J’ai beaucoup de choses à partager avec vous dans ce blog. D’abord, je veux bien sûr vous souhaiter une super méga ultra bonne année 2020! But that’s a little abstract and I’m a concrete kind of girl so how about we make this un peu plus tangible? I’ll come back to this in a moment… at the bottom of this blog post.
I’m coming to Seattle
Right now, I want to announce that in two months exactly, on March 1st 2020, I will be in my beloved Seattle again! And that makes me soooooo happy youpi!!! Ideally, I would split my life between France and the US, but until that’s possible, if ever, I will content myself with spending a month in Seattle here and there.
I had originally opened two French Immersion Courses in Seattle on March 7 & 8 and on March 14 & 15. Since they are now both sold out, I created a new one on the following weekend: March 21 & 22! Voilà à quoi notre week-end ressemblera:
Samedi matin: cours de français conversation, grammaire, conjugaison, vocabulaire, pour vous préparer aux rencontres de l’après-midi avec des Français entrepreneurs de Seattle.
Samedi déjeuner: pique-nique French style. (I will happily adapt to vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, etc. just let me know in advance so I can prepare accordingly)
Samedi après-midi: rencontre et discussion avec trois Français qui vivent à Seattle.
1- Philippe Pollien est un couvreur. What does that mean? Il a construit les beaux toits de Paris, rénové des toits d’églises et de châteaux, et maintenant qu’il habite à Seattle, il travaille avec des grands architectes sur des maisons originales et de luxe!
2- Jean-Claude Beck a toujours travaillé dans le domaine du vin en France, puis en Californie, et maintenant dans l’état de Washington où il crée son propre vin blanc, rosé, et rouge.
3- Géraldine Le Calvez est une artiste d’une grande originalité puisqu’elle peint sur des morceaux de lichen. Personnellement, je ne connaissais même pas le concept avant de la rencontrer! Elle apportera quelques une des ses créations pour que nous puissions les admirer.
Samedi soir: dîner dans le restaurant (français of course!) de mon ami (français of course!) dans le centre ville de Seattle, Loulay ran by the famous Chef in the Hat.
Dimanche matin: cours de français, just like the previous day, except this time I’ll prepare your French speaking skills toward a baking kind of afternoon…
Dimanche déjeuner: pique-nique French style. (Again, I will happily adapt to vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, etc. just let me know in advance so I can prepare accordingly)
Dimanche après-midi: off to the local and authentic French bakery La Parisienne where the French chef Patrick Morin will teach us how to make des madeleines et des macarons au chocolat! At the end of our cooking session, we will share and eat all our delicious French goodies in the bakery (we’ll have the whole place to ourselves) with a cup of tea and / or a glass of rosé, et voilà!
If you want to join us, there are now only 6 spots left so now is the time to SIGN UP!
And in case you’re wondering what previous participants have thought about this weekend, Demi will enlighten you…
Bonne année 2020
And now back to 2020… dans un monde idéal, à quoi est-ce que 2020 ressemblerait pour vous? Le 1er janvier et une nouvelle année qui commence est toujours une belle opportunité pour:
-se demander si nous vivons notre vie idéale
À ce propos, connaissez-vous le concept d’éternel retour de Nietzsche? If not, look it up: so simple yet so efficient, just the way I like it! I personally don’t think about it every day, but at least once a week, every week.
-penser à notre vie
-ce que nous en avons fait jusqu’ici
-ce que nous aimerions créer
-ce que nous aimerions changer
-ce qu’il faudrait mettre en place pour atteindre nos buts, etc.
Quand j’habitais aux États-Unis, j’ai appris le concept de “vision board” et je dois dire qu’il me plaît beaucoup mais que, for some reason, je n’en ai fait qu’un seul, en 2015.
Actually what prompts me to write this today, is the reply Lori sent to my newsletter email / blog post a few days ago. In last week’s blog post, I explained how amazed I felt when I realized how much had already happened in my first four months in Paris. In only four months.
She wrote me a long reply including the following sentence:
“Wait. You’ve only been doing this 4 months?! Imagine what 4 years will look like!”
