I’m about to introduce you to my upcoming French Immersion Courses in Chartres France taking place in September 2021 & April 2022. In this blog post, I will share with you the format as well as the activities. My next step will be to send you the finalized official webpage with a precise itinerary and the possibility for you to register.

 

-For those of you who were scheduled for 2020 but couldn’t come because of covid, I have saved the spot you’ve asked me for so don’t worry.

-For those of you who were not scheduled for 2020 yet want to join 1 of these 2 weeks (Sept 2021 or Apr 2022), make sure you register ASAP because there are even fewer spots available than usual! Each group contains a maximum of 8 people and several spots are already taken by my 2020 participants.

 

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be organizing our upcoming French Immersion Courses again! It’s such an enchanting part of my work, meeting and interviewing all the potential French participants (the amazing & creative people who you will meet and speak French with when you are here), thinking of the fabulous, fun, and nerdy activities, linking them all together in the most meaningful way, coming up with the best possible logistics, searching for the prettiest most memorable places yet at the same time not the most obvious ones… I’ve really missed it! And I truly enjoy the organization as much as the delivery!

 

If you haven’t heard Président Macron officially opening borders to fully vaccinated people, especially Americans, you can watch it HERE et il parle en anglais!

 

 

Just like I do with all my French Immersion Courses, I am putting together a webpage with a precise itinerary and the possibility for you to register. Most of my activities are confirmed but the webpage is not finalized yet because I’m still waiting for a few replies…

 

However I know so many of you are as excited as I am to discover the itinerary so I want to share with you today what it looks like so far! I’m going to explain the format and then the various activities, in no particular order. At the same time, you can use this opportunity to let me know how you feel about the various plans I am making for you, give me your feedback or even suggestions! This way you are part of the creative process!

 

Format

 

 

I keep the same format for all French Immersion Courses, whether they take place in France or in the US, whether they last one week or one weekend. Each morning is dedicated to theory, French class taught by me, adapted to our afternoon and evening practice : meetings, activities, adventures, visits, workshops with creative locals. Needless to say, all in French. When I say each day’s theory is adapted to the afternoon and evening practice, I mean that if we take a cooking class in the afternoon, the morning French class will be focused on French Gastronomy and potentially the history being the French food we will be preparing later on.

 

The purpose of this format is to give you the knowledge, the vocabulary, the confidence, etc. to communicate on a specific topic, different every day, with French locals and experts in their own fields. It also allows you to think ahead of what questions you may have for them! Théorie you can put into practice immédiatement! Très efficace!

 

Activities

 

 

Le plus important pour moi is to make sure you enjoy the best possible most memorable & authentic semaine en France. A dream week exploring original horizons you never could have explored by yourself and making connections with local entrepreneurs, artisans, artists, intellectuals, creators, you couldn’t have encountered without French Truly. So, remember every morning is dedicated to French class. Et voici les activités de l’après-midi, and once again tout en français bien sûr:

 

-Visite de la world famous cathédrale de Chartres with the local celebrity art historian Gilles Fresson as our private guide

 

-Experience the cathedral’s labyrinth (see how it’s been a life changing moment for American-Chatrain Michael interviewed in last week’s blog post) followed by la visite du Château de Maintenon as well as les jardins et le parc du château. Did you know Madame de Maintenon was one of Louis XIV’s most influential mistresses?

 

-Visite de la librairie L’Esperluète located in a stunning Renaissance building with the owner Olivier L’Hostis

 

-Cours de cuisine either in Chartres or in Paris

 

-Since I’m mentioning Paris, did you know it’s only one hour away from Chartres on the train? So one day we’ll get on a train, which will take us to la gare Montparnasse dans le 14ème arrondissement and since it’s a fabulous arrondissement, we’ll stay there and meet mon amie Flora whose company Paris Solidari-thé organizes treasure hunts all over Paris! The purpose of each of her events is to make you find your way around unusual Paris while meeting several Parisiens who are awaiting your visit and your questions!

 

-Visit of L’atelier Lorin the oldest stained glass company in France with the owner Élodie Vally who will teach us how to make our own stained glass piece

 

-Screen printing workshop with local artist Catherine Schnoebelen

 

-Meeting with local leatherworker Léa Beaugé in the adorable Bonjour Bonheur boutique she opened in the heart of Chartres to showcase her work as well as the work of 20 other local artisans

 

-Nature exploration and charming walks around Chartres beautiful parks and along the river l’Eure (will think of un plan B in case the weather decides not to cooperate!)

 

Those of you who took the Online French Immersion Courses in Chartres at the beginning of this year, you’ll recognize some of the above names! Only this time, you’ll get to meet them in person! Très cool, n’est-ce pas?

 

I am still waiting for a couple of confirmations which is why the official webpage is not out yet. Mais très bientôt!

 

Dates

 

 

When the webpage is live, you’ll be able to sign up for :

2021 September 20 to 26

OR

2022 April 4 to 10

 

Price

 

 

$2,200 covers 7 days for 1 person and includes:
-All classes (language, cooking, art)
-All visits and guides
-Me with you all day every day to guide and accompany you
-Suggested activities may vary depending on weather
Balance due 2 months prior to the first day of your course

THE $2,200 PRICE IS NOT REFUNDABLE AND DOES NOT INCLUDE INSURANCE (cancelation, medical, repatriation, etc…) AIR, HOTELS, RESTAURANTS, PUBLIC TRANSPORT.

If you want to be able to cancel the trip for whatever reason or if covid makes us postpone our lives (s’il te plaît covid, laisse-nous tranquilles!) yet again, PLEASE TAKE YOUR OWN TRAVEL INSURANCE AS THERE WILL BE NO REFUND.

 

Testimonials

 

You can either watch all video testimonials on my Youtube channel, or you can watch a few directement sur cette page:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Je vous dis à très bientôt à Chartres mes amis!

 

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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 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!