Episode Timeline [06 min 16 sec] Prologue [19 min 04 sec] Chapitre 1 Links & Resources French Voices, Episode 41 - Discover the Fantasy World of Lusilière with Author L.Shena: frenchvoicespodcast.com/episode41 Website: lshena.com Amazon: http://amzn.to/1n83FMw Selling points in Australia / Librairies qui proposent la série en Australie: Language International Bookshop (Melbourne) 13-15 Station Street; Kew East VIC 3102 languageint.com.au Foreign Language Bookshop (Melbourne) foreignlanguagebookshop.com.au Le Forum (Perth) www.leforum.com.au Did you like … Read More →

This episode is a face to face interview with my very good friend Emilie. She has a full time job in a Melbourne office but paints in her spare time (with her cat!) and exhibits her work. I’ve seen her apartment gradually becoming an art studio, canvases starting to invade every room and her style change over a short period of time too. Emilie will explain what type of paint she uses and the techniques she’s experimenting with. We’ll also try to define her style and discuss about how she knows whether a painting is finished, and how she comes with their names. Emilie will also tell you where … Read More →

Meet Didier Poupinel, the owner of a 900 year old Cistercian abbey in France, l’Abbaye Notre-Dame du Reclus. In this episode, you’ll learn what Cistercian means, you’ll hear about the history of the buildings and what life was like for the monks who used to live there. You’ll also find out how France categorises its historical monuments and how the maintenance is done. The abbey can be visited and you can even sleep on the domain! Episode Timeline [05 min 13 sec ] A brief history of the Cistercian abbey [08 min 20 sec] The monks of the abbey [10 min 34 sec] What does “Cistercian” … Read More →

L.Shena is the young author of “Les Héritiers de Lusilière”, a fantasy novel written in several volumes (Is L.Shena the new J.K Rowling? She could be!). During our discussion, I was truly blown away by her imagination. L.Shena will share what inspires her to create her fantasy world and also give us an insight of the process of writing her books. But that’s not even all that she does: listen to find out more about her Youtube channel to help you discover more about French culture as well! Episode Timeline [05 min 12 sec] A story in several volumes [10 min 33 sec] Les Héritiers de Lusilière: … Read More →

Find out more about a profession and a field you may never have wondered about before: we’re talking about the maintenance of construction machines! Our guest, Romain, is a mechanical engineer and he’s clearly fond and knowledgeable about his work. You may find this episode a bit more technical (a great challenge for your French skills!). Don’t you worry: as usual, I provide you with a list of specific vocabulary which should really help you! Episode Timeline [04 min 47 sec] Romain’s wife, a former guest on French Voices [05 min 50 sec] Romain’s profession: a description [08 min 52 sec] … Read More →

In the second and last part of this interview, we’ll discuss Marie Trep’s most recent book - "Oh là là, ces Français!" in which Marie collected a range of French words used overseas and expressions referring to French (eg. French bath, French kiss). This highly interesting collection actually reveals how the French are seen by foreigners (and that goes from the ultimate glamour to French people being dirty!). Marie will also give us her expert opinion on the question: is it possible that there will be one universal language in the future? What do you think? Listen to find out! Note: Marie … Read More →

Marie Treps is a passionate linguist and author of many books about words. She is particularly interested in some fields often neglected by the other researchers: Marie is curious about the origin of words and especially words that travel through the borders, interjections and puns, love words, etc. In the first of this two-part interview, we’ll get an overview of Marie’s fascinating career works. Marie will also present the inspiration behind several of her books and share with us the childhood memories that led her to love become a linguist. Finally we will illustrate the fascinating … Read More →

Aude Mayans won her ticket to Australia after participating to the Best Jobs in the World competition, alongside hundreds of thousands of other candidates. But she never went back to France and instead, she settled in Tasmania where she is now running Miam French Crepes. She’ll share her story of making it through the competition in creative ways, making crepes and keeping being an adventurer and nature-lover at heart. Episode Timeline [05 min 07 sec] How Aude arrived in Australia [06 min 17 sec] The Best Jobs in the World competition [08 min 55 sec] The different stages of the selection … Read More →

This is the second part of the discussion with Laurent Boukobza, concert pianist.. When I asked Laurent how he started learning the piano, I could never have imagined the answer I heard. Listen, as it is a remarkable and very unique story. Laurent also runs a “stage de musique” (music program) each summer – he will tell us more about it…and that comes with very important and inspirational messages for any potential musician to be! Episode Timeline [04 min 52 sec] Playing more than one instrument? [06 min 31 sec] How Laurent started playing the piano [12 min 18 sec] How Laurent decided to … Read More →