We’ll here is a novel way I’ve started to learn French and the best part about it is that there are no book or writing, and in around 8 hours you’ll start to feel more confident with people around you speaking French and speaking French yourself.

I’ve got the Michel Thomas Foundation French audio book from Amazon and have burned the CD’s onto my iPod using AudioBook Builder (link), so i now take it everywhere with me. It’s hard to explain how the learning works here but yo just seem to absorb it, it’s amazing. Believe me when i say there is no one more sceptical about “new fangled learning” than me but this hits the nail on the head.

I’m going to try and post a small MP3 excerpt of the first section for you to listen to but will of course remove it if I’m asked to but give it a listen and then get yourself across to Amazon and buy this but remember to use our link

Reading some of the reviews on the site from the main press like:

• “A great way to learn; it’s fast and it lasts”. (The Daily Telegraph )
• “Five minutes into the first CD, you already feel like you’re winning.” (Time Out )
• “Michel Thomas is a precious find indeed.” (The Guardian )

I admit did nothing for me as I’ve heard all this before but when you start getting to the “real person” reviews of

• 5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkly good, 15 Aug 2005
• 5.0 out of 5 stars Great for learning tenses and language structure, 24 Oct 2004
• 5.0 out of 5 stars The best way to learn French Grammar, 6 Oct 2005

So I decided to take the plunge and get the set and I DO NOT regret it at all. My understanding of French is growing massively and I’m going to feel far more comfortable when I’m out there. In fact our next trip is planned for around October 5th and I’m looking to have been through the 20 hour course at least once by then. The only downside for me is that the guy sounds like some nutty professor however if you can get over that then you are well on you’re way to some really good lessons that’ll stay with you forever.

Well Dawns been busy reading and now writing up her views on 4 excellent books we have got. Most are excellent, 1 is indispensable and one is now giving her sleepless nights.

Click on the Books & Reference section above to get to these MUST READ reviews.

Enjoy

It is split into 2 sections: French to English and then English to French

I REALLY wish we’d had this book with us the last time we went over as it would have been so useful – instead I was carrying around with me my dictionary which didn’t have any of the words I was looking for.

Here’s why this book would have saved us time and money:
We took back 3 tins of paint at one point on 3 different occasions and each tin was completely different and certainly not what we were looking for. We wasted over 6 hours going back and forth to the towns to change the products, along with this lost time I’d say we lost €30 in petrol costs.

I will definitely be taking this one out with me.

It even has 35 different definitions for any type of glue you could wish for! Amazing!

5 out of 5

_______________________________
Purchase Note: To purchase any of these books simply click the image of the book and it’ll take you to Amazon using our reference. By doing this we’ll get 5% of the sale cost to help towards our renovation. Many thanks Dawn & Lee

I found it useful even though I had lived in France periodically since I was very young. There is a lot of information here you take for granted, some of the most important is what you need to do to open a bank account, how the health care and social security works and everything in between.

While this book is a FANTASTIC start I would say that your best source of information are the people you meet in France and on your journey. We are very fortunate that we have friends who live close by and they are a wealth of information. Not only that but one of them is a pharmacist – this is the best person in France to know as they are held in very high regard in any village/town/city since they dispense all medication and are a fountain of biological knowledge. However in the event you don’t have a “Pascale” this book comes a close second.

3 out of 5 for this one.

_______________________________
Purchase Note: To purchase any of these books simply click the image of the book and it’ll take you to Amazon using our reference. By doing this we’ll get 5% of the sale cost to help towards our renovation. Many thanks Dawn & Lee

This book is GREAT! It describes everything from how to go about getting planning permission to what sorts of plaster are the best to use for certain types of houses. It gives a little bit of information about everything and its certainly the type of book you read and then re-read the bits that are relevant at the time.

If you don’t know already, the biggest thing you can learn about France is to play the system. Fill in their forms, wait in their queues, don’t be impatient. If you become impatient you will soon learn that they don’t tolerate it and you will be ostracised from any small community, NOT the way forward. So this book will help you on your way – therefore its invaluable!

5 out of 5!

_______________________________
Purchase Note: To purchase any of these books simply click the image of the book and it’ll take you to Amazon using our reference. By doing this we’ll get 5% of the sale cost to help towards our renovation. Many thanks Dawn & Lee

Each house details how much was spent on it, with floor plans too and useful contacts relating to the build.

Despite there not being any French conversions in it we both found that it gives us plenty of ideas and food for thought. We found some good ideas for use of glass for our big barn door and possibilities for how to turn the upstairs into bedrooms and bathroom.

All in all I’d give it a 4 out of 5. Not 5 out of 5 only because it made me realise just how much these conversions cost and I had a sleepless night.

_______________________________
Purchase Note: To purchase any of these books simply click the image of the book and it’ll take you to Amazon using our reference. By doing this we’ll get 5% of the sale cost to help towards our renovation. Many thanks Dawn & Lee

We have decided to start recommending the books we have read or are using and will link from here to Amazon for you to buy them. ALL BOOKS recommended will be used by us and read so this isn’t going to just be some mindless linking session. We’ll try and post a write up of every book we recommend so you’ll know why.

For this reason we want you to know that we will make 5% on any sales you make via our links, the idea is this money goes DIRECTLY into the renovation fund and for that reason ( being open and honest ) , when you see our budget reports it’ll have the Amazon referral payments ( if any ) in there so you can see how we are doing.

Referral Example

We hope you find these as much use as we have and please click and buy away .. Help us build our home after all your going to get the benefit of our experience