Dear French Story Listeners,
Before you read on, take a breath with me. Shoulders down. A cup of coffee or tea nearby, if you have one. ☕
This week I want to remind you that you don’t learn French by pushing.
You learn it by showing up gently, day after day, and letting a good story do the work.
Three simple things to try this week
1. Choose one story and listen without translating.
Pick a story from my Story Listening for Beginners playlist on YouTube: Watch here →.
Just one is enough. Let the words wash over you.
If you lose the thread, that’s fine. Just come back to it, because coming back is the practice.
2. Tell it back.
When the story ends, retell it out loud in two or three French sentences, to yourself, a grandchild, or the cat. 🐈
Simple words are perfect words.
Charlotte Mason called this narration. It’s the quiet moment when listening becomes speaking.
3. Keep one beautiful sentence.
Copy one French line you loved into a notebook, by hand.
In a month you’ll have a small book of French that is entirely yours.
That’s all there is to it: one story, short and gentle, every day.
Some days will feel easy and some won’t, and both kinds count.
You are further along than you think, and I mean that. 🌿
And now, something close to my heart
Have you ever dreamed of living in French, even just for a little while? Sitting at a French table, being understood, and laughing in French?
On 28–29 November, I’m inviting just four of you to do exactly that, with me, in Pau.
It’s a gracious town in the southwest of France, at the foot of the Pyrenees, where the mountains fill the horizon from the Boulevard des Pyrénées.
We’ll share breakfast in a cosy French flat, talk, read poems aloud, wander the Musée des Beaux-Arts and Parc Beaumont, and stop for a goûter each afternoon.
It’s two unhurried days, entirely in French, at your pace.
If your heart skipped a little reading this, listen to it.
See the full weekend in Pau →
À très bientôt,
Alice 💕
P.S. Be kind to yourself this week. Choose one story, tell it back, and keep one sentence.