French Conversation Podcast
In “A Bit of French with A&C” podcast series, you’ll listen to Kwiziq superstars Aurélie and Céline‘s light-hearted chats in French about fun (and random) topics. To help you practise your listening skills, these podcasts will be accompanied by some useful vocab, grammar lessons, and interesting links to go further! Bonne écoute !
🎧 Today’s podcast: “Vive la Musique !”
In this week’s episode, A&C (that’s us!) are celebrating la Fête de la Musique (June 21, and not 20 like Aurelie said by mistake below 😅) by sharing (some of) their favourite French-speaking singers and songs, their love for singing, Céline’s talent playing a very Breton instrument and more thoughts on concerts and festivals 😊
Bonne écoute !
🔠 Vocabulary Pit Stop
Here’s some useful vocabulary featured in this podcast for you to learn and/or review:
- marquer [quelqu’un] = to leave one’s mark on [someone]
- la variété française = French pop music / French variety
- s’inspirer de [quelque chose] = to get inspiration from [something]
- tout un tas de [choses] = a whole bunch of [things]
- résonner = to resonate
- être biberonné(e) à [quelque chose] (exp.) = to be raised on [something]
- une voix qui monte haut = a voice that rises high
- s’exiler = to go into exile
- haut-perché(e) = high-pitched
- donner des frissons à [quelqu’un] = to give [someone] chills
- s’attacher à [quelque chose] = to get attached to [something]
- aller droit au cœur = to go straight to the heart
- la mièvrerie = cheesiness, corniness
- chanter faux = to sing off-key
- chanter comme une casserole (exp.) = to sing badly [lit. to sing like a sauce pan]
- Obligé ! = Bound to happen! / Right!
- le rétroviseur = rear-view mirror
- un fest deiz / un fest noz = traditional Breton community dance festivals (daytime/evening)
- une bombarde = a Breton oboe
- une clé (instrument) = a key
- boucher [quelque chose] = to plug [something] up
- une anche (instrument) = a reed
- un roseau = reed (plant)
- chatouiller = to tickle
- la maîtrise = mastery
- être à fond dans [quelque chose] (exp.) = to be fully invested in [something]
- un instrument à vent = a wind instrument
- un hautbois = oboe
- un bout conique = a conical tip
- ne pas être en reste ! (exp.) = not to be outdone
- un panthéon = a “hall of fame”, a favourite selection
- un humour pinçant = dry humour, sarcastic
- C’est pas mon truc ! = That’s not my thing!
- en live / en personne = live / in person
- en plein air = open air
- être serré(e)s comme des sardines (exp.) = to be packed like sardines
- Chacun ses goûts ! (exp.) = To each their own! [lit. Each their tastes!]
- une anecdote croustillante = a spicy anecdote
Proper nouns, French singers and Song titles:
- Michel Delpech – Le Loir-et-Cher (1977)
- la Bretagne = Brittany
- Nostalgie / Chérie FM [re: French radio stations]
- Michel Polnareff – Lettre à France (1978)
- Daniel Balavoine
- France Gall
- Véronique Sanson
- Céline Dion
- Linda Lemay
- Anaïs – Mon cœur, mon amour (2006)
- Stromae
- Orelsan
- Le Maghreb [re: region of North Africa]
- Comédies musicales : Notre-Dame de Paris (1998), Roméo et Juliette (2001), Les Dix Commandements (2000), Starmania (1976)
- Bénabar
- Rennes [re: capital city of Brittany, where Céline studied]
- Coachella / Glastonbury [re: music festivals]
🙉 Peux-tu entendre cette phrase ?
Ready for a little challenge? Listen out for this sentence taken from the podcast:
“- Je ne joue plus, mais j’ai joué d’un instrument de musique.
Comme j’ai grandi en Bretagne, qu’on écoutait énormément de musique bretonne […]
et donc, j’ai joué de la bombarde, qui est un instrument breton.“
To help you practise your grammar, test yourself with this special Notebook comprising the following Kwiziq lessons related to this sentence:
- Ne … plus = No more/no longer (French Negations)
- Conjugate regular -er verbs (+ avoir) in the compound past in French
- Conjugate regular -ir verbs (+ avoir) in the compound past in French
- Conjugate regular verbs in the imperfect tense in French
- Expressing past habits or repeated actions with the imperfect tense in French
- Some French adverbs end in -ément
- Jouer de = to play an instrument in French
- Qui = Who/which/that (French Relative Pronouns)
🤩 NEW: 1 Special Fill-in-the-Blanks exercise
Want to practise some French grammar while enjoying a music-themed conversation? Then you’re going to love this Fill-in-the-Blanks exercise 😍:
✏️ More practice! More!
Want to practise your French knowledge further? Have a go at these music-themed Kwiziq exercises:
- Fill-in-the-Blanks – La Fête de la Musique (Le Futur Proche) (A1)
- Dictée (Premium subscribers only) – Une Fête de la Musique à Paris (B2)
- Writing Challenge (Premium subscribers only) – The benefits of music (C1)
Not Premium yet? Now’s a great time to upgrade! You’ll get unlimited exercises, kwizzes and multiple notebooks to help you stay organised and make progress faster, plus Weekend Workouts exercises every week.
🤗 À vous de jouer !
Now it’s your turn to speak/write!
What are your favourite Francophone songs and singers? Do you like singing as much as we do? Do you play an instrument? Are you a festival-goer? Do you have any memorable anecdotes of your concert experience?
We can’t wait to read you all in the comments below – et en français bien sûr !
Bonne Fête de la Musique, et à bientôt les Kwizzers !
Author info
Aurélie is our resident French Expert. She has created most of the wonderful content you see on the site and is usually the person answering your tricky help questions. She comes from a small village near Chartres in Central France, country of cereal fields and not much else. She left (in a hurry) to study English at the world-famous Sorbonne in Paris, before leaving France in 2007 to experience the “London lifestyle” - and never looked back! She's worked as a professional French teacher, translator and linguist in the UK since. She loves to share her love of languages and is a self-professed cinema and literature geek!
For over ten years now, Céline has been teaching French and Italian to students of all ages and abilities in the UK. This French native speaker comes from Brittany, and likes crafts, Breton dance (of course!) and Breton music which she actually played for four years. She also has a fondness for European cinema and British History.