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Do you want to improve your listening skills and comprehension of the French as it is spoken in France? With Cultivate Your French podcast, things go smoothly. This is slow French podcast, but Slow French doesn’t just mean speaking slowly and it’s not about quick progress. It’s a nice learning approach.
Episodes
Wednesday May 31, 2023
Wednesday May 31, 2023
The end of the year is close now for my 3 daughters. In France, students have long days at school, a lot of holidays during the year (2 weeks every 7 weeks) and long summer holidays. My daughters wished they had less holidays and shorter days at school. They often start at 8 in the morning and finish at 5 in the afternoon. On Thurdays, Micaela starts at 8 and finishes school at 6 in the evening. This represents 9 hours of class during the day. Then, at home, they have to do their homework and learn their lessons.
But as I said, the end is close for this year. This is what the episode is about.
Wednesday May 24, 2023
Wednesday May 24, 2023
It was a rainy day, two weeks ago, my friend Pauline and I were having a walk in the center of Paris, near Les halles, la bourse du commerce (now the Parisian exhibition site of François Pinault’s modern art collection) and l’église Saint-Eustache.
Place Margurite de Navarre, there is a modern building : the Novotel Les Halles. In the center of the hotel, there is an unexpected hidden garden : a patio full of plants. There you can have a very nice experience : the Tea time of the cheffe pâtissière Emilie Gerardi. She created a modern and plant and flower-based version of the tea time. I was very lucky to meet her for the podcast. Pauline and I were so happy to discover such a personal and cheering pâtisserie.
In today’s episode you are going to hear Emilie Gerardi talking about the compositon her tea-time.
In the notes that come with the transcript, I will highlight for you 3 expressions that Emilie Gerardi uses to describe her cakes. You will also have the photos of the tea-time, this way you will be able to imagine yourself in the patio, tasting wonderful pâtisseries. As Emilie Gerardi says, in such a place you don’t come only to eat a cake, you come to live a precious moment.
Wednesday May 17, 2023
Wednesday May 17, 2023
Last week, my friend Caroline invited me to go with her to see a marvelous show at the Opéra Bastille : three chorégraphies by Maurice Béjart. It was a such a moment. The Opera Bastille is the modern opéra of Paris. It was inaugurated in 1989 for the bicentenary of the French Revolution. It’s a very nice place and going to the Opera is really a special moment. I guess that it’s not as charming as in the 19th Century at the Opera Garnier, but something happens when you are there.
The last of the ballets that we saw was Le boléro de Ravel. This is what I share with you in this episode.
In the notes that come with the transcript, I will highlight for you 3 expressions that are very natural in French and show you how to use them in your own French conversations with examples.
I will also give you a list of basic mouvements that we do with our body.
So to cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com
The subscription costs 4 euros a month.
Wednesday May 10, 2023
Wednesday May 10, 2023
My friend Claire works as a librarian, archivist at the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds in Paris. This institute is a school for deaf people created by l’Abbé de l’Epée en the 18th century.
On the podcast, we have known Claire for a few years now. We first met her as an history student at La Sorbonne, then at l’Ecole des Chartes a prestigious Parisian school specialising in historical sciences. She shared with us a promenade in the Quartier Latin in 2020, then last year she told us about the discovery of an incunable (a book printed in Europe before 1501).
In today’s episode, she shares with us the strange request of a researcher that contacted the institute and was looking for a rather big painting of the 19th century specially created for the choir of the Institute’s chapelle by a famous painter.
In the notes that come with the transcript, we will stop together on the different expressions that Claire uses that give so much life to what she tells us. This is also a way to understand and to see that French is largely made of fixed expressions. A better way to speak French is to learn how to use all those expressions. This is what we’ll see today with examples.
To cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com
The subscription costs 4 euros a month.
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
On Saturdays, we usually make pizzas and watch a movie, the 5 of us.
Last Saturday, we chose to watch a film by Eric Rohmer a famous French director part of the French New Wave. T
his movie is Conte de Printemps. It was timed in 1990, a time where there was no mobile phone, though the phone is often used in this movie.
This episode tells you about the story of the movie and what was Micaela and Lisa’s reaction to this type of movie.
It will also be the occasion to imagine what could have said some of the characters, based on what I tell you in the text using the indirect speech.
Of course, I will also highlight for you 3 expressions that you could use in your own French conversations and show you how to use them.
