Si vous avez lu mon blog du mois dernier called What’s your French Personality? dans lequel je vous propose de répondre au fameux Questionnaire de Proust, vous avez peut-être lu ma réponse à la question :
“Ce que je que déteste par dessus tout : la stupidité, la médiocrité, et perdre mon temps…”
I wonder if you’ll agree the following story illustrates the last italic part of my answer…
Paris… Renting or Buying?
La semaine dernière, j’ai décidé de partager avec vous my I’m-looking-for-a-new-home adventure entitled Paris… Renting or Buying? in which j’ai expliqué que louer était si compliqué et si cher (surtout pour une nomade comme moi) qu’au final il valait mieux acheter! D’accord mais où??? Paris est hors de prix and let’s just say business has known better days (merci covid19) donc il faut chercher autour… Oui mais voilà, autour de Paris, les prix restent super élevés, précisément parce qu’ils touchent Paris. Zut zut zut, alors où???
Chartres
Il y a trois ans, en mai 2017 alors que j’habitais encore à Seattle, je suis venue en France pour passer mes examens à l’université, et my mom took me to Chartres, which she had visited by herself while I was reviewing my courses in our nearby Airbnb… elle a tant aimé cette ville qu’elle a voulu que je la voie aussi… can you blame her?
Vous connaissez peut-être la cathédrale? Vous êtes peut-être déjà venus à Chartres? In case you wonder where it is, voici une carte. Chartres se trouve à une heure en train ou en voiture de Paris. Plutôt pratique, n’est-ce pas? De plus, le train n’est pas très cher en France et il permet de lire ou d’étudier au calme.
Et bien figurez-vous que moi aussi je suis complètement et instantanément tombée amoureuse de Chartres! C’est ce qu’on appelle le coup de foudre! Donc logiquement quand j’ai commencé à me demander il y a quelques mois : “where next?”, j’ai tout de suite pensé à Chartres. And in fact, I just spent my 4th of July weekend there! Arrivée vendredi matin et repartie dimanche après-midi.
Granted the weather wasn’t parfait, mais ça ce n’est pas la faute de Chartres! Et puis c’est joli aussi un ciel gris, non? En fait, je pense que le temps à Chartres est exactement le même qu’à Paris… sachant que j’ai vécu 7 ans en Angleterre, puis 7 ans à Seattle, I guess I must enjoy grey skies.
Rappelez-vous, je vous ai dit dans mon dernier blog que j’avais visité un superbe appartement à Chartres sur lequel j’avais immédiatement flashé et que l’agence immobilière et le propriétaire avaient par conséquent bloqué pour moi! Oh la la la la la!
Première étape
Mardi 23 juin : deuxième visite à Chartres, mais première visite en tant qu’acheteuse potentielle! Alors que je venais seulement to peruse the streets et les divers quartiers de Chartres, je suis entrée dans une agence immobilière just to get an idea of what was available and for what price, une membre du staff m’a montré précisément ce que je cherchais! Elle m’a posé quelques questions pour comprendre mes goûts puis m’a dit :
“Je crois que j’ai exactement ce qu’il vous faut!”
Et en effet, j’ai vu et adoré les photos! Puis, quand elle m’a emmenée visiter l’appartement, j’ai tout de suite su qu’il était à moi! Nous sommes donc retournées à l’agence ensemble et j’ai signé une proposition d’achat! Didn’t I tell you I didn’t like to waste my time? Plus sérieusement, it had nothing to do with time, as I’m not really in a rush. I simply instantly felt chez moi dans cet appartement!
If you’re good, maybe next week I’ll show you some inside photos…
Deuxième étape
Vendredi 3, samedi 4, dimanche 5 juillet : troisième visite à Chartres avec cette fois-ci un programme “exploration chartraine” en m’imaginant y vivre!
-Visite à la mairie où une dame très sympathique m’a décrit toutes les activités culturelles locales et m’a appris que Chartres comptait de nombreuses compagnies de théâtres. Début prometteur.
-But the most important destination pour moi c’est la librairie of course! Attention, librairie est un faux-ami et ne veut pas dire library… là j’ai longuement discuté avec un vendeur adorable qui m’a parlé des événements autours des auteurs, des conférences organisées par la librairie et la bibliothèque, de la vie intellectuelle à Chartres, comment se faire de nouveaux amis, etc.
