Dear French Story Listeners,

Let’s begin with one small French word, un soupçon.

It means a suspicion, that little feeling that something isn’t quite what it seems.

It also means a tiny bit, as in un soupçon de sel (a pinch of salt).

One word, two flavours. That’s the kind of thing you never learn from a list, only from a story.

🎬 This week’s story

Soupçon is also the title of a short tale by Bernard Friot, a beloved French children’s author whose Histoires pressées (“Stories in a Hurry”) are read in classrooms all over France.

It’s waiting for you here:

👉 Watch “Soupçon” on YouTube

Don’t try to catch every word.

Watch my hands, follow the drawings, and let the meaning come to you.

If you understand the gist, you’ve done exactly what your brain needs.

🌿 A gentle tip

After the video, close your eyes and tell the story back to yourself, even in three French words.

That quiet retelling is where the French settles in.

📚 Five more stories, if you’d like them

If this little story makes you smile, you may enjoy spending five days with more of them.

Ease into French: French in Five Stories brings you five witty tales by Bernard Friot, with stubborn children, talking cats, and a shark who falls for the wrong trick.

It’s authentic French, told the way French people actually tell stories.

You watch, listen, read along, and check your understanding. That’s all.

It’s yours for life:

• 5 Story Listening videos
• Audio with synced text, so the words light up as you hear them
• Full transcripts
• Comprehension questions with answers

It’s made for true beginners, for those of you coming back to French after many years, for homeschool families, and for teachers who’d like a ready-made, no-prep lesson.

⏳ Last day tomorrow

Tomorrow, 30 September, is the last day at €49. From 1 October, it will be €99.

👉 Join Ease into French here

Whether this is your way in or your way back in, you’re so welcome here.

Alice 💕

P.S. Many of you have told me you’d love to hear stories told live and to try telling them back yourself. The five-day course is a lovely first step. When you’re ready for company along the way, our membership and my small Zoom classes are there for you. You don’t have to learn French alone.