How to Learn French for Travel Before Your Trip to Paris

The #1 piece of advice for anyone traveling to Paris, or anywhere else in France, is to learn some basic French before you go.  When you learn French for travel you expand your own opportunities to become immersed in French culture. More importantly, though, you show respect for French people and their language.

Today, it’s easier than ever to learn French for travel. Thanks to user-friendly technology, you can practice listening, speaking, reading and writing in French from the comfort of your home. You can target your practice to the French you’ll actually use when you’re traveling, so that you can apply your new knowledge from the moment your plane lands at l’aéroport.  Below, I talk about five ways that I studied French for travelers in preparation for my recent trip to Paris.

1. Duolingo – The Easiest Way to Learn French for Travel

I’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with Duolingo for many years.  However, to prepare for my most recent trip to Paris, I decided to re-activate the app and commit to using it at least once a day.  To make this easier on myself I purchased Duolingo Plus, which offers an ad-free experience and unlimited daily mistakes (not that I make a lot of mistakes!) so that I can make the most of the time I spend reviewing French for travel.  You absolutely don’t have to pay for Duolingo, but I think it’s worth upgrading to Plus for a month or two before your trip to Paris.

Your main Duolingo homepage is shown on the left – it’s a stream of lessons with different themes, and through these lessons you learn both grammar and vocabulary in an intuitive way.  The lessons build on one another, so the things you learn in the earlier lesson will re-appear in later lessons, in more challenging contexts.  As you complete lessons you earn “XPs”, or experience points, and there’s a leaderboard showing your progress compared to other students.  As you can see, I’m a pretty dedicated French language student!

There are several different types of activities that you will complete within any one lesson.  For example, this morning I had to listen to someone speaking and then re-write their conversation, translate a sentence to English and then finish a conversation.  There are also stories that you can read along with, and occasional special events (yesterday I got an invitation to a vocabulary matching tournament where I had ninety seconds to match ninety pairs of words!).

As a bonus, lots of the activities are about traveling to Paris and sharing French culture, so in addition to learning the language you get in a little bonus trip-planning.

2. Watch French Videos on YouTube

I have a confession: I am the weird person at the gym who not only watches language-learning videos on the treadmill, but they also move their mouth along with the audio track so I look like I’m either talking to myself or singing along with a (very slow) song.

To improve my French before I traveled to France, I put French audio lessons on my TV in the background as I went about my daily chores, like cooking, cleaning and writing blog posts! My favorite audio lessons were from FrenchPod101 – they have more than one million subscribers on their YouTube channel and their videos are great for French language learning.

There are tons of videos to choose from, including beginner, intermediate and advanced lessons.  They even have “learn French while you sleep” videos (I’m not sure if they work or not – let me know if you try them!).  There are other YouTube channels that teach French, but FrenchPod101 was the one kept going back to when I prepared for my trip to Paris.

3. Use a French Language Learning Computer Program

The gold standard of computer programs for learning French is still The Rosetta Stone.  I’ve used this program several times in the past, but mainly for studying Italian and Spanish.  The great thing is that the updated package includes access to all 24 languages in their library, and lifetime support as the program adapts and changes.  It’s a great value if you anticipate going to France in the near future, and may wish to study another language a few years down the line.

That being said, you may not have to pay for the Rosetta Stone.  Many public libraries include access to the online program in their membership.  You should ask your public library if they offer Rosetta Stone access to cardholders (and if they don’t, would they consider introducing it?).

My public library also has a free language learning program called Pronunciator (screenshots shown above).  It has short daily lessons, as well as structured courses for various language levels.  As you could expect from its name, the main focus here is on listening and speaking, so there’s lots of audio and video content.  You test your knowledge through activities like fill-in-the-blank, reading comprehension questions, matching exercises and speaking practice.

4. Learn French for Travel Through Books

The days of traveling with a phrase book are over (we have Google Translate now!).  However, a great French language learning book can really help you prepare for your trip to France.

One of the most popular books for new French speakers is called Easy French, Step-by-Step, written by Myrna Bell Rochester.  I went to check out this book at my local bookstore and I can see why it’s so popular – it is a clear, concise overview of basic French grammar, taught using the kind of high-frequency vocabulary that you’d be likely to use during your travels.  Spending twenty minutes a day working through this book would be great way to prepare for your trip to Paris.

Personally, I was able to recall enough high school French that I was ready for a more intermediate French book.  So, I opted for Barron’s French Grammar.  It has easy-to-understand explanations of common grammatical structures, anticipates common mistakes and has lots of practice questions.

5. Find a French Language Exchange Group or Partner

There’s a huge difference between studying French for travel at home, using books, videos and technology, and actually getting out there and putting your French language skills to use. While you could sign up for a formal French class, that’s not necessarily what I would do before a trip to France.  Instead, I recommend looking for a French language exchange group or a language exchange partner.  For full disclosure I didn’t use this strategy for my recent trip to France, but I did use it before my first trip to Mexico.

There are lots of places to find language exchange groups. You can look on sites like Meetup, Couchsurfing or Facebook (mostly in the Groups section). These informal communities meet weekly or monthly to engage in friendly conversation in the target language. Often, events are held at restaurants and bars, but sometimes they rent space in a community center, library or school. Language exchanges aren’t intended to be lessons, so don’t expect the people there to teach you!  Instead, expect to meet other people interested in French, ranging from beginners to native speakers, who just want to chat.

If you’re not interested in meeting as a large group, you might be able to find a language exchange partner.  The most common place to find a language exchange partner is on campus at your nearest university or college.  Look on the bulletin boards around the international student center or the French department.  There, you may see signs from visiting students from La Francophonie (the word to describe all the French-speaking countries) who would like to meet English speakers and exchange languages.  Often, this looks like chatting for half the time in English and then switching to French (or vice versa).

If you’re traveling to Paris, make sure to check out my roundup of the best Paris guidebooks.  I read twenty-five Paris travel guides and narrowed my recommendations down to the very best. 

What won’t these guidebooks tell you?  My 18 French etiquette tips that will help you fit right in to any French situation.

Before you travel home from France, stop by a French pharmacy and pick up some of my favorite French pharmacy products, from perfumes and body-wash to anti-aging skincare.