So to cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com.
The subscription cost 4 euros a month.
Ah, before we start, for the next 2 weeks, the podcast will be on pause, but if you are a subscriber you will receive episodes as usual.
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
Have you ever heard of K-Pop bands like The Boyz, the Stray Kids or Mamamoo?
Felicia is a K-pop fan, so last Saturday, I went with her to Music Bank Paris, a festival of K-Pop bands in the largest concert stadium in Europe : La Défense Arena, very close to where we live.
This stadium is so big, it can held a rugby field in its center.
This event was expected with great impatience by the thousands of fans all over Europe and the atmosphere was absolutely crazy : people were shouting their joy so loud !
But it was a great experience. This is what this episode is about!
In the notes that come with the transcript, I will highlight for you 3 expressions that are very natural in French. We will also focus on all the verbs conjugated with « ils » as the subject. This will be the occasion to ask ourselves if we know the conjugation of the most commun French verbs with ils or elles.
So, to cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript to receive the texts and notes by email each time an episode is released. The subscription costs 4 euros a month.
Wednesday Apr 05, 2023
Wednesday Apr 05, 2023
We had a guest this week at home : an Italian exchange student. She arrived last Thursday in Paris with her classmates and left yesterday. All of them were staying in French families of Felicia’s class. This five days with us has been the occasion to visit Paris as tourist for Felicia and I. But it has also been the occasion to make or buy some French specialities for the Italien student. So what have we cooked or bought for her?
This is what you are going to discover in this episode.
As usual, in the notes that come with the transcript, I will highlight for you 3 expressions that are very natural in French. I will also make a list of sentences to say that you like to eat something and what you had for a particular meal.
So to cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Last saturday, I went to Paris. Well, I tried because the tickets I was using were not working. Something was wrong with the whole pack. Of course, I went to buy some new tickets. But I wasn’t the only one involved in what became a little adventure.
We are still using the paper tickets because we get a 50% discount on tickets with La carte famille nombreuse. You can get this card when you get at least 3 children. When Micaela is going to turn 18, the card won’t work anymore.
In the notes that come with the transcript, I will highly for you 3 expression that are typical in French.
You will also find some « transport" related sentences that listeners and I gathered up 2 years ago for Le guide de survie.
You will also find some photos of our station Bécon-les-bruyères !
So to cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com
The subscription costs 4 euros a month.
Wednesday Mar 22, 2023
Wednesday Mar 22, 2023
Last week, we heard Alexandre Juvin talking about la crème de champignons. Miam.
This week, it’s another experience that expects us. I had the chance to meet Marc Chinchole. He’s a young man passionate about chocolate that makes is own cocoa, in Paris. Have you heard the expression « bean-to-bar »? This is what he does : he selects beans from different places in the world and loves to reveals the best of each origin in making nice chocolates or bars. Yes, he toasts the beans himself and does conching in his own premises. This is quite unusual in Paris, but very interesting. Marc has 16 different single origin bars in his shop and nice little chocolats. You can also buy a homemade hot chocolate or chocolate mousses made of single origin cocoa, the origin changes every week. The one I tasted was from Indonesia and it was really perfumed.
In the notes that come with the transcript, I will highlight for you 3 expressions that are typical when you speak French. You will also find some sentences to help you choose the best chocolate from L’instant cacao. But, this will work in any other boutique, of course.
So to cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyoufrench.com.
The subscription costs 4 euros a month.
Wednesday Mar 15, 2023
Wednesday Mar 15, 2023
There is something you must absolutely try next time you come to Paris. It’s Les sauces Papillon ! They are Parisian sauces made by 2 young men who had the idea to create vegetable based sauces. Their sauces are made from vegetables in accordance with the seasons. They are tasty and fresh. They can be used to eat with pastas or rice, but at home we prefer to eat them with bread in nice sandwiches.
When I recorded the interview, it was in the middle of winter. One of the sauce was la crème de champignons. What are going to be the spring sauces? We don’t know yet, but today you are going to hear Alexandre Juvin talking about they created the recipe of la crème de champignons.
In the notes that come with the transcript, this episode is the occasion to notice the use of the subjonctive and to understand when to automatically use it.
We will also focus on the part of vocabulary that describes the different ways that ingredients can be cooked.
So to cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.comThe subscription costs 4 euros a month.