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

CYF 166 — Conte de printemps — mercredi 19 avril 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. 

www.cultivateyourfrench.com

 

CYF 165 — Music Bank Paris : Felicia et moi au concert de K-Pop — mercredi 12 avril 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. 

www.cultivateyourfrench.com

 

CYF 164 — Que faire à manger pour une invitée à la maison ? — mercredi 5 avril 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

 

163 — La chasse au trésor — mercredi 29 mars 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. 

162 — L’instant cacao : Marc Chinchole nous parle de son chocolat— mercredi 22 mars 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. 

161 — Sauces Papillon : Alexandre Juvin et la crème de champignons — mercredi 15 mars 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. 

CYF 160 — Le Louvre Lens et les J.O. — mercredi 8 mars 2023

The holidays ended last sunday. How were those holidays for us? You have a clue if you are a subscriber and if you listened to the episodes posted during the last 2 weeks. 
It’s also during the holidays that we got the weblinks to order our seats for the J.O. , les Jeux Olympiques. 

In the notes that come with the transcript, I will highlight for you 3 expressions that are very natural in French and that you could use or hear in your own conversations in French. 
You will also find a vocabulary section on how to say that something is cheap to really expensive. 

To cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com (4 €/ month)

CYF 159 — Flan et mousse au chocolat — mercredi 15 février 2023

On Sundays, in the morning, I join a group of walkers. We do nordic walking with Philippe a coach from the Club d’athlétisme de Courbevoie. I usually meet with Philippe at the stadium, and there Isabelle and Thierry give me a ride. 
This Sunday, Philippe told me about an experience and Isabelle too. Both of them linked to pâtisserie. This is what this episode is about. 

In the notes that come with the transcript, I will highlight for you 3 expressions that are natural in French and that you could use in your own conversations. We will also focus on a particular sentence that requires the use of the subjonctive. 

So to cultivate your French and read what is said, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com

The transcript has an immediate effect on your listening comprehension of the spoken French. 

The subscription costs 4 euros a month and the transcript is sent by email. 

CYF 158 — L’éclipse de 1999 — mercredi 8 février 2023

Yesterday evening, Micaela, Felicia and I had dinner with some friends of the kung-fu club. We wanted to try an asian restaurant in our neighbourhood. The place was nice and quiet. We had a nice conversation. We came to speak about the Arte TV channel. Julien thought it was mainly historical documentaries on this channel. But I said that we were enjoying the great TV series too, as The newsreader that takes place in 1986, in Australia. In this series, the Halley’s comet is mentioned because it was visible in 1986. I said that I had seen it. As I had also seen the solar eclipse that occurred in 1999. This is what this episode is about and about some strange coincidence too. 

In the notes that come with the transcript I will highlight for you 3 expressions that are typical in French. We will also focus on a particular sentence that is typical of spoken French. 

So, to cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com

 

CYF 157 — Un soir à Paris dans le 11e, se tutoyer ou se vouvoyer — mercredi 1er février 2023

On Saturday evening ten days ago, my friend Caroline and I met at Saint-Lazare. We had dinner in a nice pizzeria near the trendy and lively rue Oberkampf, in the eleventh arrondissement, in the east of Paris. But, did we really go that far to have pizza? Not really. We had a plan ! This is what you are going to hear in this episode. 
Caroline and I have known each other since our daughters Micaela and Juliette were only a few months old. We were leaving in the same Résidence. 
Do you think we started by saying « tu » or « vous » to each other the first time we met? We are almost the same age. Is it difficult to guess? Well, the answer is also in this episode. 

In the notes that come with the transcript, I will highlight for you 3 expressions that you could use in your own French conversations, they are simple but efficient expressions. I will also tell you how we use vous or tu in different everyday life circumstances. 
So, to cultivate your French, you could subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com