Au secours ! Anyone else on here learning French? Any tips or resources welcome. Merci.

Now I've finished the French Duolingo course (took nearly three years), I decided to start the Italian one. J'ai peur que j'oublierai tous les mots francais que j'ai appris !

After 1006 days, I have fjnally finished the French Duolingo course. Useful app (when combined with other methods). Would have liked a little congratulatory animation of some kind on finishing - then I remembered I'm not 11 years old.

Reading 'Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs' now. When I bought it, I had no idea how controversial/transgressive it was. Quite hard to follow - just when I thought I was mastering reading French!

Impulse buy. Waterstones had a much wider selection of French language books than I was expecting.

Just bought a pair of Converse. They seem to be one of the few products unaffected by inflation - still £60 (same as they were pre-Covid if I remember correctly)

I'd like to make a playlist of songs that would have been great James Bond theme songs (but which had no connection to the franchise whatsoever). First track will be 'Bachelorette' by Bjork

Next up in Adventures in French... Apparently the second most translated book of all time (after The Bible). Can that be true? Looking forward to it - I know virtually nothing about it other than how famous it is.

About once a year, I rewatch GoodFellas to check whether it's still the greatest film of all time. Having watched it last night, I can confirm that it is. Just one fantastic scene after another. I love it so much!

Finished this today. Great story, satisfying ending (I wouldn't call it a twist, more of an unexpected turn of events). Recommended.

Van Morrison sometimes sounds like Cartman from South Park. I can find examples if need be.

I've started following some fairly random French accounts on here to improve my knowledge of French slang. New word: 'stups' (meaning drugs). I guess it's just a shortening of 'stupéfiants'). I love learning French - every day I realise how much more there is to learn 🇫🇷

Last week, for the first time ever, I put ́’Return to sender’ on a letter addressed to my place (for the previous occupant). Yesterday the letter came back through my letterbox. Like a boomerang, I can't get rid of it.

This is not a criticism of 19th century writing. I just find it interesting that long exposition àd description seemed to go out of fashion.

This book starts with a very long description of a house and a detaimed backstory of one of its main characters. Makes me wonder - when did 'show don't tell' become an established maxim of creative writing? A lot of 19th century novelists are more than happy to describe stuff.

Cette appli attire la controverse, mais si on l’utilise pour suivre nos intérêts, c’est éclairante et utile Pardon mon français- je l’apprends toujours

Next up, Eugénie Grandet by your man Balzac.

The front cover of this book is a detail from a painting by James Ensor. He's an appropriate choice as his sense of gloom rivals that of Monsieur Zola's.

A good thing about the algorithm is that every day I see fresh pictures of piles of books by writers past and present. By osmosis, I can now name several books by the latest Nobel prize winner (can't spell his name yet). In the sprite of reciprocity, here are my Shakespeares

I've had enough of scrolling this app today. I'm going to cheer myself up by reading Zola while listening to Radiohead.

No matter how many French words I learn, there are always more. Here's a good one: 'fringales' (cravings)