Recommendations for learning French

Personal preference is the Pimsleur Language program, which you can check out at your local library. Seems less like schoolwork and more like fun to us. We listen to the discs while exercising, walking, driving, etc.
We particularly like the ability to play back the lessons at our leisure to review and reinforce our learning, although the lessons themselves do that pretty well. It's all on disc (listen and repeat), so we supplement the aural lessons with some sort of written text (even a dictionary will do it) do be able to see the words we're hearing and further cement what we've learned.
We've thought the programs to be very handy for learning basic phrases and correct pronunciation of different languages before we travel to a destination...even used it to learn some basic Polish and Irish, which managed to startle some of our hosts in those places when we were able to respond with even a few carefully rehearsed phrases.
The German lessons, in particular, helped me resurrect high school and college language skills that I thought had been lost 50 years ago.
Worth trying at any rate.

jill, not sure what would work for the whole family. I don't have time or money for expensive programs like Rosetta, but have used the CD sets from Living Language series (about $45 I think) and just following the lessons while commuting to and from work everyday for a few months. They gave me enough exposure to hearing the words and common expressions to get the basics.

In past I have taken community education classes in various languages, but they seem to be hit or miss for being helpful. You need to do a lot of homework to get somewhere with that..

Check your local library. They often have many different resources you can use to learn a language - from downloadable programs you can access with your library card to books and CDs you can copy into your iTunes library. If you don't like it, then not a big deal as you haven't paid any money for it. The librarians can also help you find something that is better suited for a 9 year old.

I like pimsler. Where in France are you going?

Another vote for Pimsleur. I've been using it for Italian and it works for me better than other methods I've tried. You might also look for night school classes in your area, as there's also value in having an instructor to guide with pronunciation and grammar (in addition to the Pimsleur lessons).

We are going to Paris, Provence and Dordogne over the course of 28 days. Thanks for the feedback! I hadn't thoguht about the library, good idea!

With an account at your local library you can access the library website and find a link to "audiobooks". Working thru the various prompts you'll eventually find your way to a site called "Oneclickdigital" . For example, here's the one I use: http://fortvancouverwa.oneclickdigital.com/

From there you can download the Pimsleur language courses, at no charge, directly onto your Ipod or Smartphone - thus avoiding having to mess with the discs themselves.
Might need for the local librarian to walk you thru the process the first time, but once logged in it really is a terrific resource.

I love the pimslseur discs in my car. Have used them for years for four different languages. My 12 year old had a lot of fun with them in the car as well.

Am taking my 5th trip to Paris in December so just checked out the discs again from the library for a good review

Another vote for Pimsleur. I've used them successfully for three trips to France. For basics, their eight lesson intro should be enough, though I've gone through parts I, II, and III, which is 90 lessons, and was told a couple of times that my French was very good.. You will learn things in the first few lessons that you can use as soon as you step off the plane.

I used the duolingo app on my laptop and iphone for a few weeks prior to our trip. I thought it was fun and very helpful. It's also free.