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Writer's pictureVirginie Paradis

Decorating my New French Home

Not only am I going to share some of my decoration projects with you, je vais aussi vous parler du pouvoir des couleurs, de la manière dont elles peuvent influencer nos états mentaux, and if you scroll down you’ll find a fascinating video (in French with French subtitles) explaining how colors affect us deeply in our every day activities and decisions.

I’m buying my very first French home!

In case you are new here, vous ne savez peut-être pas that I’m buying my very first home (oh la la je me sens tellement adulte soudainement… and my approaching birthday is not helping either) en France! Vous pouvez la voir sur mon dernier blog post. However, bear in mind that l’appartement tel que vous le voyez sur les photos is how the current-very-soon-to-be-ex-owners of my almost-apartment decorated it. Autrement dit, les meubles ne sont pas les miens, the baby crib is not mine (non non je n’ai pas de bébé et ne compte pas en avoir), et la décoration va changer!

En fait aujourd’hui je voudrais réfléchir à ce changement avec vous by sharing some color ideas. Oui, at the moment, I’m only thinking about wall colors. Pour les meubles on verra après.

Believe or not, buying is cheaper and simpler (pas si simple pour moi mais uniquement à cause de mon affreuse ancienne banque) than renting in France. Donc acheter un appartement me permet d’économiser de l’argent et de ne plus le jeter par les fenêtres, de ne plus avoir sans arrêt besoin de déménager (also very costly not to mention a giant pain in the you-know-where), and last but not least, d’enfin pouvoir créer mon chez moi idéal qui reflète au mieux mon sens de l’esthétique.

White or colored walls?


Je sais que beaucoup de gens apprécient la pureté et la simplicité des murs blancs, mais, personnellement je n’aime pas ça and the video above helped me understand why! J’AIME LES COULEURS. J’ai besoin de murs joyeux et colorés pour me sentir chez moi, pour me sentir inspirée. Je trouve ça beau (of course it depends on the colors et je n’aime pas toutes les couleurs), stylé, rassurant, accueillant, élégant, etc. la liste est longue.

You can see on the photo at the top of this article (my almost-soon-to-be delightful living-room) as well as the other photos attached to last week’s blog post que les murs sont actuellement blancs. Vous devinez donc qu’ils ne le resteront pas longtemps.

Ma préférence? Les couleurs chaudes et foncées.

Une couleur chaude qui n’est pas mentionnée ici et que j’adore, surtout pour les murs, c’est le marron chocolat. Attention marron does not maroon, it means brown. Donc marron chocolat est un beau marron foncé, a beautiful dark brown. Et oui, comme vous le savez, mon coeur a aussi tendance à aller naturellement vers les couleurs foncées.

J’ai donc opté pour un thème chaud across the apartment and these are various pictures I found online pour me donner des idées. Ce ne sont pas des photos de mon appartement!

CHOCOLAT

FRAMBOISE

ROUGE FONCÉ

DUSTY PINK

WOW wow wow, isn’t this last one to die for?!! This pink & brown mix is completely delightful. Super classy. With an edge. Parfait, quoi!

It’s so much beauty I am beyond excited and so looking forward to… doing it myself ha!

Ah oui, j’ai oublié de vous dire dans mon dernier blog post qui parle de mes déboires bancaires avec the wretched Crédit Lyonnais… à cause d’eux et parce qu’ils m’ont fait attendre si longtemps sans me donner de réponse, j’ai presque perdu mon appartement! Finalement j’ai décidé (et heureusement!) de pousser la porte du Crédit Mutuel, et j’avais tellement peur qu’ils refusent, j’avais tellement besoin de les entendre me dire oui, que j’ai légèrement augmenté le montant de mon apport (downpayment) donc maintenant je n’ai plus l’argent que je comptais utiliser pour décorer… Oops. Zut alors.

Oh well. So what? I’ll do it myself!

How about wallpaper?

Et que pensez-vous du papier peint? Je trouve ça tellement chic! Voici quelques exemples. Again, these are just pictures I found online, they are not my home!

Ok now s’il vous plaît don’t hesitate to send me des idées, des photos, et tout ce que vous voulez, dans les commentaires!

If everything goes to plan, je signerai le contrat final chez le notaire le 7 octobre. How long until I start painting tous les murs? Any guess?

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Learn French online with Virginie

Join French Truly’s online school, either by buying the French online course(s) of your choice or by becoming a monthly member. See more details about the membership at the bottom of this page

Each French online course is packed with video & audio files along with written material, to make it as fun, easy, and user friendly as possible for you! Come and learn French online with me!


In this course, you will find 15 videos (+ 10 bonus ones) to help & accompany you every step of the way through the course + for each word, each sentence, each expression, each conjugated verb, I have created an audio file of my voice, slow and slightly faster speed. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.

Did you know…

You can converse (speak + understand) in French with only 600 WORDS?

The average French person only uses between 300 & 3,000 WORDS?

This means that if you can master a relatively short list of words, you’ll be able to express yourself like the average French person! Plus you’re much more likely to understand the French when they talk back to you!

