This might seem like a weird subject, but many of my students seem baffled by the European style bathtub: a regular bathtub, with a hand shower at the end of a cord, and very often no shower curtain or glass separator. "How the heck am I supposed to wash my hair??" they often ask...

Today, I'll unravel the mystery ;-)

It's never fun to become ill when you are traveling, but should you become sick in France, here are a couple of tips about French doctors, medicine, hosptials and pharmacies that should help you out.

Compare buying a property in France with having a baby. When you first learn the news, it can be frightening to think that in only a few months down the road, you'll have this little person to love and take care of that perhaps you didn't feel all that prepared for! You start to think of all the things that must be done in time for the big event – and it becomes overwhelming.

French is an evolving language. You know it, and you've been warned. Yet when you walk the streets of Paris, it can be quite a shock... On top of the "parler d'jeunes" (generation Y new slang), the verlan (common French practice consisting of inverting the order of syllables in a word), and the traditional slang, you are going to encounter many grammatical constructions and glidings that are quite far from your textbook French: welcome to the world of modern spoken French!

So against my advice, you decided to go to Paris to see the July 14th fireworks and now you are left with five options:

1. You watch the Bastille's day fireworks on TV

You go about enjoying your day in the City of Lights, take a long bath, have a nice relaxing dinner with friends/family, sit down on a comfy couch and tune in to TF1 at 10:30PM to watch it like millions of French do... but then, why did you come to Paris, you could have just tuned in to TV5 International from your home in Springfield.

(Before we start just a reminder that the French don't call it Bastille day but "le quatorze juillet" or, less often, "la fête nationale". If you say "Jour de la Bastille" while in France, you will get some strange looks!)

Now of course, if you want to experience Bastille day in Paris, then, that will obviously be the best time for you to go!!! For all others, take my advice and avoid that time of year if you can... this is why:

As in any language, French has a large and rich slang vocabulary that never stops from evolving.

This is the third part of the blog series that showcases some of today's current d'jeunes French slang...

Don't put your métro tickets near coins or metal

The subway tickets have a magnetic strip. If it gets in contact with metal, it will become demagnetized and the tickets won't work: the machine will reject them. If that happens to you and there is a booth near by, cut of the line and go directly to the teller. Hand him/her your tickets and tell them they don't work, they need to be changed. And don't store your tickets in your wallet.... how practical!

In Paris, there are about 16,500 taxis so you would think you could get one easily, no? Nope! Paris' cabs usually don't stop when hailed. Why? Because of the whole taxi organization in Paris.

As in any language, French has a large and rich slang vocabulary that never stops from evolving.

This is the second part of the blog series that showcases some of the current d'jeunes French slang...