Cultivate your French : Slow French, at the right pace.

226 — Le dîner des vendangeurs — mercredi 28 août 2024

Last Thursday, Micaela and Anna (Micaela's best friend) returned from their Interrail trip. The trip was part of their plans for this summer. They were away for ten days, visiting Vienna and Munich. 

We had planned for them to tell us about their trip over dinner on Saturday with Anna's parents, Hélène and Olivier. 
It's this dinner that we're talking about in today's episode. 

In the notes that go with the transcript, you'll find the sentence to repeat, of course, but also three expressions that are very natural in French. I'll also give you three suggestions of little things you can do for your French, depending on the time you have.

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225 — Les JO depuis l’Italie — mercredi 21 août 2024

On Wednesday 24 July, we loaded up the car and left Paris with a twinge of regret. 
- I'm a bit sad we won't be here for the Olympics,’ said Micaela. I have a feeling that the atmosphere is going to be really great. 
Two days later, we arrived in the Marche region of Italy, after a stopover in Aix-les-Bains and another in Pavia.  
Our hosts, Kirsten and Massimo, were waiting for us at their house in Barchi, from which we had rented the first-floor flat. We were very excited to be spending more than two weeks in this eco-friendly house in the middle of a hilly landscape. 
In this episode, I'm going to tell you all about it. In the notes that go with the transcript, we're going to focus on three sentences in the text that contain the conjunction ‘mais’.  

So, to Cultivate Your French, ‘’mais aussi‘’ your turns of phrase, I invite you to subscribe to the Cultivate Your French transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com.

The subscription costs 4 euros a month and each new subscriber receives the 10 latest episodes.

224 — Etapes gourmandes à la Gare Saint-Lazare (4/4) — mercredi 7 août 2024

Micaela and I are at Gare Saint-Lazare for a summer stroll.

Since the last renovation, the station has become a real shopping centre. There are numerous stores selling clothes, shoes and beauty products, as well as fast-food outlets and fine restaurants such as chef Eric Frechon's Lazare. I'm dying to try his Paris-Deauville dessert.

But our program was more geared towards sweets.

There's plenty to choose from at Saint-Lazare! We bought macarons at Ladurée, we also bought some at Dalloyau and finally, we stopped off at Les Merveilleux de Fred. Do you know this meringue and cream dessert? They're a big hit in Paris. 

So to cultivate your French, your palate, but also to discover this area of Paris and benefit from all the positive effects of the exact text and cultural notes, I invite you to subscribe. 
One last thing: the podcast will be on hiatus next week, the week of August 15. I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday August 21.

So if you'd like to improve your French, discover this part of Paris and benefit from all the positive effects of the exact text, as well as the cultural notes, you could subscribe to the Cultivate Your French transcript at www.cultivateyoufrench.com.

The subscription costs 4 euros a month and each new subscriber receives the 10 latest episodes.

223 — Monet, Zola et la gare Saint-Lazare (3/4) — mercredi 31 juillet 2024

Micaela and I are at Gare Saint-Lazare for a summer stroll.

Gare Saint-Lazare is the oldest station in Paris, having been renovated for the 1889 Universal Exhibition, the same year the Eiffel Tower was built. After going up rue de Rome to the Pont de l'Europe, the site of two famous paintings: Edouard Manet's Le chemin de fer and Gustave Caillebotte's Pont de l'Europe, we'll head back down to the station via rue d'Amsterdam. Can you follow us? 

So if you'd like to improve your French comprehension, discover this part of Paris and benefit from all the positive effects of the exact text, as well as the cultural notes, you could subscribe to the Cultivate Your French transcript at www.cultivateyoufrench.com.

The subscription costs 4 euros a month and each new subscriber receives the 10 latest episodes.

222 — La gare Saint-Lazare : la rue de Rome et le pont de l’Europe, Caillebotte et Monet (2/4) — mercredi 24 juillet 2024

We're at Gare Saint-Lazare, in the Europe district, whose streets bear the names of capital cities. This summer, I'd like to invite you on a four-part historical, cultural and gourmet summer stroll! 

Where were we?  Ah yes, Micaela and I were walking up Rue de Rome, the street that runs alongside the train station from the Cour de Rome up towards the Batignolles district. We're going to talk about painting today. 

So if you'd like to improve your French comprehension, discover this part of Paris and benefit from all the positive effects of the exact text, as well as the cultural notes, you could subscribe to the Cultivate Your French transcript at www.cultivateyoufrench.com.

The subscription costs 4 euros a month and each new subscriber receives the 10 latest episodes.

221— La Gare Saint-Lazare est une star ! (1/4) — mercredi 17 juillet 2024

Gare Saint-Lazare is a star! What is it? A station that doesn't even have a TGV? A star? But why? 
Well, there are several reasons.

