Mes amis Gymglish offrent aux lecteurs de ce site 10 abonnements de 6 mois aux 10 premiers inscrits et 40 abonnements de 3 mois aux suivants (soit 50 abonnements). Pour profiter de cet offre incroyable, cliquez ici
I just wanted to inform you of a great English language training site that a friend of mine works for. The site is called GymGlish, and is run by a young Paris-based company.
GymGlish is an innovative training program which employs an artificial intelligence engine to deliver daily, personalized and humorous lessons by e-mail designed to improve and maintain the user’s knowledge and command of English.
Each morning, an e-mail is sent to you with an assortment of linguistic activities in written and audio form. 10 minutes worth of stories, dialogues, questions, ‘mini-lessons’ and reviews… You will discover the characters and adventures of the Delavigne Corporation, a San Francisco-based perfume company. Users receive a new scene each day with professional situations, diverse accents and humour… lots of humour.
After sending a completed lesson you will promptly receive a second e-mail with your daily score, personalized explanations, requested vocabulary translations, transcripts of audios… The AI engine selects episodes daily based on your level, personal and professional expectations. The stories are intended to enrich your vocabulary, put common expressions into an everyday context, and increase your ease in conversational situations.
Sorry I haven’t been writing on this blog recently. I have been moving flats in Paris. For those of you that have done this, you’ll know that its never easy: forms to fill in, cheques in advance to write, moving out and moving in status of damage to the appartments to organise, vans to hire, friends to beg to help, etc, etc. Anyway, Im now settled in to my new flat and will start writing regularly again.
French:
Désolé que je n’a pas écrit récemment sur ce blog: j’étais en plein déménagement sur Paris. C’est fini maintenant donc j’espère pouvoir recommencer a blogger régulièrement.
Last weekend we were in Picardie (about 50km north of Paris) minding my Auntie’s staffordshire bull terriers Max and Beastie. The weather was great so we were able to take the dogs out for long walks in the forest. The photo to the left was taken during one afternoon when they were tired from one of the walks and decided to take it easy in the sun in the back garden.
Max is an old male so he generally likes to be left alone and to do his own thing. Beastie is a young female, always following you around, full of energy. On walks, Max just walks off, finds a stick and you’ll only catch a few glimpses of him. Beastie, however, is always coming back to check if you’re still there, and likes to walk under your feet 
Although Staffie’s dont eat that much because they’re quite small dogs, I was amazed to see huge bags of dog food at my aunt’s house. She buys this from a local supermarket store, although she admitted it was difficult to carry home.
So I thought about home delivery for dog food on the internet and went to look for a few sites that do home delivery. Ooshop is good with a clear interface. Another one i’d recommend is Telemarket.
Anyway, Beastie and Max are almost part of our family and I currently trying to convince my girlfriend that we should get a staffie…it wont be easy
I have been taking the Eurostar London-Paris service for almost 10 years now and have probably made well over 200 journeys. I mainly use it for work, as I have been working in Anglo-French companies since living in Paris, although I have used it on a few occasions to visit friends or to spend a short break in the British capital.
I think the logistics of the service is excellent : 2hours 40 mins from the centre of Paris to the centre of London. If I get the early train from Paris I often sleep in the train and do not notice the journey at all
However, I must say that punctuality is not Eurostar’s strongpoint. I would estimate that roughly 50% of all the journeys I have made on Eurostar have been late. More often than not its a matter of 15 or 20 minutes…only slightly annoying. But over the years I have also experienced 3 hour delays, train changes in the town of Arras, complete cancellation, 7 hour journey times, etc.
Eurostar will soon be offering a 2hr 20 mins service. This is great news as travelling to London from Paris will be hardly any different from taking the TGV from Paris to Lyon. As far as, I really hope that they improve punctuality and ensure that more trains are on time.
After the Football World Cup and the Olympic Games, the Cricket World Cup is the most watched global sporting event. Surprised? Just remember that cricket is the national sport of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The game is akin to a religion in these countries!
The 8th Cricket World Cup starts in less than 10 days in the islands of the West Indies (”Antilles” in French). Australia are (once again) the hot favourites to take the title as they did in 2003 and in 1999 before that. People are saying that the home team could surprise a few, and that the Indian team with their talismanic batter (”frappeur” in French) Sachin Tendulkar will be a danger.
But my prediction is that the Australians will win for the 3rd time in a row, beating India in the final. Its difficult seeing anyone beat them in a competitive competition.
I read a great article on the news News 24 site recently which argued how cricket is becoming more and more popular in France. Most French people I speak to about cricket tend to liken it to baseball. But baseball is derived from cricket…cricket was invented in the 13th century!
I suppose you have to be “born into” cricket to really appreciate it. I remember that when I was young (even very young) we always played cricket in the family whenever we could. Sometimes this would involve getting to the beach at 8 in the morning because at this time the tide was out and the pitch was hard: great for a tennis ball.
Anyway, if you’re interested in following the World Cup then the best coverage will be (as always) on BBC Sport.
A quick article in English, 7 things that im looking forward to happening in the first quarter of 2007 :
We ate out last night at a great little restaurant in Beaune.
Deux Pièces Cuisine is run by a friend of ours and opened in April 2006. It is situated at a short 2-minute walk from the main town centre. The food is top quality - traditional french cuisine with a touch of modernism - and a lot of thought goes into the presentation. The small size of the establishment gives it a really cosy feel. It goes without saying that the wine list is of the highest standard.
If you are visiting the medieval town of Beaune, known for its annual wine sales organized by the Hospices de Beaune, and arguably the capital of the world-renowned Burgundy wine region of France, then I would really recommend that you make the effort to eat here.
Because its quite small, places are limited - so I’d recommend that you book a table in advance. Contact details can be found on the website linked above. The menu has been translated by yours truly into English