Category Archives: Learning French

Recurring French Nightmare!

Posted by Weekend In Paris in France, Funny Stories, Learning French and tagged with , , , ,
Follow Me on Pinterest

As luck would have it, all the French that I studied and thought I had down pat from last year’s trip vanished into thin air!  2010 felt good.  I was dreaming in French right before the trip and certainly during the trip.  I had no trouble getting around, ordering food or shopping whatsoever.  When the clock struck midnight for 2011 it seems that I woke up from that dream into a nightmare. 

Remember the recurring dream you had during high school or college where it was the day of the French final and you were wandering the halls not finding the room in which your final was taking place?  Then you were late to the exam only to discover when you sat down with a sweaty pencil in hand that you had skipped all the French classes for the past month and knew not one single answer?!  OMD (Oh Mon Dieu) it seemed so real that when you woke up you looked around for a while in panic mode wondering if you did indeed fail the French class.  Well guess what?  Adults can have that dream too!  That’s exactly what happened to me last night – the same nightmarish dream from Mademoiselle’s French class at Notre Dame Academy.  Yup, that’s correct, this girl of French decent was about to fail her favorite language at a French named school.  Could it get any worse?

Thank God my son called early this morning from boarding school asking where I had packed his socks in his luggage because he could not find them.  After explaining they were in one of the outside pockets, he quickly thanked me and hung up.  It jerked me into the present and gave me hope that I still have time to re-learn French 101 before my trip this month.  Whew…

Resolved:  Spend some time with my nemesis The Rosetta today to alleviate me having the same dream again tonight.  I’ll let you know what happens demain when I brush off the Rosetta.  See, already I am speaking French again!

I am NOT a French Expert!

Posted by Weekend In Paris in Funny Stories, Gal Pals, Learning French, Paris and tagged with , , , , ,
Follow Me on Pinterest

Champagne at House of Mumm

I am not a French expert but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.  No, not really, but if you’ve seen the commercial you will get the idea.  To my gal pal friends who travel with me for the first time to Paris I am an expert.  I can follow signs and navigate from Charles de Gaulle with ease.  In their jet lag stupor it’s easy for them to look at me like I’m their genius tour guide.

The reality is I am a French fraud.  For a gal who is one-quarter French and took years of high school French, I don’t speak the language very well.  I have been unable to get past Level two of Rosetta Stone and have come to the conclusion that the day God handed out the fluency chip I was absent.  One thing I have found that will help you speak French better guaranteed – champagne!  It seems that after a glass or two of yummy bubbly, I speak the language really well.  Vocabulary that escaped me earlier in the day suddenly pops into my head and I speak with ease.  Humm…

Although I am not fluent in the language, I am fluent in ordering great wine, fabulous food and finding bargains while shopping.  As far as public transportation goes, the Métro is basically the same as the Boston T system.  It’s color-coded with north/south and east/west destinations to orient riders.  Sometimes my excellent sense of direction fails me and we get lost.  Getting lost is half the fun!  We have found many of our best little boutiques and hole in the wall spots for lunch by accident.

We head back to Paris in January and I can’t wait to show the city of lights to the newest gal pal Andrea.  If she is reading this, my cover is blown as a French expert.  But somehow, I think she won’t mind as long as the vin rouge (she prefers red I think) keeps flowing – she will become an expert too!