Come Dine in France - It's got cheaper!

Since 1st July, TVA (french equivalent of VAT) rates at restaurants and cafés in France have been reduced from 19.6% to 5.5%. Establishments do not have to lower their prices as a result of the VAT drop but it is expected that more than 80% will.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes that restaurants will drop their prices so that they will increase their business and will then be able to hire more employees and modernise their facilities.
liberation.fr - La TVA baisse, l’addition suit-elle?.

Geek in Le Petit Larousse 2010

"Geek" has made it in the Petit Larousse 2010. Le Petit Larousse is a French language reference book which includes about 150 000 definitions. The first ever Petit Larousse was published in 1905.

The latest edition published last month, Le Petit Larousse 2010 includes 150 new words:

many words coming from the IT world:

geek, adresse IP, réseau social, hameçonnage (phishing) and blacklister

about 50 famous people:

Barack Obama, Audrey Tatou (Amelie), George Clooney amongst many.

and many expressions:

surbooké, véloroute, au taquet, lowcost and more.

liberation.fr - more on the new entries in Le Petit Larousse 2010

Fun French Game

If you ever want to practice your conversational French and at the same time have a good laugh, why not try the "ni oui, ni non" game. The rules are pretty easy.

You play the game in groups of two. One person asks questions to the other one and tries to get him/her to say "oui" or "non". Once he/she has successfully got the other one to say "oui" or "non" then they swap.

Tips:
Instead of saying "oui", you could answer: "c'est cela", "effectivement", "je crois", "c'est possible", etc.
Instead of saying "non", you could answer: "je ne pense pas", "absolument pas", "pas trop", etc.

Amusez-vous bien.