French Lessons inParis

Check out Alliance Francaise. I study with them here in the United States, and they have a school, I believe their original school, in Paris. I will be taking a class there in a few months. I really like them here in the US.

John, What is your level? Complete beginner, beginner, intermediate, etc. Were you able to understand everything on L'Atelier9 website?

If you've been to Paris before, and don't mind spending the 1st week of your Paris vacation taking French language classes.....
An alternative is to take the lessons before you go, on your home computer or MPG device, in your car, etc.

This will be my third trip to Paris. I was there for a month last spring and got to know the city fairly well by walking and using the transports. I have visited several of the major museums and enjoy the parks and architecture. My French is pretty rudimentary, though.
I will be there most of a month this time and was planning on having a structured class in mornings and then going out in the afternoon and strike up a conversation with the citizenry. (They've been our ally for years and this is what they get)
I looked at the intensive+ class and only understood part of the sentences, so I call myself a beginner. I'm using the Pimsleur French I lessons on my iPad.

The French gov't actually has a coalition of ministries that acredit language schools at http://www.qualitefle.fr/en It wouldn't surprise me that a lot of other really good schools don't want to go thru the hoops of being certified, but this list would at least be a starting point.

This will be my third trip to Paris. I was there for a month last
spring and got to know the city fairly well by walking and using the
transports. I have visited several of the major museums and enjoy the
parks and architecture. My French is pretty rudimentary, though. I
will be there most of a month this time and was planning on having a
structured class in mornings and then going out in the afternoon and
strike up a conversation with the citizenry.

Since you've been there (actually for quite a lot longer than we have been) you ought to have a good idea of the level and length of interactions you'll have with locals. My experience and what I've read (since I dream of someday being able to converse in French) is that in large cities people are more rushed than in smaller towns. For example we were purchasing a souvenir in a very small town and the lady reached for a bag to place it in I was struggling to remember how to say "I can carry it in my pack" and she saw I was trying to say something; with a slight smile she waited until I could stammer out my approximation of the sentence. In contrast in cities most of the people I came into contact with as a tourist were perfectly fluent in the English we needed and preferred the speed of getting things done. If your trip is already booked then ignore this, but if not you might want to consider starting in a smaller town instead of Paris.

As for learning tools before you go, Pimsleur is good if a bit slow to build up depth. I went thru all 3 levels before a trip to France and found I really couldn't say or understand anything near enough for a conversation, but the stuff I DID learn thru Pimsleur was there without strain. Our joke is that we should wear t-shirts that say "Here are all the french words we know. Use no more than 4 in a sentence, spoken distinctly."

You can work on vocabulary with the free online program Memrise (works great on an iPad). I highly recommend Michel Thomas for getting a handle on how the grammar works, and also Paul Noble which is much the same method (but only if you can find it inexpensively). You can do either of these 2 programs in a few hours.

If your local library has Assimil French it would be worth using. Since your trip is in a few weeks there is no way you can do the program the way they suggest, but it does have 90 recordings of short dialogues completely in french (1 minute or so in length) with the english and french side-by-side in the accompanying book. After the 1st 3-4 dialogues the rest are normal-speed french. Even after completing all 3 Pimsleur courses I could barely understand a word of the Assimil lessons when first hearing one, but by listening to each dialogue a few times while reading the french it goes from blah-blah-blah to words you can actually distinguish. This might be good prep for your trip.

Post when you come back about how it went. I'd really like to hear what you thought!

I read through the L'Atelier 9 website (in French) and the Alliance Francaise (in English)
I asked your level because the classes for complete beginners begin only once a month at both L'Atelier and the Alliance Francaise. Classes at every other level begin every Monday. L'Atelier 9 doesn't use a textbook, uses a communicative approach and emphasizes oral communication. It says the teachers create the lessons. It says the classes are limited to 9 people. The Alliance Francaise is more traditional with a book and CD at each level. They emphasize all skills, not just speaking and listening. When I took classes there forty years ago, the class-size was larger than 9.

Before enrolling (and paying) you might want to ask to observe a class or two at each school to see what fits you best. It's good that you are studying now so you can get your level above complete beginner (debutant), which begins only once a month, before you get there in order to test into the second level (faux debutant) , one for people with a tiny bit of exposure to the language.

There is some kind of law requiring or allowing companies to put 1% of their profit into a fund for employee education, which has created many places like L'Atelier 9 to teach language, to teach business skills, etc. Therefore, you should observe a class to see if it's as good as its website says. Ask some current students too when you visit.

Edit: I ran a search on the site Bill G. posted for you. Only two schools came up accredited for general French for adults: the Alliance Francaise and http://www.french-paris.com/ The dates for complete beginners is every two weeks, but the website makes no mention of required books or pedagogical methods.

John,
Thanks for the explanation, now I understand your plan.
Possibly, you may want to take a look at certain chapters of: Secrets of Paris by Vernon Coleman, you can get it for your Kindle or other e-book at Amazon for $2.99. Certain chapters relate pretty directly to what you're thinking about doing, the afternoon part about "striking up conversations with the Parisian citizenry."

If you want to get a better idea of where I'm going with this, you could send me a Private Message (PM).

Thank you all for the very useful replies. I will indeed post a trip report upon my return. I tried to paste a report in last year, but I guess I used too many characters.

I agree about pimsleur. I love it though it has its limits, and am using it now to learn French. Here are some free resources I have found that seem great so far:

Free Podcast - Coffee break French - included easy painless intro to grammar and is fun. Sometimes listening to pimsleur I wish I knew some of the things that this podcast explains.

Free online videos- Google search for pierre capretz method, he developed an entire public tv series that teacheFrenchs thru immersion. Really fun to watch! The video series is free online through the annenberg foundation, and there are cheap used books on Amazon if you want to do the other exercises.

Free podcast- french for beginners from dailyfrenchpod.com - realistic conversations followed by breakdown of the words and phrases. Not for absolute beginners and I have to listen to each one a few times but my comprehension is improving

Free podcast - news in slow French. alsi not for complete beginners as there is no English in their short podcasts, but They speak slowly enough that you can work on comprehension and vocabulary (pausing to look things up).

I wish I could do what you are planning to do and look forward to your reports!

Here is the link to the Pierre Capretz videos: http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

You have to click on the green VoD icons to get the videos to pop up.