100% no preservatives

Oops! I met my French friend for coffee this morning at her home. We talk a bit in French and a bit in English. It's hot, and our conversation moved to ice-cream and the merits of making it. We talked about the local ice-cream factory - a boutique but sizeable operation. I lamented that there …

They laugh at me

...when you're annoyed it kinda feels like that. Like you're cycling through all the colours. Doesn't it?

Long…Green…Crunchy

“Would you pass me the…. The… the green thing; long, green, crunchy that we eat with salad?” Nouns and proper nouns just seemed to fly out of my head without so much as a by-your-leave.

Running short (of French)

I may have mentioned I run. In my long-story-short style, because I don’t want to bore you and do want to get to the point - which is about speaking French (or not), here’s brief history of my running (or also not!): Birth to teens: not ‘sporty’. Ran a longer run once st school & …

No en-suite. No dressing.

The simple things I didn’t know! A hob - that you cook on, is a plat cuisson, for example. I’ve never cooked with anyone French in the room and had to mention it…

Integrating – New School, New Language, New Culture

When we moved to France (at rather short notice) in March last year, we threw our two girls, aged 7 and 9, into the local school. Our experience was one of learning. This article aims to pass on some of our experiences, and lists my tips for smoothing the way in a new school, new …

Any Old Romans?

"Mummy, have we got any old romans? Because I need to take one to school..." I'm LOVING my children speaking French. Just LOVE it. 

A vomit of French (I’m sorry to say…)

Sometimes I utter a phrase in French, which, as it leaves my mouth, I know to be utter garbage. Some recognisable words in there but strung together in an ugly melange of tenses that must sound horrible, with perhaps a hopeful colloquialism thrown in for good measure...

Stone the crows!

In a previous post I mentioned a wee 'trick' I've noticed to help with understanding words beginning é ('e' acute) : Replace the 'é' with an 's' and you fairly often see a word in English - or one like it, that has the same meaning. e.g. 'épice' becomes 'spice' - and guess what? That's …

French in a tangle

We are down the mountain. It's a bank holiday. The shops are shut. "Les magasins sont fermés" my brain tells me in French. NO NO NO! That's the passé composé. I've just said "The shops were shut."   I think. How are the shops shut? So how do I say 'The shops are shut"?  Because 'are' …