Are you familiar with the Vendée Globe race? It's a solo round-the-world yacht race on a small boat, a monohull. A race without assistance! It's what we call a ‘sick race’. Every four years, the participants set off from Les Sables d'Olonne, in Vendée, and arrive in Le Sable d'Olonne after sailing around the world from west to east. Pietro is very fond of this race, and has been taking part virtually for several years. What exactly do I mean by ‘virtually’, that's what you're going to find out in this episode, among other slightly wacky things.

In the notes accompanying the transcript, you'll find three useful and natural expressions in French, with examples. We'll also take a closer look at what the little word ‘bien’ can change in a sentence. Especially when you're investigating, my dear Watson.

So, if you want to cultivate your French, not virtually, but the Slow and at the right pace way, I invite you to subscribe to the transcript at www.cultivateyourfrench.com

On Friday, I met up with my friend Anne-Laure for lunch at a cute little restaurant in La Garenne-Colombes. To warm us up, we ordered tea. ‘Let it steep for two minutes’, said the lady in the restaurant. Everything changed when I removed the tea bag. Fortunately, as they say in French, ‘le ridicule ne tue pas’.

In the notes accompanying the transcript, we're going to play around with switching certain sentences from indirect speech to direct speech, because it's very useful to know how to do that when you're telling someone something, a little adventure that's happened to you, for example. We're also going to identify some pronouns to see how they're used in the sentences in the episode. It's a good opportunity to pick up some automatic patterns, both when you're listening and when you need to express yourself.

So if you want to cultivate your French, the Slow Way, I invite you to subscribe.

www.cultivateyourfrench.com

As I prepare this episode, we still don't know the result of the US elections. I hope this episode will give you a break from the stress of the election campaign.

Last week, we were in the Jura mountains. We went for a walk with Eric Wolff, a naturalist guide, around the village of Etival. After climbing ‘Le Mont Paradis’, where we were able to observe a number of different plant species, we went back down a wooded path to look for animal tracks - there were traces of wild boar. In the notes that accompany the transcript, there will be photos of the walk, but we're also going to look at a word that occurs three times in the text, but in different contexts. If you have time, I'll suggest that you send me a mini-story about the wolf or a phrase to repeat on the podcast answering machine.

So, to cultivate your French, the slow way, I invite you to follow in the footsteps of the wolf, er, of the other subscribers.

www.cultivateyourfrench.com