-Tester un petit resto de restauration rapide bio, super healthy, et fait maison… délicieux!
-Balades dans les petites rues pleines de charme, le long du fleuve, et dans les parcs.
-Boire et manger dans des cafés et crêperies pour regarder les gens passer.
-Inspecter le supermarché bio et m’imaginer y aller en vélo.
-Papoter avec my Airbnb hostess Françoise, who was so welcoming and sweet, as well as une ancienne parisienne et heureuse nouvelle chartraine! How convenient! Très pratique! Ideal for me to ask her toutes sortes de questions appropriées!
Troisième étape
Mardi 7 juillet : quatrième visite à Chartres et… signature (apparemment Tuesdays are signature kind of days) de la promesse de vente = sale agreement! If you ever want to buy in France, these legal terms may come in handy for you to know!
Et entre ces deux jours de signature, beaucoup BEAUCOUP BEAU-COUP de mind racking! Je ne peux pas vous dire combien de fois j’ai changé d’avis! Épuisant! Mais maintenant la promesse de vente est signée! Ce n’est pas encore 100% officiel parce qu’il reste quelques étapes, the last and most important one being signing the final documents chez le notaire, which happens three months après la signature de la promesse de vente. Donc dans mon cas, ça sera le 7 octobre!
Prices
Last week I gave you the price difference but let me réitérer l’opération ici. J’espère que vous êtes prêts parce qu’elle est énorme!
Paris = €12,000 / m2
Chartres = €2,500 / m2
C’est dingue, n’est-ce pas? Chartres, despite it being so pretty and close to Paris, is super duper affordable. The gorgeous apartment I am in the process of buying is cheaper than the tiniest rent one may find in Paris. Les prix sont dix fois plus bas à Chartres qu’à Paris… but for how long?
En effet, il me semble observer une tendance globale causée par la covid19 : les habitants des grandes villes se rendent compte qu’ils peuvent télétravailler et n’ont pas obligatoirement besoin de vivre on top of each other in tiny spaces… if only there was some place nice, quiet, cheap, and nearby to move to… he he… je crois que je l’ai trouvé cet endroit!
Chartres est une petite ville de 40 000 habitants traversée par un fleuve nommé l’Eure que vous pouvez observer sur la photo ci-dessus. Peut-on imaginer plus charmant? Je précise le nombre d’habitants because you might be thinking: “It’s an empty village, there is no one on these pictures!” that’s because I don’t like having people on my pictures, so I wait for le bon moment, un petit peu comme un photographe (that’s the person taking the photo) waits for a wild animal to come out of its hiding point pour prendre sa photographie, but the opposite. J’attends que les passants quittent mon champ de vision. Des fois j’attends longtemps! Patiente? NON! Fussy? OUI!
L’architecture chartraine est absolument superbe, vous ne trouvez pas?
Et revoici l’Eure! Remember? That’s the name of the river, c’est le nom du fleuve qui traverse la ville basse, the lower part of the city.
Indeed, la ville de Chartres est divisée en deux parties principales : la ville haute et la ville basse. I found the below video about la ville basse. Watch it. I know you will LOVE the scenery as well as listening to l’homme qui décrit ce quartier de Chartres parce qu’il parle dans un français très clair et assez lent pour que vous puissiez comprendre facilement. Tell me what you think. He’s also very well spoken so you’ll hear / learn some attractive sentence structures.
French Immersion Courses
Isn’t it gorgeous? I’m already planning my new French Immersion Courses in Chartres! It will be absolument parfait! Come on covid, laisse-nous tranquilles et laisse-nous voyager comme avant so we can get together, explore, learn, and have fun!
I don’t know about you but I always enjoy peeking through windows of beautifully lit homes quand la nuit tombe and imagine what it would be like to be inside those warm and cosy looking places avec un bon livre et une tasse de thé. Regardez le lustre! Et le papier peint! Si élégant!
I’m already thinking of what color I will use pour peindre les différentes pièces de mon nouvel appartement… et bien sûr il y a aussi le papier peint… Peut-être que la semaine prochaine je partagerai quelques idées avec vous! Won’t that be a fun process to go through ensemble? Woohoo youpi!
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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
It should take you about 30 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 10 lessons
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.
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
It should take you about 20 to 2 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 11 lessons
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.
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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