I’ve started learning French. Here are some resources I found useful.

Also see my post on exploring Paris.

Listen

• Radio France, different radio stations and podcasts (e.g. France Inter, France Info or France Culture); for French-only music, see Fip - Sacré Français
• Radio France Internationale, e.g. Journal en français facile
• ByteFM programs France, en confidence and What the France about French music, moderated in German

For example, here a two Radio France podcasts on the French Revolution:

• La Revolution Française
• Vivre durant la Révolution française

Read

Newspapers:

• Brut (trendy, progressive, social media)
• Mediapart (independent and investigative journalism, behind paywall)
• Le Monde Diplomatique (monthly journal)

Books:

• The Petit Nicolas, a series of easy-to-read books with a sense of humour (some of it dated and stereotypical)
• Kiffe Kiffe Demain by Faïza Guène
• L’Étranger by Albert Camus, relatively easy to read
• Exercises de Style by Raymond Queneau, re-tells the same story in 99 different styles (also see OuLiPo)
• Jacaranda by Gaël Faye, the 2024 winner of the Prix Renaudot (Le Book Club interview, L’interview de 9h20 podcast, Kwibuka song, Butare song)
• Rue des Boutiques Obscures by Patrick Modiano, 2014 winner of the Literature Nobel Prize
• Triste Tigre by Neige Sinno, 2023 winner of the Prix Femina and Prix Goncourt des Lycéens
• La Nuit au Coeur by Nathacha Appanah, 2025 winner of the Prix Femina
• L’Amant by Marguerite Duras, one of my favourite books
• La vie devant soi by Romain Gary (Signé Ajar) (the only author to win the Prix Goncourt twice)
• Les Racines du ciel by Romain Gary
• Veiller sure elle by Jean-Baptiste Andrea
• L’Anomalie by Hervé Le Tellier
• Trésor caché by Pascal Quignard
• La Maladie de la mort by Marguerite Duras
• Les Ombres errantes (Dernier Royaume, tome I) by Pascal Quignard

I’ve also enjoyed listening to the audio book while reading the book at the same time.

When trying to pick a new book to read, you can look at the recent winners of French literary awards, for example:

• Prix Goncourt (and Prix Goncourt des Lycéens)
• Prix Renaudot
• Prix Femina
• Le Grand Prix du roman de l’Académie française
• Le Prix Médicis
• Le Prix Interallié

Another good sources are prestigious publishing houses, for example:

• Les Éditions de Minuit

For these books it’s also easy to find related materials, like reviews, interviews, podcasts and audiobooks.

Other interesting authors I came across, thanks to my French teacher:

• Alain Badiou, philosopher
• Annie Ernaux, writer, literature Nobel price in 2022 (e.g. Les Années)
• Charles Baudelaire, poet (e.g. Les Fleurs du Mal, Enivrez-vous)
• Edgar Morin, modern philosopher and sociologist (interconnectedness, complexity)
• Eric Vuillard, writer and film maker (e.g. 14 Juillet, Conquistadors)
• Guy Debord (e.g. La Sociéte du Spectacle)
• Jacques Derrida, philosopher
• Jacques Prévert, poet (e.g. Déjeuner du matin)
• Laurent Mauvignier, writer (e.g. Des Hommes)
• Marcel Proust, writer
• Michel Foucault, philosopher, historian and social theorist (power, institutions, knowledge)
• Pascal Quignard, writer (e.g. Dernier Royaume, Il n’y a pas de place pour la mort)
• Pierre Bourdiere, sociologist (class, culture, social inequality)
• Raymond Queneau, writer
• Victor Hugo (Les Misérables, Notre-Dame de Paris)

Watch

There are numerous excellent French films and series. Here are some I’ve enjoyed watching or that were recommended to me:

Series:

• Le Bureau des Légendes
• Dix pour Cent
• Tapie, mini-series about Bernard Tapie
• Oussekine
• Lupin
• Engrenages
• Loups Garous, reality-TV game show for the Werewolf game

Films:

• 10e chamber, Instants d’Audiences
• Anatomie d’une Chute
• Petite Mamam
• Girlhood
• Le Monde du Silence
• La Panthère des Neiges and Le Chant des Forêts de Vincent Munier
• Notre Corps
• Le Dîner de Cons
• Les Trois Frères
• La Vérité si je mens !
• La Haine
• To Be and to Have
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• I’ve Loved You So Long
• A Prophet
• Of Gods and Men
• Two Days, One Night
• Dheepan
• Elle
• The Apartment

When trying to find a new film or series to watch, I’m looking through these sources:

• César Awards
• BAFTA TV Award for Best International Programme (e.g. Tapie)
• BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language (e.g. Anatomie d’une Chute)

Other French photographers and film makers:

• Raymond Depardon (La Vie Moderne, 10e Chamber)
• Agnes Varda
• JR
• Luc Beson (Jeanne d’Arc, Leon)

Study

Resources

• Vocab flashcards for learning with spaced repetitions, e.g. using Anki with the mobile app and this basic community deck, or Mochi, but nothing beats creating your own handwritten flashcards
• Leo trainer for words I look up and want to remember in my daily interactions
• Bescherelle grammar book, concise description of French grammar, without any exercises
• Bescherelle verb conjugation book
• kwiziq, online learning platform

Language courses

Mostly in Paris:

• Language courses by the Paris municipalty (website) – very cheap but high demand
• Conversation groups in Paris’ public libraries (website)
• L’Atelier 9 – relatively cheap, small groups, casual
• Language Teams – Qualiopi-certified, relatively expensive but well organized
• Alliance Française

There is Qualiopi, a national quality certificate for organisations that teach or offer services related to professional development, which may be a requirement for getting a language course reimbursed by your employer.

Complications

The French language has lots of concepts and rules that make it complicated, here are some I struggled with.

• H aspiré, which stops the usual vowel contraction and liaison
• Additional pronouns “y” and “en”, and some short expressions like “t’y peux rien” or “t’y es pour rien”
• Passe compose with etre and avoir
• Complément d’object direct (COD), complément d’object indirect (COI) and other related, but different compléments like complément de measure
• Que le participate passé ne s’accord pas avec le COD, sauf dans les exceptions

Interesting things

Some things I stumbled upon while learning French:

• Fin de semaine – the more logical version of weekend, used in Quebec, also not the same as fin de la semaine
• Septante, huitante and nonante – the more logical forms of soixante-dix, quatre-vingts and quatre-vingts-dix
• Talkie-walkie instead of walkie-talkie
• Ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard