Je vis la plus grande partie de l'année sur une île bretonne, Belle-Isle en mer, que j'ai un peu décrite dans mes deux derniers articles. Parfois on me demande : « Comment pouvez-vous vivre sur une île toute l'année ? Vous ne vous sentez pas isolé ? »
En fait, nous avons beaucoup d'activités, les étés sont très occupés et même en hiver, il y a un cinéma, et il y a de nombreuses associations à travers lesquelles les gens créent des liens sociaux (par exemple, l'Université du Temps libre, qui offre des conférences hebdomadaires).

Sare est une des destinations habituelles pour les excursions d'après-midi en hiver.

En revanche, dès l'apparition des beaux jours, j'associe la visite du village à l'escalade de la Rhune, montagne le surplombant et culminant à 905m.

Today, I'm happy to introduce a new contributor to French Today's blog: Maryse. Maryse is a French teacher who also speaks English and Japanese, and offers homestays immersion programs in her own home of Semur-en-auxois, in the beautiful region of Burgundy. Today, she'll tell us about her town.

Today, it's my pleasure to share with you my daughter Leyla's (8 years old on this video) rendition of "le Corbeau et le Renard" by Jean de la Fontaine. This poem is extrememly famous, and you can be sure that every French kid has had memorized it for school... and this for generations.  

We already studied common French verbs followed by the prepositions 'à' and "de". Now, here is a list of common French verbs which are not followed by any preposition when followed by a verb in the infinitive. The second verbs comes directly after the first verb, as in "Paul adore jouer au ballon" (Paul loves to play with a ball). Of course, these verbs may or may not take a preposition in English, so you need to really link the meaning of the verb to the action being described, not the English words.

Belle-Île, ce sont quatre communes : Le Palais, le port d'entrée, avec ses épiceries, ses cafés, ses restos, son marché,  ses galeries, sa vie  trépidante rythmée par les arrivées et les départs des bateaux. Sauzon, plus sophistiquée, plus « branchée », petit port pittoresque qui s'étale à l'entrée d'un aber (mot breton signifiant une baie profonde).

Now, let's study the list of French verbs followed by the preposition "de". As I mentioned in my list of French verbs followed by "à", I couldn't find any rhyme or reason why this is the way it is. I suggest you try to memorize them. The best way to do so is to copy them onto flash cards, and use them in sentences that make sense to you, connecting them to your own life experiences. For example, I could write "j'ai peur des araignées" - I am afraid of spiders, which is true, and a statement that makes sense to me.

Jokes and puns in French are a fun way to train on your speaking abilitilies and pronunciation: memorize them by heart, and then tell them to your French speaking friends, or your classmates. It's a good way to start the day!

And as usual, if you enjoy this post, please share it with others and press our facebook like, Tweeter and Google + buttons located at the top of the page. Merci!

Ce ragoût de veau aux piments que l'on appelle "Axoa" (prononcé "atchoa") était servi à Espelette les jours de foire ou de marché.

In French, some verbs are followed by the prepositions "à" (je cherche à comprendre) or "de" (J'évite de comprendre), others by nothing (je veux comprendre). I looked all over the place for an explanation, some sort of rule or logic, but couldn't find anything, and couldn't figure it out myself (if you do know something, please don't hesitate to share it with all of us and post a comment, or contact me).