French Word a Day - Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

www.french-word-a-day.typepad.com has become, for many of us living in France, a thrice-weekly email that we know we should read and practise with but, often (in my case, at least), just file for a rainy day.

Not many people realise that behind the “learning French” email service, there is a very interesting blog by Kristin Espinasse, an American who (to use her publisher’s words), fell in love with a Frenchman and moved to his country to marry him and start a family. When her children began learning the language, she found herself falling in love with it all over again. To relate the stories of her sometimes bumpy, often comic, and always poignant assimilation, she created a blog in the tradition of books such as A Year in Provence and Almost French, drawing more admirers than she ever could have imagined.

From her about page, I have managed to discern that… French Word-A-Day began in 1999 when a former desert rat from Phoenix decided to share a piece of Provence from her office in the various cafés along the French Riviera. While trying to buy time at a euro ten per coffee, the writer came up with a plan to distribute her “café letters” from France. What began as an earnest attempt at freelance journalism, eventually worked itself into a more suitable self-made mêtier as resident “French Word Artisan” and author.

Kristin blogs about her life, her books and her dogs, Braise and Smokey.

Because of the way that she mixes French phrases into her on-line conversation, visiting this blog becomes an excellent way to improve your French.  I’m certainly going to take more interest in those thrice-weekly email from now on.

All the best

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