Franco Fridays: Learning French

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I decided learning some French words would be helpful in preparation for our trip.  I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I am or to find it such a beautiful language and an intriguing experience.  I had always thought the French sounded a bit on the nasal side. 

I found a collection of 10 half-hour lessons on CD, designed for travelers, I think, at the public library.  I'm on lesson 7.  Each lesson builds on the previous, and I've been listening to each twice to make sure I've got it.  I'm eager to start adding actually looking at the words to see how they are spelled, too, but I think listening and repeating has been a good start since I don't know their phonetic rules. 

Ella and James got in on the fun at first when I was listening in the car, but I quickly learned it's hard to practice pronunciation with two kids trying to repeat phrases at the same time that I am.  James still does a pretty good job of asking me in French if I speak English, and both kids enjoy saying, "Bonjour, Paris."  

This isn't an exhaustive list, but here are several of the words and phrases I can put together so far.  I will obviously be a scintillating French conversationalist.