PM,
I've been to Paris a few times. I tried my high school French on them, but they got snooty about my accent, so I mainly stuck with English.
The irony of that is my HS French teacher was a Frenchman, and much of his classes focused on reading and pronunciation.
 I learned from "Pimslers" how to say things, but I didn't have time to digest it. So I used mixes of Spanish/German. I am learning Japanese the same way, while working I listen to the language.

When were you last there, and did you get to the left bank? The book stores and stalls is a paradise for those who can read more than language. Not me. I can work out titles and Menus, and thinks like that. Well now I might be able to really learn it since I was there once. The langauge never sticks with me, unless I go there or speak it in a group with people. I learned conversational Italian in Italy in the 70's. Paris was in '04, the Bush Second term, we were there for the election itself. We had voted earlier that month by absentee ballot.

It's all very well to run around saying regulation is bad, get the government off our backs, etc. Of course our lives are regulated. When you come to a stop sign, you stop; if you want to go fishing, you get a license; if you want to shoot ducks, you can shoot only three ducks. The alternative is dead bodies at the intersection, no fish, and no ducks. OK?
Molly Ivins -1944 - 2007

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Sine Labore meo U.C. esset Chaos