h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have started something of a French hub at A694497.

I thought 'The French Connection' sounded pretty snappy, but it doesn't seem to do too well on the h2g2 search engine!

For the moment it is just a bit of décor, a blatant plug for my uni project on the French Revolution and a few links to French type entries on h2g2.

Any French researchers out there? Or other ex-pats living in France, like me? Or just plain old researchers with no connection but an interest or just lively curiosity. Venez nombreux!

I know there are a few, but unlike German, French doesn't seem to crop up much here. Why is that. Etes-vous timides? Don't hide your lights under bushels, come out, come out, wherever you are. Stand up and be counted! Froggies unite! More nationalistic ravings!

Oh dear, maybe this isn't the way to attract the crowds of French researchers lurking in the wings after all!

seeya
spiff

French-speaking?

Mais oui, un petit peu, Monsieur!

Well, at least my posting will bring this conversation up on the list, so hopefully someone who knows more French than I shows up!

I'm going to Paris tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank bunnies for phrase books, cause I'm useless!

J'ai parlé francais depuis cinq ans... mais je suis jamais allé en France... je la regrette...

Paris tomorrow, eh?

Sympa! Eurostar? Ferry? Plane? I prefer the train, myself.

What will you be up to in Europe's most romantic capital (not that I really think of it as particularly romantic!)? Need any tips on getting around, what to see and what not? Have you looked at the links on the French Connection page to the h2g2 Uni project on Paris? It's at A537400.

It may be a good idea to take all your old French Francs, (and ask any family or friends if they need any changing whilst you're at it) with you and convert them all into lovely little Euros at the bank. They won't be accepted in shops now.

Anyway, have a great trip,

seeya
spiff

I am 50% French, on my mother's side. Actually, it's fractionally under 50% because they have a British ancestor, but that's just me being a muse. You may consider me signed up. Just don't expect me to speak the language.

Since 5 years old eh, well done Krans!

I can struggle through a French conversation, just about, but I don't like it, and I usually end up with a headache.

I've given up tonight on my french evening classes because it was just way too hard for me. we have three levels. beginners which is really i am called, i am english, i am married type stuff. second class is mine and way too hard, people with A level french are struggling, and then third class which is basically just conversation.

usless. i did two years of french at school, ......ten years ago....

i'll pop along then, consider me joined but ignorant.

J'adore le glace. that's about all i can manage, je suis desole.

FABT

Hmmm... it just shows how rusty my French is, not having used it for nearly a year...

I meant /for/ 5 years...

Il n'y a pas de lézard, mes amis. Aucun 'blème!

Sorry, showing off!

I'm an English ex-pat, but my French is pretty much native level (apart from getting tongue-tied after a certain number of Kronenbourg Pils - that's *Pils* with just *one* 'l', bien entendu!).

'I have been speaking French for 5 years' would be in the present tense in French - 'Je *parle* cette langue depuis cinq ans' but it doesn't quite ring true, for other reasons.

I guess you might be better off with 'J'apprends le français depuis cinq ans', that way you 'have been learning' French for 5 years.

Your original effort didn't actually indicate that you had been speaking French since *age* 5 years old, though. Don't see why it would automatically mean that. It was the tense that was wrong, not the 'depuis cinq ans'.

There don't seem to be many *real* Frogs on h2g2, though. Or else they are a very shy bunch.

Oh well, no hurry, I'll just 'look after my garden' here, as Voltaire would no doubt suggest.

A+
spiff

French? ... long long ago ... ok, here you go: Je ne sais pas!

Hey and I love cafe au lait and chocolate croissants!

Is that enough? Well, then you can sign me up.

Oui, je parle francais.
J'ai habité á Paris pour trois ans jusqua decembre lá.
Voici une arcticle j'ai ecris au sujet de les bars anglais a Paris.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A652295

Ca me interesse un site h2g2 francais car je suis deja en train de perdre le pouvoir a parler Francais.

I think the moderators don't really like the french postings.

Well, I spose I knew I wouldn't get away with it, but this is sposed to be a thread for French speakers!

i didn't say anything too exciting, just replying to posts, but in French. Is this going to be possible ever? German gets away with it!

Oh well... Mince, then!

My French is terrible! But I have came back from 3 nights in Paris on Sunday and have had several holidays in France over the years.

I can just about find my way round a menu and ask for directions, but have resolved to rectify the situation and improve my French.

The most useful information I acquired this weekend is that the Louvre is free on the first Sunday of every month and you can get in to use the loos without a ticket .

So it's nipping to the Loo-vre!

What did you get up to in Paree, then? I'll be there briefly this w/end, just passing through, though.

I make the journey from Strasbourg to London every few months and usually all I see of Paris is the Gard de l'Est, the Gare du Nord and the back street next to the tracks that separates them (about 500m!).

The presidential election campaigns are beginning to get going now, and Jacquot is in Strazzer selling his soul to anyone with a vote.

Meanwhile the judge who was investigating the corruption cases in which Chirac is implicated (Juge Halphen) is publishing his book this week. He makes it clear that he quit the case because he felt that corrupt politicians were preventing him from carrying out his judicial responisibilities. (in France it is a judge who heads up big investigations - not quite sure how that works exactly; kind of like the Federal authorities in the US, I think??)

Just gossiping, really...

A+
spiff
(do I get away with "A+"?)

I think the hidden posing is mine.

All i said was that I spoke french and that I would interested in a h2g2 french group. And then I gave a link ( internal to h2g2 ) to article I wrote on bars in paris.

I think itll prolly be reinstrated.

ja+

Hi AkaJ

Howyadoin? You may have been modded, but there are three up there and I went a bit OTT on the French front; I suspected it may not last long, but not to worry.

Nice to hear you're into the idea of a French group. Whereabouts are you at the mo'? Uk? France? I'm in Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas and holiday home of the Euro Parlement. I may have already seen the article on bars, but post me that link again and I'll get a link on The French Connection site.

So, no French postings, eh?

A+
spiff

We seemed to a lot of walking, Spiff, but I think that is a good way to see a city. We walked through part of the Latin Quarter, starting at Rue Moufftard, passing the Parthenon and the Sorbonne, down to Notre Dame (where the public loos where closed, also the ones in the Metor which is why we were very relieved to find the ones in the Louvre!)

A French couple who my husband had got to know through w*rk took us for a walk around the Marais before having a meal in a tiny restaurant tucked away in the Bastille area. We would never have found it on our own and if we had wouldn't have gone in as it looked very small. It had another room upstairs and the food was excellent.

We went on a Car Rouge tour that gave us an idea of the lay out of the area around us, we stayed at a hotel on the Place de Madeleine.

Also had a look around Printemps and Galerie Lafayette, but I didn't think the prices were all that different to the UK.

Went up the Eiffel Tower, took the lift rather than walking, but we had already walked some distance that day.

As it was free on Sunday, we had a look at Mona Lisa and Napoleon III's apartments as well as the medieval remains of the Louvre.

Eurostar makes the whole thing very painless, especially as it is an easy trip for us to get to Waterloo.