Salut à tous,
This week, I’m giving you a clip from La Flamme, a French series that parodies dating reality shows. You know the kind: one single person has to find the ideal man or woman in a group of candidates. If you’re American, the concept may ring a bell: La Flamme is adapted from the American show Burning Love, produced by Ben Stiller.
If you are on the Substack App and you click on 'Listen', you will get this crappy robotic voice since this is not a podcast.
The scene I picked is the one where the bachelor, Marc, introduces himself. You already know the actor: Jonathan Cohen. We saw him in another Spoken French episode, Bloqués – Les aventures de Serge le Mytho et Steve Jobs.
This time, no lies. Well, one small one, probably a subtle nod to Serge le Mytho. Marc introduces himself, talks about his job (he’s an airline pilot) and, most of all, shares his vision of love. For French learners, this is du pain bénit: a gift. It’s full of expressions and natural verbal tics you can reuse.
🎬 Watch it here:
How to work with this clip
Watch the whole video once, without pausing and without subtitles (the subtitles are bad anyway). Just try to understand the general idea.
Watch it again and try to decode exactly what he says. Use a pen and paper. On a computer, it’s easy: the arrow keys take you back a few seconds, and the space bar pauses the video. On a phone, it’s a bit more galère.
Use the vocabulary and expressions below to help you.
Paid subscribers: I’m sharing the full transcript in the subscriber chat, with notes on all the sounds that disappear when Marc speaks fast. Compare it with your own version.
Vocabulary and expressions
Un cœur à prendre
Literally, “a heart to take.” It describes someone single and available. This is how Marc presents himself to the audience. You’ll hear it in dating shows, in magazines, and from family members who want to know why you’re still single: Ton cousin, il est toujours un cœur à prendre ?