Small talks - French with Anne

In this episode, I talk about the brunch we were invited to on Sunday at our Polish friends, Kris and Aga. As usual, they welcomed us with open arms. They prepared a traditional Polish Easter lunch: a soup to start with, sausages and boiled eggs and many desserts including a cheesecake, a chocolate tart and a Panetonne. We discussed our traditions around Easter and also shared recommendations for good books and movies to watch. Friends and good times. Nothing better than that. Happy Easter!

In this episode, I talk about Valentine's day and the legends behind it. I also talk about the French expressions related to love and how the world celebrates it. Enjoy and Happy Valentine's to everybody!

In this episode, I talk about career week at my son's school. It is a week where parents are invited to talk about their profession. Etienne asked me to participate in it and I was glad to do it. The students and the teacher, Miss Antonia, were so welcoming. They asked great questions. Later this year, I explain how I will help Etienne's teacher organise the graduation party for his class to celebrate the end of their primary school years. Today is also my son's birthday so I wish him a great 12th birthday!

In this episode, I wish everybody a happy new year! I resume what we did as a family for Christmas and our New Year holidays. I also explain why we have been busy lately with our upcoming wedding and how much our kids participated in the planning. I also explained how 2024 started off with new students and new challenges. Happy listening!

In this episode, I talk about Will, my step son who just celebrated his 12th birthday. I talk about the person he is and all the ordeals he had to go through in the last three years due to his drug resistant epilepsy. I speak about his new school and his Paralympic club that he attends every Saturday. I praise him for being so brave and kind, and for teaching us every day two important things: positivity and humility.

In this episode, I explain why this week was so good. Great temperatures! Wonderful colours of the leaves! Fall is finally here. Let's cheer to the wonderful colours around us but also to the great seasonal products we will have for a Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.

In this episode, I share my thoughts about the transition from primary school to secondary schools for Etienne. I also talk about the admission tests to get into a private school in Quebec when your child is in 6th grade. I also ask people to give me some advice to make my kids' lunch boxes more varied as I tend to run out of ideas when it comes to preparing lunches.

In this episode, I talk about my latest trip to France and the reasons why this time, it was a very special holiday. I mention the places I have visited this summer and the people who came with me on this trip.

Among the places I mention, here are a few that might catch your attention if you plan a visit in Limousin:

- château de Marzac

- gouffre de Proumeyssac

- Brantôme

Happy Summer everybody!

In this episode, I talk about the differences between French humour and British humour. I mention the humorists that I love watching on different platforms and the reasons why I like them so much.

Here is a list of my favorite comedians:

Florence Foresti

Michael McIntyre

Loic Suberville

Paul Taylor

As we celebrate Canada Day this weekend, let's take time to laugh harder than usual.

In this episode, I speak about a new idea that I have had for our family! Saturday is our game night! We get together with our neighbours who are originally from Brazil and we play games with the kids. It takes place at either their place or ours and we eat finger food.

Here is the list of games we usually play:

1. Geo guesser

2. Heads up

3. Time's up

4. Boggle

It is something that we, as parents, have very much cherished in the last few months and so have the kids. So if you have any games you want to share with me, that would be awesome!

In this episode, I talk about the joy of reading. Since finishing my biggest contract to date with the government, I have taken a week off where I rediscovered the joy of reading. During that time, I caught up on the book Surrender retracing Bono's life (the U2 lead singer). I also started reading the book from the NPR journalist, Mary Louise Kelly: It goes so fast. It was offered to me by the kids and Bill on Mother's Day. It is such a great book! It shows how important it is not to always feel guilty as parents and that juggling family life with work doesn't come without any mistakes made along the way. The most important is to show up when we can. We can't always be perfect as humans (both at work and at home). We just need to try our hardest.

In this episode, I interview my nephew, Quentin. He opens up about his hobbies, especially sports and his energetic personality.  

In this episode, I sit down with Julie who is my niece. She has just turned 16 and she explains how she spends her summer vacation and her school year ahead. She also speaks about the special bond she has with her dog, raven and what she does to train her to obey. At the end of the extract, she tells us about the way she views life and how important it is to embrace whichever opportunity life brings us.

In this new episode, I sit down with my mum during our holidays together to discuss her retirement. She explains how she fills her time with different hobbies like painting, gardening and walking with her walking group. She also tells us about her plan with my father to open a bed and breakfast in the fall. The link for their holiday rental will appear below. 