Et c’est bizarre mais je crois que je n’y avais pas vraiment pensé avant! Du coup, j’ai commencé à me demander à quoi ma vie, French Truly, mes études pourraient ressembler dans quatre ans, à tout ce que Paris et mon hyperactivité (have you noticed yet? ha!) pourraient m’apporter. Mais pour être tout à fait honnête avec vous, tout cela reste un peu flou dans ma tête. La seule chose que je me vois faire en plus étant une école de théâtre. Mais pas avant avoir obtenu mon diplôme de Philosophie qui me demande plusieurs heures par jour et que j’adore totalement donc que je n’ai ni l’envie ni l’intention de bâcler. Enfin bref, j’ai décidé de réfléchir aux “quatre ans” de Lori et il me semble que ces moments de transition fin d’année / nouvelle année se prêtent très bien à ce genre d’expériences!
Est-ce que c’est la même chose pour vous?
Est-ce que vous aimez vous poser ce genre de questions?
Êtes-vous adeptes des bilans et des plans d’attaque?
Si oui, feel free to share some of your thoughts to give us all some inspiration! I’ll share mine when I have it!
First 2020 plan
Voici une très bonne (et délicieuse) idée pour bien commencer l’année following a French tradition: la galette des rois!
Normalement, on ne mange pas la galette des rois (regardez la vidéo ci-dessus pour comprendre pourquoi) avant le mois de janvier, mais, il se trouve que cette galette est mon dessert préféré… donc j’ai décidé de ne pas attendre! In other words, la galette est mangée! And since I was the lucky one to find la fève in my piece of cake (again, watch the video above to understand why I’m saying this) I got the crown but instead of keeping it for myself, I gave it to… Sophie!
Et voilà ma reine!
Comme elle est belle la reine Sophie! Elle n’était pas très contente de cette couronne bizarrement ha ha!
Now you have to let me know if you’ve ever eaten a galette des rois before, if you will have one (or two, or three, or sixteen) this year, et bien sûr, if you get the fève and therefore la couronne!
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WANT TO TAKE YOUR FRENCH TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
RECEIVE VIRGINIE’S FREE COURSE to Help You Become a little bit French in 3 Steps.
Learn French Online with Virginie via the French Truly Online School
Learn French with Virginie via her French Immersion Courses in France, in London UK, and in Seattle US.
Watch Testimonials from Virginie’s Happy Students!
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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!
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FRENCH IMMERSION COURSE – WEEKEND IN SEATTLE MARCH 2020
SEATTLE – US
2020 March 7 & 8: This French Immersion Course is designed for intermediate level students – SOLD OUT
2020 March 14 & 15: This French Immersion Course is designed for beginner level students – SOLD OUT
2020 March 21 & 22: This French Immersion Course is designed for intermediate level students – 6 SPOTS left
If you’re unsure about your level, contact me to schedule a free Skype call
FRENCH IMMERSION COURSE – WEEK IN PÉLUSSIN APRIL & JULY 2020
PÉLUSSIN – FRANCE
2020 April 6 to 12: This French Immersion Course is designed for intermediate level students – SOLD OUT
2020 July 20 to 26: This French Immersion Course is designed for intermediate level students – SOLD OUT
If you’re unsure about your level, contact me to schedule a free Skype call
FRENCH IMMERSION COURSE – WEEK IN PARIS SEPTEMBER 2020
PARIS – FRANCE
2020 September 14 to 20: This French Immersion Course is designed for intermediate level students – 1 SPOT LEFT
If you’re unsure about your level, contact me to schedule a free Skype call
100% French Experience
What inspired me to create this French Immersion Course? C’est très simple: how best to improve your French conversation skills than by being in France, surrounded with French culture and French people who will ONLY speak French to you? Yet so many times I have heard visitors express their disappointment at not really being given the chance to practice their French. Why? Because more & more French people, especially in big cities, speak English fairly well and are just so excited to practice their new skills with you! This ends up being nice and comfortable for you but not so satisfying or helpful for improving your French speaking ability! So to fix this and make sure you have the most enjoyable, and at the same time profitable, French learning experience, I decided to create the perfect environment for you by organizing this hands-on French Immersion Course.
Daily French Classes & Activities
This is the reason why I have created this 7 DAY FULL FRENCH IMMERSION COURSE for you, filled with daily classes & enriching adventures with French people who will only speak French with you. No English! It’s amazing how much you can learn and retain in such a conducive atmosphere in as little as 7 days. Mornings will be dedicated to French language classes and afternoons will be filled with interesting activities such as: visiting local artists or entrepreneurs workshops, meeting with local wine makers and farmers, guided hike in nature, cooking class, painting class, cinema, & museum… all in French!
in 3 easy steps