Most courses start with je m'appelle. Nobody here has ever begun a conversation that way.

They start with the hour. What you say at six in the morning to the one other person awake is not what you say at seven in the evening with four people talking over each other — and no textbook has ever explained the difference, because textbooks aren't organised by time of day. Life is.

So this page is a day in Paris — the France you pictured before you ever came. I teach from the South of France, which is the same language at a slightly slower pace. Seven moments, seven things you'd actually say. Scroll through it and you'll have heard a whole day of French in context — which is roughly how the first lesson goes too.

Credited against your first package · Complete beginners very welcome

Watch me say hello, just over two minutes

Your first words happen standing at a counter

Complete beginners start with the twenty or so sentences a day in France actually requires — ordering, counting change, being asked a question you did not expect. Thirty minutes twice a week, from A1, with no French at all required to begin. There is nothing to catch up on first.

Not in a grammar table. Ordering, counting change, being teased about your accent, and carrying on anyway — which is the actual skill, and no app teaches it because no app can make you slightly uncomfortable in a queue.

Complete beginners are my favourite students. Thirty minutes, twice a week — an hour of a brand-new language is more than any head can hold. By the fourth lesson you order without rehearsing it first, and that's the moment people decide they can do this.

Then you learn to argue about tomatoes

Past the first sentences, the useful French is the French of ordinary disagreement — preferring one thing to another and saying why. That is where vocabulary stops being a list and starts being opinions, and it is the point at which most people begin to enjoy it.

Food is half of French culture and most of its adjectives. What's good this week, what isn't, and why the man at the next stall is wrong about all of it. Nobody is being polite here and that is exactly why it's the best classroom in the city.

The afternoon is for the real work

There are two courses, split by level rather than by price. Débutant is A1 to A2, thirty minutes twice a week. Intermédiaire is B1 to B2, a full hour, because the plateau is speed and register rather than vocabulary. The hourly rate is identical either way — the format is a teaching decision, not a pricing one.

Almost everyone who writes to me is somewhere between the first word and comfortable — A1 to B2. So there are two courses. Not two price tiers: the same hour, pointed at two completely different problems.

A1 to B2 is not my own scale. It is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, published by the Council of Europe, which defines six levels from A1 to C2 and is what every language certificate in Europe is measured against — the DELF included. A1 is being able to handle simple, concrete exchanges; B2 is following an argument at normal speed and holding your side of it. Above B2, someone else will serve you better than I will.

For scale: the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie counted 396 million French speakers in its March 2026 report, which makes French the fourth most spoken language in the world after English, Mandarin and Spanish — and nearly two thirds of those speakers are in Africa rather than in Europe. The French on this page is the one spoken in France, because that is the one I have; it is understood everywhere on that list.

Both start with as much English as you need, and less of it every month. Whatever you are aiming at sits on top of them:

Bonjour — I'm Mickael

I am a French teacher from Cannes, in the South of France, with ten years of private lessons behind me, and I teach in French and in English. Twenty-eight students have written a review, averaging 4.8 out of 5. Lessons are one to one and online, anywhere in the world, A1 to B2.

I teach from the South of France, and I've taught French privately for over ten years, to dozens of students of every nationality. Twenty-eight of my students have written a review, averaging 4.8 out of 5, and you can read every one of them.

I don't teach the French of textbooks. I teach the French you'd hear on this terrace on a Friday — fast, full of swallowed syllables, and much friendlier than it looks written down. The gap between those two languages is the entire reason people plateau, and closing it is most of what I do.

The most important thing to know before you start: the gap between textbook French and spoken French is not vocabulary — it is speed and register. You can know a word perfectly and still miss it at conversational pace, or use it correctly in the wrong room. Both are fixable, and neither is fixed by learning more words.

Watch me say hello, just over two minutes2:17

Tomorrow starts with one lesson

An hour costs €60, VAT included, with no platform taking a third of it. A first lesson is thirty minutes for €20, credited against a package if you carry on. Five hours is €270 and ten is €510. Nothing renews and there is no account to create.

Thirty minutes, at a time that suits you, wherever in the world you are. If it clicks — and you'll know inside ten minutes — you'll get a code by email afterwards, with a thank you, for your first package.

One rate for both courses and every subject. Pick the length that suits the level — thirty minutes is the beginner's format, sixty is where the intermediate work happens.

Prices are final — VAT included, nothing added at checkout, no platform commission.

How it works

1. 1
   Pick your hourChoose a slot from my calendar, shown in your own time zone. I teach from France every day, 7am to 9pm French time
2. 2
   Pay for that half hour€20 by card, once. Nothing renews, and there is no account to create.
3. 3
   We meet — and you keep the codeA Google Meet link arrives by email — nothing to install, it opens in your browser — and a shared Google Doc that stays yours. Afterwards, a thank you and a single-use code for your first package, good for a week.

Before you book