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Writer's pictureVirginie Paradis

French Immersion Course in Paris: Make New Parisian Friends

That’s it. The first part of this first year in Paris is done and in the past. Je sais, je sais, nous sommes encore en 2019 jusqu’au 1er janvier, but, I am in Vienne (France not Austria) for Christmas et la nouvelle année and so 2019 in Paris est terminé pour moi! Quand je reverrai Paris nous serons en 2020!

And so yes… I can’t believe it.

I can’t believe how fast it’s gone.

Je ne peux pas croire tout ce qui s’est passé.

I can’t believe how much I’ve learned, and done, and seen.

Je ne peux pas croire combien de personnes fascinantes j’ai rencontrées grâce à l’organisation de mon nouveau French Immersion Course à Paris…

… et tout ça, en seulement quatre mois!

Speaking of French Immersion Course, I forgot to share with you last week that I just opened a new intermediate French Immersion Weekend in Seattle on March 21 & 22. There are also 2 spots left for the beginner French immersion weekend on March 14 & 15. Click here to sign up.

And while we’re at it, merci aussi à vous tous qui avez profité de mon nouveau cours en ligne French Dictées et qui m’avez envoyé vos impressions positives et réjouies via email! Je suis ravie qu’il vous ait tant plu!

But back to our 4 months in Paris… j’ai déjà partagé beaucoup à ce propos dans mes blogs et mes emails précédents (if you want to receive my newsletter and improve your French language & culture skills for free click here) et il reste encore plusieurs éléments which I have not shared with you yet, but, today, je veux faire une petite liste de toutes les activités et personnalités qui feront partie de mon nouveau French Immersion Course à Paris. L’idée m’est venue il y a trois jours alors que je me promenais avec mon ami Laurent, ma mère, Sophie, and Bruno (my two puppies!) et que je leur faisais justement un petit récapitulatif de French Truly’s progress in Paris!

Alors voilà une petite liste de tous les Parisiens who you will meet and connect with during your week à Paris avec moi next September (click here for more info and sign up)

Marie-Dominique will welcome us in her charming little wine boutique Trois Fois Vin where we will indulge in a petite dégustation and explanation of her favorite wines. Marie-Dominique est ma voisine en fait! She was the first French business to come up with a monthly membership concept around wine. You sign up on her site and every month you receive a selection of delicious wines on your doorstep! Pas mal, n’est-ce pas?

Carine la chocolatière created Mon Jardin Chocolaté en 2015. I met her in October while visiting les Grands Voisins, a brilliant complex based on community, solidarity, ecology, and local arts & crafts and food industry. Trying her chocolate was bien sûr the first thing I did et je n’ai pas été déçue! Il faut dire qu’elle et son équipe n’utilisent que les meilleurs ingrédients bio! We’ll spend an afternoon with her in the kitchen making our own tablettes de chocolat, ainsi que des mendiants en chocolat miam miam!

Dominique & Greg who, are you ready for this, own Paris Accordéon une adorable école… d’accordéon of course! It is the mayor of Paris 2 who sent me to them and I’m so glad he did! Leur petite école est très mignonne et ensemble nous avons conçu une merveilleuse après-midi musicale pendant laquelle vous:

– apprendrez l’histoire de l’accordéon

– découvrirez comment un accordéon fonctionne (yes Dominique will dismantle un accordéon in front of us so we truly understand how all these magical sounds are made)

– jouerez un morceau d’accordéon: Dominique & Greg will put un accordéon into each student’s arms and teach us all to play one tune, un morceau, ensemble

-mangerez des viennoiseries et boirez un verre de vin en écoutant Dominique & Greg jouer en duo: accordéon & guitare… un petit concert privé juste pour nous!

You are going to love what Flora, la fondatrice de PariSolidari-Thé, has to offer… je l’ai rencontrée par l’intermédiaire de Carine la chocolatière qui a tout de suite compris et vu une complémentarité entre son amie Flora et moi.

Moi? Comme vous le savez, j’adore travailler avec les artisans et je sais que vous adorez les rencontrer, découvrir leurs passions, et leur poser plein de questions.

Flora? Elle organise des jeux de piste (treasure hunts) dans chaque arrondissement de Paris. Each participant or team is given a roadmap where are indicated all the steps, missions to fulfill, people to meet, questions to ask and answer… les gens à rencontrer sont des artisans que vous devez trouver puis avec qui vous devez passer assez de temps pour pouvoir comprendre leurs métiers et ainsi répondre aux questions indiquées sur votre feuille de route (roadmap).


I loved the last treasure hunt I attended. It was perfectly organized, everyone was warm and genuinely happy to discover new elements of their arrondissement. The general vibe gave off a perfect balance of fun & educational… my kind of vibe! Light & amusing, yet serious & focused, so at the end of my afternoon with everyone, I felt I had honored both my childlike and nerdy self. Of course, I realized how privileged I was compared to my fellow treasure hunters because I had une idée en tête they did not have: YOU! J’assiste à chaque jeu de piste avec vous en tête parce que je sais très bien que Flora et moi sommes en train d’organiser un jeu de piste spécialement pour vous qui serez avec nous lors de nos French Immersion Courses à Paris!

Olivier fait partie de la belle, ambitieuse, et audacieuse équipe de la Recyclerie, un superbe lieu d’expérimentation dédié à l’éco-responsabilité. On y mange, on y partage, on y bricole de manière intelligente et responsable. Olivier nous guidera à travers cette ancienne gare abandonnée qui sert maintenant de ferme urbaine, d’atelier de réparation, de café-cantine, et même de rucher (apiary)!


Olivier will even explain to you why le miel de Paris est meilleur que le miel des campagnes… je suis sûre que vous serez surpris! Après notre visite, nous resterons sue place pour participer à l’un de leurs ateliers à thème écologique… more info coming soon!

Et puis je dois aussi ajouter que nos cours du matin se dérouleront dans une petite salle super jolie dans le 11ème arrondissement de Paris, près du métro Voltaire, un quartier très agréable et assez central donc super pratique!

I wasn’t able to work more on our day out of Paris yet because of the strike qui bloque presque tous les trains régionaux but I hope it will soon stop so normal life can resume for everyone and so I can go explore some more and share more exciting plans with you!

Mais je ne devrais pas me plaindre des grèves car personnellement, je ne suis pas trop touchée, d’abord parce que je travaille et j’étudie de chez moi, et ensuite parce que mon TGV pour Lyon n’a pas été annulé! Il est même arrivé en gare de Lyon Perrache pile à l’heure woohoo! And you know what this means… this means I get to be reunited with my puppies and wake up each morning with them in bed right next to me youpi!!! Look at those 6 sleep eyes…

And this is all I’m going to share for now. More Paris info on future blog posts so stay tuned!

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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!


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

  1. It should take you about 30 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 10 lessons

  2. 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.

  3. 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


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

  1. It should take you about 20 to 2 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 11 lessons

  2. 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.

  3. 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 

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 – 2 SPOTS left 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!


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