In this episode, I talk about food having grown up in a rural part of France and having later immigrated to different countries where food is viewed differently. I share my experiences and what I noticed living abroad. Here are some expressions I use in this podcast: 

- mettre les petits plats dans les grands = préparer une belle table et élaborer un menu délicat

- prendre un pot = prendre un verre

In this episode, I share some thoughts about the cultural differences I noticed when it comes to talking about the weather. I also talk about my experience as a French person living in Quebec where winters are known to be very cold and what to expect if someone wants to immigrate in this part of the world. I also explain why spring has become my favorite season. In terms of grammar, you will notice  in this podcast how I use a variety of verb tenses (past, present, future) but I rarely talk using the conditional tense as this is not an hypothetical situation. Here is a vocabulary list to enrich your vocabulary regarding springtime. 

Le printemps

• une fleur
• le redoux (quand les températures remontent)
• la fonte de la neige
• le jardinage
• les semences
• le sirop d’érable
• Pâques
• un bourgeon
• un perce-neige
• une tulipe
• une jonquille
• le ménage du printemps
• l’équinoxe de printemps
• les crues printanières (quand le niveau des rivières monte avec la fonte des neiges)
• une hirondelle
• le merle d’Amérique / un rouge-gorge
• la pluie
• il pleut
• la boue

In this episode, I will speak to my husband, Bill who is getting ready to go on a ski trip in Western Canada with some of his friends. We will talk about where he is going, with whom, what training he has done up until now to get ready for the touring part of the trip and of course, what benefits he gets out of these trips in complete nature. You will see that the verb to master here is the verb ALLER which is irregular. I will put it in my notes so that you can review it. Have fun listening!

In this episode, I am talking about this special day that is the 2nd of February and the traditions around this date. You will discover that in some parts of the world, we make crêpes and we also predict how long the winter in Canada or Northern America will be. To support this podcast, I am including the recipe for the crêpes which are described in the audio. Hopefully, you will have some time today to make and taste them and most importantly, you will have time to breathe in and out. 

• Recette classique (ingrédients pour 4 personnes) : 250 grammes de farine, 0,5 litre de lait, 50 grammes de beurre fondu, 4 oeufs, 2 cuillères à soupe de sucre, 1 pincée de sel.
• Préparation : D'abord, mettre de la farine dans un saladier. Ajouter ensuite du sucre, des œufs et du beurre fondu. Battre ensuite le tout, en versant petit à petit du lait : vous obtiendrez ainsi une pâte fluide et lisse. Il convient ensuite de laisser reposer la pâte à température ambiante pendant une à deux heures. Une phase ultra-importante, qu'il convient de ne pas éviter.
• Cuisson : Après la préparation et le temps d'attente, vous pouvez verser la pâte sur une poêle chauffée. N'oubliez pas d'étaler de l'huile sur la poêle entre chaque crêpe à l'aide d'un essuie-tout. Sans cela, il sera impossible de la faire sauter, comme l'exige la tradition de la Chandeleur. Pour bien la faire voler, décollez là d'abord légèrement avec une spatule, puis secouez la poêle, pour vous assurer que la crêpe est bien décollée. Ensuite, un coup de poignet sec et ferme devrait donner le résultat escompté !
• Garniture : En fonction des goûts, l'accompagnement varie : sucre, chocolat, beurre salé, miel, caramel, confiture, crème de marron, citron, fruits...

This episode is about the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. An introspection about starting my own company, juggling working from home and home schooling and most importantly, about accepting failures and embracing them as lessons to learn. In this episode, I also explain how important it is to stop feeling guilty about under-achievements. Success can be measured in so many ways and we all have different starting points.

Here is an interview with my son Etienne. He will talk about his passions, his school, his favorite books and most importantly, his cat. He loves him! In this episode, you will see how Etienne asks me how to clarify some of the questions I asked him and you will also learn new words such as truc which means thing in oral French.

This is an episode with my daughter Rosaleen who is 11 years old. Here, she talks about her life at school and being in her last grade of primary school. 

You will notice her accent from Quebec which I find fascinating, being originally from France. You will also notice how certain structures (mainly hypothetical sentences) are more difficult for her to master. I will include a document on conditional tense to help you if you are experiencing some difficulties like Rosaleen.

In this episode, I introduce you to my husband, Bill. He will share with you his background growing up in Ottawa, going to a French immersion programme. He will also open up about some of his struggles learning French. One of them is knowing when a word is feminine or masculine. For this notion, I have attached a document which should, hopefully, help. 

In this episode, I will introduce myself and the reasons why I created this podcast.