Learning French

If you hated learning a foreign language at school, don't despair !  There are some fabulous online resources which make learning fun and you can find something to suit you, whatever level your language learning is at. And, these resources are all free ! 

We have picked out a few of our favourites here but if you find any others to recommend please let us know - you can comment here.

There are some great websites and in some you can even listen to how the phrase should sound ! RFI from French TV channel TV5monde is a great site aimed at presenting the French news for those learning French - there are exercises to try. It would be ideal for school learners as well as those trying to learn French for holidays or business :

http://www.rfi.fr/lffr/statiques/accueil_apprendre.asp

The BBC Language resources are also very extensive and offer something for every standard of learner !
If you really only want to get away with the absolute minimum of French then here are the 10 essential phrases to make life go just a little more smoothly while abroad ! You can even listen to how they should sound.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/quickfix/

Ski phrases - 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/quickfix/ski.shtml

Beach phrases - 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/quickfix/summer.shtml

Rugby phrases even from RFi ! http://www.rfi.fr/lffr//images/141/FP_regles_rugby.pdf

And then there are online dictionaries too which offer all sorts of help and you can listen to the words and phrases here too !

Larousse - http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french
Collins French English dictionary - http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-french

For Children and Primary School learners (or those who want to keep things fairly simple !) the BBC Primary languages resources are fun - with games included ! You just dont realise you are learning ! http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/

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Review of French Tourism for 2011

2011 has been a successful year for French Tourism, with increases in numbers of tourists visiting various historic and cultural sites.(http://www.francesoir.fr/actualite/societe/patrimoine-le-chateau-de-chambord-veut-defier-le-mont-saint-michel-171817.html)
Mont Saint-Michel again reported the greatest number of visitors with about 3,000,000 visiting the fabulous site in the famous Bay of Mont Saint-Michel.  However a competitor site which hopes to catch up by 2019 is the famous château de Chambord  in the Loire, which had an increase of 50,000 visitors for 2011 year to hit a record of 780,000.

The Ministry of Culture also announced good results regarding attendance of museums, which grew 5% in 2011 with a total of 27 million !
the Museum of the Louvre, had 8.8 million, an increase for the fourth consecutive year. It is ahead of the Palace of Versailles (more than 6 million), the Pompidou Centre (3.6 million, an increase of 15%!) and the musée d'Orsay (3.1 million).

Where did you visit this year ? And can you recommend anywhere either on this list or some hidden gems that are not usually mentioned ? We certainly love the theme park Puy du Fou which is listed as having over a million visitors a year.

The most popular theme park is still the two Disneyland, Paris parcs which receive 14.5 million visitors a year and the Parc based around the French character Astérix, Parc Astérix near Paris which has 1.6 million visitors a year ! The Futuroscope theme park at Poitiers has 1.6 million visitors a year.

And of course we cant forget The Eiffel Tower in Paris which has 6.8 million paying visitors a year although I am sure a lot more who just go along to take a photograph !
Another popular sites to give a try is the La Villette science museum in Paris which has around 3 million visitors.
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Top 40 Tourist Attractions in France !

Here are the top 40 tourist attractions in France along with annual visitor numbers to each. How many have you been to ? I have been to Notre Dame, the Sacré-Cœur and the Orsay museum in Paris, I've seen the Eiffel Tower although didnt go up it and been to Monte Carlo, Saint-Malo, the Pilat dune and Mont-Saint-Michel. So I've only another 32 to go ! What about you ?
1 Fontainebleau Forest and Castle 13 (million visitors)
2 Disneyland Paris 12,6
3 Notre Dame de Paris - Cathedral 12
4 Flea Market - Saint-Ouen 11
5 Château de Versailles Gardens 7
6 Georges-Pompidou center 5,9
7 Eiffel tower 5,72
8 Louvre museum 5,175
9 Sacré-Cœur basilica 5
10 Notre-Dame de Lourdes sanctuary 5
11 Saint-Cloud national domain 4
12 Monte-Carlo rock 4
13 City of the sciences in La Villette 3,5
14 La Rochelle old city harbor 3
15 Château in Versailles 2,9
16 Futuroscope in Poitiers 2,9
17 Island of Oléron 2,5
18 Mont-Saint-Michel site 2,5
19 Baux-de-Provence village 2,5
20 Étretat cliffs 2,5
21 Borély park (botanical gardens) Marseille 2,44
22 Orsay museum (Paris) 2,33
23 Aquaboulevard park (Paris) 2,2
24 Miraculous Medal (Paris) 2,2
25 Riquewihr village 2,1
26 Island of Ré 2
27 Honfleur harbour 2
28 Saint-Malo citadel 2
29 Astérix park (Plailly) 1,9
30 Pyrénées national park 1,8
31 Père-Lachaise cemetery 1,75
32 Notre Dame-de-la-Garde basilica 1,5
33 Strasbourg Cathedral 1,5
34 Notre-Dame de Chartres Cathedral 1,5
35 Pilat dune 1,4
36 Marineland park (Antibes) 1,2
37 Notre-Dame-de-Fourvière basilica 1,2
38 Reims cathedral 1,2
39 Gard bridge 1,2
40 Gordes village 1,2

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Downloadable Brochures - Guides to French Cities and Regions

If you are researching next year's holiday then you will find lots of useful brochures that can be downloaded at http://uk.franceguide.com/brochures/home.html?NodeID=409

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100 sites from 100 Departements

100 sites or views that are emblematic of the 100 different "Departements" or Regions in France. Can you guess the one for the "Departement" where you are going on holiday ?

http://www.linternaute.com/sortir/magazine/100-departements/

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