This course will teach you…

1- How to speak French

2- How to pronounce French

3- How to make French sentences

4- How to conjugate all the most common French verbs

5- How to polish your results

6- How to self evaluate your French

More info HERE

  1. It should take you about 30 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 10 lessons

  2. This course is designed for a beginner / intermediate level. If you are intermediate but feel like you could really reinforce your foundations, you will love it.

  3. You can join whenever, either by buying the course or by becoming a monthly member giving you access to my French online courses from $10 / month. See more details about the membership at the bottom of this page


In this course you will find 11 videos + 150 audio files + 92 pages PDF format to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. In some parts of the videos, my face will appear close up and profile so you can easily see how I make these sounds with my mouth. The 150 audio files are composed of the 100 most popular French words and the 50 most common French phrases. They are recordings of my voice, speaking slowly enough so you can easily grasp every syllable. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.

NB: if you are the proud owner of my previous French online course 600 WORDS, don’t worry, this is not a repeat as we are now exploring 1 letter words and up, whereas in 600 WORDS we began at 4 letter words and up.

Combine knowledge with confidence…

For you to be able to have a pleasant and efficient conversation with a French person, one thing is key… can you guess what it is? Confidence! How well do you think you will communicate in French if you don’t feel confident about your accent? If you are scared that people won’t understand you? Or even worse if you think someone might make fun of you? Without a minimum of confidence there is no room for communication. Yet if you feel confident, you can afford to make a few mistakes here and there because people will still understand you. What prevents a conversation from happening isn’t just a lack of knowledge, it’s also a lack of confidence. You need to have both to make it work, not to mention, to make it fun!

This course will teach you…

1- How to pronounce every letter of the alphabet

2- How to pronounce every digraph & trigraph

3- How to make every French sentence flow

4- How to pronounce the 100 most popular French words

5- How to pronounce the 50 most popular French phrases

6- How to avoid the pronunciation mistakes everyone makes

More info HERE

  1. It should take you about 20 to 2 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 11 lessons

  2. This course is designed for a beginner level. If you are intermediate but lack confidence when it comes to talking and feel like you could really benefit from focusing on pronunciation, you will love it.

  3. You can join whenever, either by buying the course or by becoming a monthly member giving you access to my French online courses from $10 / month. See more details about the membership below 

In the FRENCH DICTÉES online course you will find 20 videos + 10 audio files to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. Why 20 videos? Because there are 10 dictées in total, each focusing on one particular topic, and for each dictée I have prepared 2 videos. Let’s say the video focuses on both French past tenses called imparfait & passé composé. The first video will go though the grammar, the conjugation, and all the tips on these two past tenses to help you understand and remember how and when to use them. The second video will be the actual dictée, a short story written by me, describing everyday life situations conveniently packed with imparfait and passé composé verbs! Boom! Efficient! The dictée will also be read by me, slowly first and then a little faster, with a close up on my face so you can more easily recognize the words and copy the shapes I make to improve your own pronunciation.

Become a French language expert

How do you become an expert at anything? By focusing on one thing at a time.

I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic per dictée, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.

Here’s what you’re going to learn

What grammar & conjugation points will each dictée focus on?

Dictée # 1: Present tense

Dictée # 2: Past tenses – imparfait & passé composé

Dictée # 3: Future tenses – futur proche & futur simple

Dictée # 4: Conditional, imparfait, asking questions

Dictée # 5: Imperative form

Dictée # 6: First group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 7: Second group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 8: Third group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 9: Numbers

Dictée # 10: Prepositions

Each dictée is a short story written by me about practical everyday life situations. This means that not only do you get to work on conjugation & grammar drills, but you also improve your conversational skills at the same time: a magic combination for your next trip to France!

Grow your confidence talking about practical everyday topics

The dictées will refer to common topics that you are very likely to hear or very likely to use to express yourself such as:

-Traveling to France

-Socializing

-Childhood memories

-Family dynamics

-Everyday life routines

-How to express your ideas, opinions, and dreams

Two videos per dictée

First video: key grammar and conjugation reminders explained very clearly so you feel prepared and confident entering each dictée.

Second video: the actual dictée. I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.

And for you challenge lovers over-achievers?

Yes I have prepared something just for you! I have also made 10 audio files, 1 per dictée, so that if you wish to, if you want it extra difficult, if you want to test yourself more deeply, you can solely rely on sound. Indeed there are many occasions in life where we hear a language but we don’t see it: speaking to someone on the phone or listening to the radio for instance.

20 videos? 10 audio files? What else?

This new FRENCH DICTÉES online course also comes with written files with both the French text along with the English translation, so that you can evaluate yourself when you’re done taking notes.

To summarize, you’ll be able to use video, audio, and written material.

Dictées worked for me, they’ll work for you!

Let me tell you, I LOVE dictées because THEY WORK. And clearly you realize this too and that is smart of you. So now let’s see how something as simple as a dictée can truly help you become a little bit French! Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.

Become a monthly member!

My goal is to transform your French language learning experience. This is why I’ve decided to offer you a new way to learn French online and gain access to the French Truly Online School! Actually, more than 1 new way, you’ll have 3 plans to choose from so come and learn French online with me!

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