how I make these sounds with my mouth. The 150 audio files are composed of the 100 most popular French words and the 50 most common French phrases. They are recordings of my voice, speaking slowly enough so you can easily grasp every syllable. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.

NB: if you are the proud owner of my previous French online course 600 WORDS, don’t worry, this is not a repeat as we are now exploring 1 letter words and up, whereas in 600 WORDS we began at 4 letter words and up.

 

Combine knowledge with confidence…

For you to be able to have a pleasant and efficient conversation with a French person, one thing is key… can you guess what it is? Confidence! How well do you think you will communicate in French if you don’t feel confident about your accent? If you are scared that people won’t understand you? Or even worse if you think someone might make fun of you? Without a minimum of confidence there is no room for communication. Yet if you feel confident, you can afford to make a few mistakes here and there because people will still understand you. What prevents a conversation from happening isn’t just a lack of knowledge, it’s also a lack of confidence. You need to have both to make it work, not to mention, to make it fun!

 

This course will teach you…

1- How to pronounce every letter of the alphabet

2- How to pronounce every digraph & trigraph

3- How to make every French sentence flow

4- How to pronounce the 100 most popular French words

5- How to pronounce the 50 most popular French phrases

6- How to avoid the pronunciation mistakes everyone makes

More info HERE

• It should take you about 20 to 2 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 11 lessons
• This course is designed for a beginner level. If you are intermediate but lack confidence when it comes to talking and feel like you could really benefit from focusing on pronunciation, you will love it.
• You can join whenever, either by buying the course or by becoming a monthly member giving you access to my French online courses from $10 / month. See more details about the membership below 

 

Online course # 3: FRENCH DICTÉES

 

In the FRENCH DICTÉES online course you will find 20 videos + 10 audio files to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. Why 20 videos? Because there are 10 dictées in total, each focusing on one particular topic, and for each dictée I have prepared 2 videos. Let’s say the video focuses on both French past tenses called imparfait & passé composé. The first video will go though the grammar, the conjugation, and all the tips on these two past tenses to help you understand and remember how and when to use them. The second video will be the actual dictée, a short story written by me, describing everyday life situations conveniently packed with imparfait and passé composé verbs! Boom! Efficient! The dictée will also be read by me, slowly first and then a little faster, with a close up on my face so you can more easily recognize the words and copy the shapes I make to improve your own pronunciation.

 

Become a French language expert

How do you become an expert at anything? By focusing on one thing at a time.

I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic per dictée, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.

 

Here’s what you’re going to learn

What grammar & conjugation points will each dictée focus on?

Dictée # 1: Present tense

Dictée # 2: Past tenses – imparfait & passé composé

Dictée # 3: Future tenses – futur proche & futur simple

Dictée # 4: Conditional, imparfait, asking questions

Dictée # 5: Imperative form

Dictée # 6: First group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 7: Second group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 8: Third group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 9: Numbers

Dictée # 10: Prepositions

Each dictée is a short story written by me about practical everyday life situations. This means that not only do you get to work on conjugation & grammar drills, but you also improve your conversational skills at the same time: a magic combination for your next trip to France!

 

Grow your confidence talking about practical everyday topics

The dictées will refer to common topics that you are very likely to hear or very likely to use to express yourself such as:

-Traveling to France

-Socializing

-Childhood memories

-Family dynamics

-Everyday life routines

-How to express your ideas, opinions, and dreams

 

Two videos per dictée

First video: key grammar and conjugation reminders explained very clearly so you feel prepared and confident entering each dictée.

Second video: the actual dictée. I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.

 

And for you challenge lovers over-achievers?

Yes I have prepared something just for you! I have also made 10 audio files, 1 per dictée, so that if you wish to, if you want it extra difficult, if you want to test yourself more deeply, you can solely rely on sound. Indeed there are many occasions in life where we hear a language but we don’t see it: speaking to someone on the phone or listening to the radio for instance.

 

20 videos? 10 audio files? What else?

This new FRENCH DICTÉES online course also comes with written files with both the French text along with the English translation, so that you can evaluate yourself when you’re done taking notes.

To summarize, you’ll be able to use video, audio, and written material.

 

Dictées worked for me, they’ll work for you!

Let me tell you, I LOVE dictées because THEY WORK. And clearly you realize this too and that is smart of you. So now let’s see how something as simple as a dictée can truly help you become a little bit French! Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.

 

Become a monthly member!

My goal is to transform your French language learning experience. This is why I’ve decided to offer you a new way to learn French online and gain access to the French Truly Online School! Actually, more than 1 new way, you’ll have 3 plans to choose from so come and learn French online with me!