First of all, in terms of passenger traffic, it's the second busiest station in France (after the Gare du Nord). The station serves the western suburbs of Paris, as well as Normandy.

It's also the oldest station in Paris. It opened in 1837. It has been painted by some very famous artists. Would you like some names? Gustave Caillebotte, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissaro, among others. 
These are all 19th-century artists. The Saint-Lazare station was fascinating because it embodied modernity and technical progress. These were themes dear to the artists who settled in the new Europe district. 

Micaela swiped her Navigo, I swiped my ticket, and you could hear the automatic gate open. We're at Gare Saint-Lazare, in the Europe district, whose streets bear the names of capitals. I'd like to invite you on a four-part summer stroll through history, culture and food! 

So if you'd like to improve your French, discover this part of Paris and benefit from all the positive effects of the exact text, as well as the cultural notes, you could subscribe to the Cultivate Your French transcript at www.cultivateyoufrench.com.

The subscription costs 4 euros a month and each new subscriber receives the 10 latest episodes.

220 — Des glaces chez Gilles Cresno (Rerun, Journal de bord 67e jour) — mercredi 10 juillet 2024

This episode is a re-run of an episode from 2020, at the end of the lockdown when we started to be able to move around. But it's also a very summery episode! 
This week, I'm on a kung fu course in Reims, the Champagne region! 
In the notes that come with the transcript,I give you a list of words from this episode that I find interesting to know. We'll also take a look at three turns of phrase and you'll see how to use them with examples. 

So if you want tobenefit from all the positive effects of having the exact text of the episode, you could subscribe to the Cultivate Your French transcript at www.cultivateyoufrench.com.

The subscription costs 4 euros a month and each new subscriber receives the 10 latest episodes.

219 — Micaela a assisté au dépouillement — mercredi 3 juillet 2024

We have some major political news in France with the legislative elections since the President, Emmanuel Macron, dissolved the National Assembly. We therefore have to elect new deputies. There is a rise in the far right in France, certainly because people feel misunderstood more than out of racism. Still, it makes everyone a bit nervous. This rise is mainly affecting rural areas. The second round of legislative elections takes place on Sunday 7 July. 

My daughter Micaela is eighteen, so she voted in this year's European elections, the results of which prompted the head of state to dissolve the assembly. 
She took part in the counting of the ballot papers, as the municipality had too many problems with the electronic machines used instead of paper ballots. 

In the notes accompanying the transcript, we'll take a look at a few expressions. You’ll also find the election vocabulary and some sample sentences. This is very useful for following what's happening in France on TV, radio or in the press. 
So if you want to get your French right up to the ballot box and benefit from all the positive effects of having the exact text of the transcript, you could subscribe to the Cultivate Your French transcript at www.cultivateyoufrench.com.

The subscription costs 4 euros a month and each new subscriber receives the 10 latest episodes.

218 — L’affiche des Jeux olympiques avec Anne-Laure — mercredi 26 juin 2024

For the Olympic Games, which start in Paris in a few weeks' time, we have a beautiful poster. It was designed by the artist Ugo Gattoni, who studied art after a spell in the sports and swimming studies section. The poster took two thousand hours of work, and was produced on a graphics tablet, but entirely by hand. Anne-Laure and I got together to talk to you about this poster.

In the notes that come with the transcript, I invite you to try your hand at collecting adjectives based on the last blog post on the podcast. You can share your harvest with me, either orally or in writing. 

So if you want to cultivate your French and harvest a good crop and benefit from all the positive effects of having the exact text of the transcript, you could subscribe to the Cultivate Your French transcript at www.cultivateyoufrench.com.

The subscription costs 4 euros a month and each new subscriber receives the 10 latest episodes.

217 — Paris à vélo : Beaubourg, Brancusi et une question existentielle — mercredi 19 juin 2024

Last week, on Thursday to be precise, our friends Isabelle and Thierry, Pietro and I, got on our bikes for a trip to Paris. Our destination? The Centre Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg. Until 1 July, the museum is showing an exceptional retrospective of the sculptor Brancusi. It's an extraordinary museum, with one of the best views of Paris. On the way back, we took the rue de Rivoli, which is now reserved for bicycles (but still has a lane for buses and taxis) and runs alongside the Louvre and the Tuileries gardens. We turned off towards the Madeleine, then the Gare Saint-Lazare, the 17th arrondissement, Neuilly, the Levallois bridge and we were back home. We left at 1.30pm. So it was a nice ride, which of course also included a gourmet break, as you'll discover in this episode recorded on the spot! 
In the notes accompanying the transcript, I'm going to suggest three sentences for you to repeat! Yes, three because I find them interesting. I'll explain my choice for each one, pointing out a few things along the way, but I can already tell you that the idea behind these choices is to practise speaking French as you would in everyday life. 

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