Mes amis, américains or not, je vous souhaite un very very très très joyeux et HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2023!

 

Je vous souhaite de passer une journée douce et amusante, si possible filled with gratitude for all the warmth and love in your life.

 

Those of you who are on my newsletter avez reçu le mois dernier un email avec des photos of my last two French Immersion Course groups chez moi à Chartres, ainsi que des images de mon grand voyage aux États-Unis qui a duré un mois exactement. Now that I am back home, je vais continuer cette aventure ici sur ce blog in the spirit of Thanksgiving, since ce voyage est sur ma liste of “things” I feel grateful for!

 

Mon grand voyage américain a donc duré un mois : du 12 octobre au 12 novembre 2023, et j’ai l’impression qu’il a duré beaucoup plus longtemps que ça, more like six months, peut-être parce que j’ai vu tant d’états, tant de villes, tant de paysages, tant d’amis.

 

• J’ai visité 4 états : le Tennessee, la Caroline du nord, la Caroline du sud, la Géorgie, et la Floride. And yes we do change the names of the American states into French sounding words… c’est mignon, n’est-ce pas?
• J’ai découvert (pour la première fois) 16 villes : Nashville TN, Franklin TN, Knoxville TN, Asheville NC, Greenville SC, Raleigh NC and the whole research triangle, Kitty Hawk NC, Beaufort NC, Wilmington NC, Charleston SC, Savannah GA, Saint Augustine FL, Sarasota FL.
• J’ai partagé ces moments avec 8 amis américains, soit chez eux, soit ils sont venus me retrouver le long de mon itinéraire.

 

Malgré all this fun, I was thrilled to come back home, dans ma jolie petite ville de Chartres, chez moi, avec mes chiens, mes amis, mon amour, mes habitudes, ma routine, mon ciel gris automnal. Indeed the Sarasota November weather est comme notre mois de juin ici, pas du tout comme notre automne! Mais je m’en fiche. J’aime autant le ciel bleu de Sarasota que le ciel gris de Chartres. Different moods (and different clothes!) that’s all. And I am also grateful for this! I am as excited to go traveling as I am to come back home. Littéralement the best of both worlds.

 

I have hundreds of photos from this road trip, alors je vais essayer de me retenir un peu, du mieux que je peux… je ne promets rien!

 

Nashville TN 

Forgive le visage fatigué, entre les préparations et les vols, I pretty much hadn’t slept in 2 days.

Mon amie H et sa soeur Abbey m’attendaient à l’aéroport de Nashville. Isn’t it great when someone is waiting for you at an airport? Ou n’importe où en fait! Puis le soir nous avons retrouvé deux autres amis Bill et Cheryl, et en tout avons passé 4 jours ensemble.

 

Ryman auditorium AKA Mother Church of Country Music, home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. C’est cette version du Grand Ole Opry que l’on voit dans le film à propos de la vie de Loretta Lynn Coal miner’s daughter.

 

Trop cool! Vous préférez lesquelles? Malheureusement je n’ai pas pu trouver de chaussures qui ne me faisaient pas mal aux pieds… alors j’ai trouvé mes cowboy boots (en français on les appelle des santiags) dans un autre magasin… Voilà :

 

Qu’en dites-vous?

 

Saviez-vous qu’il y a une réplique du Parthénon d’Athènes à Nashville?

 

Dernier déjeuner ensemble avant de partir pour Knoxville!

 

Knoxville TN

Jolie ville mais bizarrement vide. Est-ce que tout le monde était en vacances?

 

Greenville SC

J’ai adoré Greenville! Une adorable petite ville, charmante, propre, soignée. Jugez par vous-mêmes :

How can you go wrong when you begin une nouvelle aventure avec du pitbull puppy time?

 

Et maintenant c’est le moment de dire au revoir à H et Abbey, pour continuer avec Alan… direction Raleigh!

 

Raleigh & Research triangle NC

Le jardin de Duke University est sublime!

Oops…

Connaissez-vous le American Tobacco District in Durham?

Pour apprécier la taille de cette tour, regardez les deux hommes en bas à gauche de la photo… impressionnant, n’est-ce pas? Une autre :

 

Adorables ces abeilles! Ah si tous les graffiti ressemblaient à ça, je ne m’en plaindrais plus!

 

Kitty Hawk NC

Puis je pars seule, en compagnie de ma voiture de location (rental car, location en français means rental… attention aux faux-amis!

Ça ne se voit pas parce que le ciel est merveilleusement bleu sur cette photo, mais entre la température fraîche et le vent océanique, il faisait un froid de canard ce jour-là!

 

J’adore les photos avec des longues ombres.

 

Mon airbnb super joli!

 

Ok je m’arrête là car je dois partir à ma fête de Thanksgiving!

Mais je continuerai très bientôt avec ces villes : Beaufort NC, Wilmington NC, Charleston SC, Savannah GA, Saint Augustine FL, Sarasota FL.

 

JOYEUX THANKSGIVING 2023!!!!!

 

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Learn French online with Virginie

Join French Truly’s online immersion course and 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 immersion à Chartres

Come to France again!

New 2024 dates coming soon.

 

Benefits

• Improve your French conversational skills in a completely safe & friendly environment with me and my amazing French guests who I am selecting because they represent true Chartres landmarks : art historians, chefs, entrepreneurs, artisans, pâtissiers, etc. all passionate experts in their own fields.
• Practice speaking & listening to French while learning about the French culture. This will ensure a rich discussion as well as expand your French vocabulary.
• Learn French grammar & conjugation in a natural way thanks to a practical context.
• Relax knowing that I’m here to manage our time together and make sure everyone gets a fair opportunity to participate.
• Discover Chartres, my new gorgeous city, with me! I very recently moved to this little piece of heaven and I am beyond excited to explore and share all I can with you!
• Bask in French traditions & history in medieval Chartres, an endless source of fascinating stories.So, if you’re feeling a strong “OUI” for this, just click on the appropriate sign up button right below!

French online book club

New 2024 dates coming soon.

Benefits

• Improve your French comprehension skills in a completely safe & friendly environment avec moi.
• Practice reading, speaking, and listening to French while bursting out laughing at every page. This will ensure a rich discussion as well as expand your French vocabulary and sentence structure.
• Learn French grammar & conjugation in a natural way thanks to a practical context.
• Relax knowing that I’m here to manage our time together and make sure everyone gets a fair opportunity to participate.

 

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!