That’s it. The one year lease in the lovely heart of Paris apartment is coming to an end. Je pars le 12 août, mercredi prochain. Donc c’est officiel, ceci est ma dernière semaine complète à Paris. En tous cas, temporairement, je reviendrai peut-être habiter ici, qui sait? Je reviendrai de toutes façons pour voir mes amis Flo & Mika et bien sûr pour continuer l’organisation de mes French Immersion Courses à Paris dès que le monde refera surface après covid19.

 

I must say it’s quite an emotional week pour plusieurs raisons, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. Quelles sont ces raisons? Voyons… je vais tenter de faire une liste intéressante :

 

-Ma dernière semaine complète à Paris! Vraiment très bizarre comme impression… me dire que la prochaine fois que je viendrai à Paris, bientôt j’imagine, ça ne sera plus en tant que parisienne mais en tant que visiteuse. À chaque fois que je retourne dans des endroits où j’ai vécu et qui ont vraiment compté pour moi comme Londres et Seattle, j’ai toujours l’impression que ces villes sont chez moi, sauf que je n’ai pas de clé pour ce chez moi, parce que ma vie n’est plus là. Bientôt ça sera la même chose à Paris et je n’arrive pas trop à réaliser pour l’instant.

 

 

En fait, quand je me suis installée à Paris l’année dernière, je pensais rester after this lease, but Covid changed things un peu… un peu? No comment. Cependant, mon projet est bien de rester très près puisque Chartres se trouve seulement à une heure de Paris… it’s almost a suburb ha! Disons que c’est une très jolie banlieue de Paris!

 

 

-Speaking of Chartres and speaking of chez moi, toujours pas de nouvelles de la banque, donc en fait je n’ai vraiment pas de chez moi pour l’instant! Mon agence à Paris est un désastre. Donc j’ai décidé de changer d’agence et puisque je vais rester quelques semaines / mois chez ma mère à Vienne, j’ai fait basculer mon dossier et mon compte dans l’agence de Vienne en espérant qu’ils soient plus efficaces là! Of course I’ll let you know but I’m sure it’s getting old for you each week to read “Not yet!” Believe me it’s getting old for me too… oooooh la France… tu es si belle mais si frustrante et inefficace parfois!

 

 

-So as you can imagine, this is very stressful, because, if I don’t have the answer from la banque in time, I will lose my (not mine yet) home in Chartres. Yikes. Berk. Bearing in mind we are now in August, and in August, France simply shuts down because everybody est en vacances en même temps. Très pratique. Not. So, note to self : I guess the summer is not a good time to try to buy a house or do anything of importance en France. Sigh. As my old friend Seneca would say : Prepare for the worst and don’t feel entitled to anything parce que c’est la vie!

 

 

-And in the midst of all this stress, mes amis et ma mère m’apportent tant de soutien and that makes such a difference. Every day messages and / or conversations, they’re really on it with me. And that’s worth more than homes. That is a home in itself in a way. Alors merci mes amis pour votre soutien, vous savez qui vous êtes.

 

 

-Je reçois toujours des messages adorables de mes étudiants et abonnés et ça me fait toujours chaud au coeur, mais là, je dois dire que cette semaine it’s something else! You all must be feeling something’s up somehow, c’est impressionnant! Par exemple, mon abonnée Aditi en Inde m’a envoyé un email avant-hier pour me dire qu’elle avait fait une bande dessinée à propos de moi. C’est tellement adorable! Il y a huit images en tout donc je ne vais pas tout ajouter ça ferait trop mais je me permets (avec l’autorisation d’Aditi) d’en partager une avec vous. So so sweet!

 

 

Dans sa bande dessinée, Aditi rassure ses amis qui souhaitent apprendre le français mais ne savent pas où commencer qu’ils peuvent le faire avec moi. C’est trop mignon!

 

-Une autre raison de me sentir so emotional cette semaine… ma belle-fille (step-daughter) Vida is turning 27 today… c’est l’âge que j’avais quand j’ai déménagé à Seattle! And she was still un petit bébé. Well, not quite un bébé but you know what I mean. Les enfants restent toujours un peu des bébés, n’est-ce pas? I was chatting with her about it yesterday and told her I could still remember  that glorious day, le 31 mars 2010, the stress of going through Customs (I only had a green card back then, no citizenship yet) as they can be quite vicious parfois, followed by the joy of going up the escalators to find her and her dad qui m’attendaient de l’autre côté avec une immense bannière “Welcome to America Virginie” covered with glittery hearts! Tellement mignon! Je ferme les yeux et j’y suis, je me rappelle tout. J’avais 27 ans. Et aujourd’hui c’est elle qui a 27 ans et c’est elle qui va bientôt se marier! Mon Dieu que le temps passe vite… pendant notre conversation hier, elle m’a remerciée de lui avoir tant appris et d’avoir apporté beaucoup de stabilité dans sa vie, bien sûr ça m’a fait pleurer, et je pourrais dire exactement la même chose d’elle.

 

 

Les 2 V! Vida et Virginie en 2007, lors de ma première visite à Seattle. Autant vous dire que ça a été le coup de foudre! J’ai tout de suite su que je voulais habiter là! Then it took two years of nagging Vida’s dad : “Allez s’il te plaît s’il te plaît s’il te plaît on peut aller vivre à Seattle?” Il disait toujours non. Non. Non. Non. Toujours toujours non. Parce qu’il vient de Seattle et qu’à l’époque nous vivions à Londres en Angleterre so to him going back home just seemed boring… mais  je n’ai pas abandonné, j’ai insisté, j’ai demandé, j’ai persévéré (avec un sourire à chaque fois) et finalement, j’ai gagné et nous sommes partis vivre aux États-Unis youpi! Et j’en suis très contente car Seattle a changé ma vie!

 

Bon allez, let’s finish on this sweet note et… joyeux anniversaire Vida!

 

Ok les amis, back to packing and emotional week maintenant…

 

 

Un immense merci à vous tous pour me suivre dans ma never ending aventure!

 

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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!