Resources

42 Ep. 42 — La rentrée scolaire ! | Learn French Podcast This week, the host talks about la rentrée — the first day back to school in France — and what that day actually looks like for… 10 questions → 41 Ep. 41 — Des nouvelles de mon potager | Learn French Podcast This week, an update from the host's vegetable garden after a brutal summer heatwave — which vegetables pulled through, and which ones didn't stand a chance. 10 questions → 40 Ep. 40 — Une éclipse totale ! | Learn French Podcast This week the host drives to Spain to stand under a total solar eclipse: forty degrees, swarms of mosquitoes, the sky going dark all at once… 16 questions → 39 Ep. 39 — Le bonheur | Learn French Podcast Some people go stir-crazy at home; others dread having to go out. Aurélie asks whether happiness can really be squeezed into four weeks in August —… 16 questions → 38 Ep. 38 — Où sont les Français ? | Learn French Podcast Half of France stops in August, and the other half is on the coast. Aurélie explains the law behind it, the habit that outlived its reason,… 16 questions → 37 Ep. 37 — Les feux de forêt | Learn French Podcast Two fires near Bordeaux, both started by accident: a car and a brush cutter. Two months without rain, sea winds, and insurers who may not pay.… 16 questions → 36 Ep. 36 — La Fête Nationale Française | Learn French Podcast Bastille Day marks two 14 Julys, a year apart: one a revolt, one a reconciliation. Aurélie explains both — plus the firefighters' ball, and the drought… 16 questions 6 cards → 35 Ep. 35 — La canicule | Learn French Podcast France mostly does without air conditioning, so a heatwave becomes a set of tactics: shutters closed, windows opened at 4am, and someone's swimming pool. Aurélie's survival… 15 questions 6 cards → 34 Ep. 34 — On mange quoi pendant l’été ? | Learn French Podcast Forty degrees outside, and the fan has to stay off or you'd hear it. Aurélie builds a summer meal that needs almost no cooking — and… 15 questions 6 cards → 33 Ep. 33 — La Fête de la Musique | Learn French Podcast Every street a different genre, one square turned into a festival — and this year, 40 degrees on the concrete. Aurélie on the Fête de la… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 32 Ep. 32 — Avoir confiance en soi | Learn French Podcast The students who most want to speak are often the ones who never do. Aurélie names the loop that traps them — and tells the story… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 31 Ep. 31 — La justice française | Learn French Podcast A court case in the Gers has put the French justice system back on trial in public. Aurélie explains the vocabulary of the debate — laxisme,… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 30 Ep. 30 — La fête des mères | Learn French Podcast Every country picks its own Sunday for Mother's Day. Aurélie looks at why France waits until the end of May, what families actually do — and… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 29 Ep. 29 — Le jour de solidarité | Learn French Podcast A public holiday you have to work, unpaid, with your wages going to the State. Aurélie explains France's journée de solidarité — and why Whit Monday… 3 min 15 questions 6 cards → 28 Ep. 28 — Le moustique tigre | Learn French Podcast French mosquitoes came out at dinner time. The tiger mosquito bites all afternoon — and the two shifts now overlap from noon until night. Aurélie on… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 27 Ep. 27 — On parle du DELF | Learn French Podcast Aurélie has watched too many students book the DELF three weeks out and hope for a miracle. What the exam really tests, why the diploma is… 5 min 16 questions 6 cards → 26 Ep. 26 — Le 8 mai : la Victoire | Learn French Podcast 8 May marks the 1945 victory: military parades, a tribute to the fallen, the president at the Unknown Soldier's tomb. And for everyone outside Paris —… 3 min 15 questions 6 cards → 25 Ep. 25 — Le premier mai en France | Learn French Podcast 1 May in France: a public holiday when the whole country grinds to a halt, a tiny white flower everyone gives away, and unions marching in… 3 min 15 questions 6 cards → 24 Ep. 24 — Cultiver ses légumes | Learn French Podcast Tomatoes sown in February, planted in May, eaten in July — if the last cold snap doesn't kill them first. Aurélie's first vegetable garden, and the… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 23 Ep. 23 — Dormir | Learn French Podcast Your brain sorts the day's vocabulary while you sleep. Aurélie explains why a bad night undoes a good lesson — and why you shouldn't panic about… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 22 Ep. 22 — Pâques, c’est quoi ? | Learn French Podcast Flying bells that drop chocolate in the garden, a brother on the other half of the lawn, and lamb at noon. Aurélie's Easter — and why… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 21 Ep. 21 — Poisson d’Avril ! | Learn French Podcast Aurélie opens this episode by announcing