I just got back from Reims AKA la ville du Champagne, ma boisson favorite! And even though I went there again to take my last 2 exams à l’université de Reims, j’ai pris une petite pause dans mes révisions to go meet some fellow students dans un bar et boire deux coupes de Champagne!

 

Je n’étais donc pas à Reims pour une visite touristique but I couldn’t help take a few pictures so I could share them with you! Au fait, j’ai déjà partagé des photos de la subliiiiiime cathédrale de Reims last month when I went for my first batch of exams, did you see them? Si ce n’est pas le cas, I will add them here too.

 

So you’re about to see / read :

  • Mes photos de Reims accompagnées de commentaires en franglais
  • A “à propos de la ville de Reims” small paragraphe en français! (trouvé sur le site de mon université)
  • a 360° areal view of Reims, c’est très cool

 

Before I continue, here’s a quick recap oh what you can expect / what is coming up in the next French Truly days:

  • 3 spots left intermediate French Book Club starting on June 28 2002 SIGN UP
  • 1 spot left beginner French Book Club starting on June 30 2022 SIGN UP
  • My last 2 French Immersion Group students who came to Chartres in April 2022 have been very patient waiting for photos and videos : I’m taking care of this now so you’ll receive everything and I will also write a blog post so everyone else can see how much fun we had!
  • Updated dates for upcoming French Immersion Groups in Chartres both for beginner & intermediate level students.

 

Dimanche dernier, le 12 juin, j’ai pris le train pour aller à Paris, puis un TGV jusqu’à Reims… et me voilà arrivée à la gare :

 

French immersion course

 

Bon, je vous avoue que quand j’arrive à Reims, c’est rarement un moment de grand bonheur puisque ça signifie that I’m about to take yet another batch of exams, which always really stresses me out. Mais au moins, je suis arrivée à destination, and if anything else, c’est un bon début!

 

La première fois que je suis venue à Reims back in 2017 when I still lived in the US, I found it très moche. I don’t know how I managed to come to the unfortunate conclusion parce que cette ville est en fait très jolie et élégante, despite being almost complètement détruite pendant la première guerre mondiale!

 

French immersion course

 

Les rails que vous voyez sont des rails de tramway! J’adore le mélange rails / herbe, je trouve ça tout à fait charmant, ça donne un côté bucolique à cette ville de presque 200 000 habitants!

 

French immersion course

 

Ici, on dirait Paris… except cleaner, ha!

 

French immersion course

 

Un magnifique musée que je n’ai pas pu visiter. Pas encore, en tous cas! Un jour peut-être!

 

French immersion course

 

French immersion course

 

J’adore cette architecture. And if you ask me, these plastic shutters sont un crime esthétique!

 

French immersion course

 

Soleil + ciel bleu + pavés colorés = super festif!

 

French immersion course

 

French immersion course

 

Statue de Jean-Baptiste Colbert, ministre des finances du roi Louis XIV de 1665 jusqu’à sa mort en 1683.

 

French immersion course

 

Mmmm miam miam des p’tits gâteaux roses. J’ai résisté et je n’en ai pas achetés…

 

French immersion course

 

French immersion course

 

Très chic cette bibliothèque! Dommage, je n’ai pas eu le temps d’y aller.

 

French immersion course

 

French immersion course

 

La ville de Reims

Reims est la Ville des Sacres et du vin de Champagne. Bordée des prestigieux coteaux de la Montagne de Reims, elle est le siège de la plupart des grandes Maisons de Champagne.
Le sous-sol de la ville est sillonné de quelque 120 kilomètres de caves.

La Cathédrale Notre-Dame, la Basilique Saint-Remi, le Palais du Tau et le Musée-Abbaye Saint-Remi sont inscrits sur la liste du Patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO.

Environ 1,5 million de visiteurs franchissent les portes de la Cathédrale Notre-Dame chaque année.
Le baptême de Clovis par l’évêque Remi en 498 a fait du roi des Francs le premier souverain catholique d’Occident. Cet événement considérable a valu à Reims de devenir le théâtre du sacre des rois de France.

La ‘Cité des Sacres’ a vu 33 rois couronnés en sa cathédrale. Reims a une histoire plus que bimillénaire. Selon la légende, la ville a été créée par Remus, le frère jumeau de Romulus, fondateur de Rome.

Jeanne d’Arc est parvenue à faire couronner le dauphin Charles VII à Reims le 17 juillet 1429. Cet événement est commémoré chaque année lors des Fêtes Johanniques.

Pendant les bombardements de la Grande Guerre, les caves de Champagne servirent d’abri aux Rémois. Des écoles et des hôpitaux s’y installèrent, une vie souterraine s’y développa. On y donna des concerts et même un opéra.

La ville de Reims a été détruite à plus de 80 % pendant cette période. Une trentaine d’années plus tard, le 7 mai 1945, la capitulation nazie sur tous les fronts y fut signée.

Avec plus de 20 000 étudiants, Reims est aujourd’hui une importante ville universitaire. L’institution académique y existe depuis 1548.

 

Reims à 360°

 

French immersion courseEt ça c’est moi.

Coming back from Reims to Chartes en train, exhausted from the stress and the 4 hour sleep and the last exam I had just taken that very morning.

Épuisée mais contente et fière! J’ai compté : for this degree I have taken a total of 60 exams since 2016! No wonder this “thing” felt comme une énorme montagne. Mais ça y est, c’est fini.

La prochaine montagne commencera dans 3 mois en septembre, mais elle me semble beaucoup moins énorme maintenant que j’ai validé cette première étape.

D’ailleurs j’ai déjà commencé de travailler sur mon mémoire à propos de Nietzsche! Je vais passer l’été à trouver un sujet précis avec ma super prof privée, et puis en septembre, je le propose à mon futur directeur de mémoire, en espérant qu’il accepte!

 

 

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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

French online immersion course

Come visit Chartres et les chartrains avec moi!

2022 August 1 – 7 : Beginner SIGN UP
2022 September 5 – 11 : Intermediate SIGN UP

If you’re unsure which level you are, contact me to schedule a free Skype call

 

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

french book club

See above.

 

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

learn french online

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

Learn French online

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

French online course 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!

Learn French Online

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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Become a little bitin 3 easy steps

Learn how to incorporate frenchness in your every day life with this free 3 step mini course

Become a little bit
in 3 easy steps

Learn how to incorporate frenchness in your every day life with this free 3 step mini course

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