Learning French on a Budget

    We're nearing our 1-year in France mark, and our friends and family often ask us how our French has improved this year. We thought we'd share with you the answer to that question along with an idea of how we've managed to learn French on a budget. Peter came to France with a very basic understanding of beginner's French. He now can order at restaurants and follows along easily during conversations in French. I started at an intermediate level, having taken French here and there in high school and college, but never enough to really feel comfortable speaking fluently. While I'm not near completely fluent yet, I feel totally comfortable using my French all over Paris, and have vastly improved my vocabulary.

      Learning French on a budget seems difficult. Our instinct was to take French classes outside of the free ones offered at HEC (Peter's school). But classes can be très cher (very expensive) and aren't even always worth the price. Therefore, we had to come up with some of our own methods to learn the language.
We started by purchasing some simple workbooks.

 As a good teacher knows, workbooks can get boring pretty quickly, and while I found this one extremely helpful, I needed to "mix it up" a bit. I discovered that certain bookstores, like Gibert Jaune, sell used French books for adults and children for less than 4 or 5 euros! I picked up an old favorite by Roald Dahl. A French friend of mine, Adeline, lent me an easy to follow novel  about a policeman falls in love with the thief's daughter by a popular French writer, Guillaume Musso. And Le Petit Prince is a children's classic here.

The better our French got, the more comfortable we felt stepping out of our comfort zone. Before our trip to Marrakech in February, we purchased the French Routard travel guide rather than the English version.

I've found a new favorite magazine to replace "People" when I'm in need of an easy read on a rainy day. "Point de Vue" is perfect for getting some French gossip and practicing my French reading skills!

Once we felt ready, we bought our first cookbook in French. Since we both like to cook, we felt that this would kill two birds with one stone: We'd learn to cook French cuisine, and learn cooking vocabulary at the same time! Additionally, the book is filled with amazing recipes and beautiful step-by-step photos. The Pot-au-feu pictured below was delicious and very easy to make.

I swear it's supposed to look like that- and it tasted better than it looks!

An even more authentic way to cook in French was to meet two French friends for a day of cooking! A few months ago, Adeline and I met her friend, Charlotte, to attend the Chocolate Festival. We were so enamored by the macarons, we decided to test our own hands at making these notoriously difficult confections. We spent the whole afternoon speaking in French, and had a great time!

Adeline working hard

Charlotte peeling the last few crumbling macarons off the parchment paper

One of three perfect macarons

They may not be Ladurée but they tasted great!

Learning to read French started to fall in place, but listening comprehension was still difficult for us. So my mother sent us Tune Up Your French by Natalie Schorr, which is filled with Top-10 lists of French expressions, such as the Top-10 3-word idioms, and the Top-10 slang terms that won't get you into trouble. It even comes with a very useful audio CD so that you can learn the proper pronunciations of difficult words.

We also invested in mini French-English dictionaries and these adorable pocket-sized vocabulary and verb books that are very handy.

Click here to find this book on Amazon! (It's expensive on Amazon but we only paid 4.50 euros)

Click on the picture to find this book on Amazon!

It can be difficult to keep track of all of the new words we learn. I bought a small address book where I can jot down all of the new words I've learned alphabetically. I keep it in my purse and write in it all the time. On the inside cover I keep all of the words that I often want to say but can't remember so that they're always on hand. This is probably the best purchase I've made for my journey to becoming a French speaker.

For less than 100 euros, we've invested in materials that have made a huge difference in our journey to learn French. This is what our table looks like when I've been practicing.

Also, practicing together is a fun way for Peter and I to both improve our fluency. Sometimes we make a French dinner and speak only in our second language (although it only usually lasts for about 10 minutes, it's better than nothing!). And nothing in France is more important than eating French food and drinking French wine, which is what we did on Monday. Our cheese of the week and our newly acquired bottle of Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc made for a nice dinner. Now we're on our way to becoming truly French.

Cheese of the Week: Pont L'Evêque

     Last weekend, our good friends, Ehren and Dave, came to visit us here in Paris. It was wonderful to see them for so many reasons. First, they are great friends (Ehren read a poem written by my fourth-graders in our wedding last May). Second, Ehren and Dave were the first people to know Peter and I were engaged (since we got engaged on our trip out west, visiting them and our friend Kate in San Fransisco in 2009) and third, they love food and wine as much as we do (Ehren was a sommelier in SF and is an expert in southern Italian wines!). It's unbelievable but true that we actually didn't take a SINGLE photo while Ehren and Dave were here! We were too busy eating. We're hoping they'll share some of their photos with us.

Ehren and Caroline on our first trip to San Fransisco in 2007

     Of course, Ehren and Dave were thrilled to experience the market culture here in France, where young and old do their daily shopping at outdoor markets where one can buy not only pies, fresh-baked breads and cheeses, but also skinned rabbits, fresh 2-foot long fish, and duck hearts if one so desired. On Ehren and Dave's last day in Paris, we decided that we must have them experience our very favorite activity in Paris: Un pique-nique dans le Jardin du Luxembourg. We invited a few seasoned pique-niquing friends to join us and we sampled 2010's best baguette in Paris (2011's winner was closed, but our friends Dan and Vikram live near both award-winning bakeries!). Of course, our guests and we had picked out some nice cheeses to enjoy on our picnic.

     The cheese we brought from the market was called Pont-L'Evêque. It's made in the Normandy region. We chose to feature it this week because on Saturday Peter will be heading out to Normandy with his buddies to tour the D-Day beaches and pay hommage to the American soldiers who fought here in France in WWII. 

This cheese is a soft, uncooked cow's milk cheese. It is one of the oldest Norman French cheeses, and was originally known as Angelot. Legend has it that a manuscript from the 13th century claims that every fine meal should include some "Angelot". When the cheese became very popular in the 16th century, it took over the name of the town in which it was produced.

 Pont L'Evêque reached its full AOC status in 1976. There are a number of regulations cheesemakers must follow in order to give their cheese this name. One interesting regulation is that the milk must come from one of the departments surrounding the Normandy area. These departments include:  Calvados, Eure, Manche, Mayenne, Orne and Seine-Maritime. See them on the map below in the Northwest region of the country.

The 101 French Departments

This cheese is similar in flavor to Camembert and Brie cheese, and is produced not far from these. However, it has a slightly "stinkier" scent (in a good way) and a more grassy flavor. It is delicious, though, and is best eaten at room temperature. The rind is edible, and should not be cut off and left in a pile on the edge of your plate.

This cheese is slightly tangy with a good, strong cheese scent without being overpowering. It's a great cheese to bring on a picnic, and is served well on a dessert cheese platter. It goes great with a nice Gamay red wine, or even better with Champagne!