When you’re learning to speak French you are usually told that a potato is a pomme de terre – which literally translates as apple of the ground. When you go to the market though, it’s much more common to ask for patates. It’s just another one of those things that learning French in France gives [...]
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If you want to learn how to speak French there all kinds of ways – private lessons (best but expensive), local night classes, online French courses, French language software, take your pick. What none of them can prepare you for are the occasional – and mostly understandable mistakes – where we think we understand something [...] French kissing – the sort that the French do rather than the other sort – seems to have gotten a bit of a bad rap. To hear people talk it’s hardly safe to go out in public without some French person rushing up and plastering you with kisses. Male, female, young, old… The truth, as usual, [...] There’s something I missed about Christmas in France that I was reminded of yesterday when a smiling fireman (sapeur pompier) knocked at our door. Actually calling them firman is not quite accurate as over here they’re ambulance and paramedic as well. Any kind of accident, it’s them you call first (free call in France, dial [...] Have you tried French numbers yet? I don’t mean the easy one, two, three stuff, I mean getting above seventy – which actually doesn’t exist in French! Un, deux, trois, by the way. One, two three, just in case… Anyway, French numbers. We’re pretty safe with a direct translation up to seventy, except twenty one, thirty one, [...] So, French Christmas. Any different from anywhere else? Is Christmas in France the same mad shopping and boozing dash that is seems to be everywhere else? From which you might think I’m a bit of a Scrouge. Which is not entirely true but I do get fed up when I start to see Christmas goods and [...] Around 16 million French people actually speak some English – not to mention the hundreds of thousands of ex-pats who do. So why learn French? You can probably get by without it. You probably can. I know people who live here who can’t speak a word of French. I don’t spend a lot of time with [...] Last time we looked at driving in France from the point of view of the rules and regulations. This time we’ll look at a few French driving tips that might just make your life a little easier. Just watch out for the Frenchman coming the other way! We’ve done French speed limits but quite often underneath [...] Facts about France? I suppose you could go on forever finding different things but here are a few that you may or may not find interesting or useful. The French departments France is often called The Hexagon (l’hexagon), because that’s roughly its shape. It’s about 1000 kilometres north to south and the same west to east. [...] Sometimes these posts will be full of useful stuff about living in France, working here, French wine, anything really. Other times it’ll just be something I feel like saying. Hey, it’s my blog after all A typical French view? Today’s words of wisdom (or waffle) are the later. Why did I choose to live [...] |
  My friend Jeff has written a really useful book about French property. Well worth a look.
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