she is quitting teaching, the podcast and Instagram. Keep listening — it's 1 April, and she explains the paper fish… 3 min 15 questions 6 cards → 20 Ep. 20 — Aux urgences ! | Learn French Podcast Two hours in a waiting room, a closed door, and no idea what's behind it. Aurélie went to A&E last weekend — not as the patient… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 19 Ep. 19 — Le romantisme à la française | Learn French Podcast Foreigners call the French romantic. The French never say it about themselves. Aurélie looks at three ordinary habits — dressing up, holding hands, going out as… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 18 Ep. 18 — C’est quoi cette météo ? | Learn French Podcast This week Aurélie tells us about the storms that swept across France last month — the wind, the floods, the three weeks without a single ray… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 17 Ep. 17 — La fast fashion | Learn French Podcast Why do people buy clothes that fall apart in a season? Aurélie links fast fashion to a very concrete thing — French purchasing power since Covid… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 16 Ep. 16 — Le sucre et la santé | Learn French Podcast Aurélie tried to cut refined sugar in January, like a lot of French people. Then came the galette des rois, then the crêpes. A story about… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 15 Ep. 15 — Mardi Gras | Learn French Podcast Mardi gras is a Christian feast almost nobody in France reads as one any more. Aurélie unpacks the fat in the name, the fast that follows,… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 14 Ep. 14 — La Saint-Valentin | Learn French Podcast France has a reputation for romance. Aurélie would rather stay home: the Valentine's menu costs double, the à la carte list shrinks, and you have to… 3 min 15 questions 6 cards → 13 Ep. 13 — La Chandeleur | Learn French Podcast Candlemas is a Christian feast almost nobody in France can explain — and everybody celebrates anyway, with crêpes. Aurélie gives the three ingredients that matter and… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 12 Ep. 12 — La galère ! | Learn French Podcast One clutch, one week without a car, and a village bus that runs almost never. Aurélie's dance rehearsal turned into a 30-minute walk, a bus, and… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 11 Ep. 11 — Le Batch Cooking | Learn French Podcast Cook once, eat all week. Aurélie explains batch cooking — which French dishes survive the freezer, which ones don't, and the one thing you need before… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 10 Ep. 10 — Mes résolutions | Learn French Podcast Four resolutions for the new year: better lessons, a life outside work, Chinese she refuses to lose after ten years, and cooking a whole week in… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 9 Ep. 9 — L’Épiphanie | Learn French Podcast 6 January is Epiphany, and in France that means la galette des rois. Two rival cakes, one hidden trinket, a paper crown — and a forfeit… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 8 Ep. 8 — Mon anniversaire | Learn French Podcast Aurélie was born on 30 December — right in the middle of the French eating season. Five days of feasting, friends all away, and a birthday… 3 min 15 questions 6 cards → 7 Ep. 7 — C’est Noël ! | Learn French Podcast Lunch at 11.30, dessert around six. Aurélie walks through the French Christmas meal course by course — and explains why some families claim Father Christmas came… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 6 Ep. 6 — Le ski en France | Learn French Podcast Four or five times a year, an hour and a half from home. Aurélie compares the Pyrenees with the Alps, walks through the three kinds of… 3 min 15 questions 6 cards → 5 Ep. 5 — Je suis malade | Learn French Podcast You can hear it in her voice. Aurélie has a cold — and for once it lasted four days instead of a week. The vocabulary of… 3 min 15 questions 6 cards → 4 Ep. 4 — L’IA pour apprendre le français | Learn French Podcast A student asked ChatGPT to do his passé composé exercise. ChatGPT used the passé simple. Aurélie knew instantly — and explains the difference between using AI… 5 min 15 questions 6 cards → 3 Ep. 3 — L’Automne | Learn French Podcast Autumn officially starts on 21 September, but nobody feels it until mid-October. Aurélie is torn: the early dark and the wind depress her, and yet winter… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards → 2 Ep. 2 — Tu aimes courir ? | Learn French Podcast A volunteer stand on Saturday, her first-ever race on Sunday. Five kilometres, thirty minutes, a personal record — and a finish among the last, which she… 3 min 15 questions 6 cards → 1 Ep. 1 — Halloween | Learn French Podcast In France Halloween belongs to children — but the bars are catching on, and Aurélie has friends coming over. A mask rather than makeup, simpler food… 4 min 15 questions 6 cards →