Contos has 11 French family series for learners, A1 to B2. The beginner ones are comedies: twins in Montmartre, a market feud in Strasbourg, a surprise eightieth birthday in Burgundy. By B2 they turn to inheritances and buried secrets, from a château left to a stranger to a grandmother with a forger's past. Chapters 1 and 2 are free.
- Family series
- 11
- By level
- A1 3 · A2 2 · B1 1 · B2 5
- Chapters
- 66, of which 22 are free
- Chapter length
- 143–489 words (average 303)
- Themes
- Siblings, grandparents, wills, family businesses
- French
- France French
- A1La Bataille du Marché de StrasbourgThe Battle of Strasbourg Market · Family, ComedyC'est samedi matin au marché. Helmut Kessler arrange les produits sur son stand. Il place le jambon, la fleischnacka, le pâté. Sa fille Sophie arrive avec le café.…
- A1Les Jumelles de MontmartreThe Montmartre Twins · Comedy, FamilyCamille habite rue Lepic. Elle est libraire. Elle est calme. Elle regarde les livres toute la journée. Son fiancé Philippe est notaire. Il parle toujours du…
- A1Les Secrets de Mamie OdetteGrandma Odette's Secrets · Family, MysteryIl est huit heures à Meursault. Camille arrive de Lyon avec son ordinateur et un grand sourire. Dans la boulangerie, son père Bertrand coupe des gougères. Il a de…
- A2Les Lettres du MoulinThe Miller's Letters · Romance, FamilySophie arrive à la boulangerie avec deux cafés à emporter. Elle n'a pas dormi. Hier, elle a hérité de ce petit paradis du onzième arrondissement, et maintenant elle…
- A2La Chorale du LavoirThe Choir of the Old Wash-House · Comedy, FamilyCe samedi matin, Camille entre dans la salle du lavoir avec deux croissants et un grand sourire. Elle aime cet endroit. Les murs en pierre sont vieux, mais les voix…
- B1Les Deux MoitiésThe Two Halves · Comedy, FamilyMarc poussa la porte de la cuisine, et l'odeur le frappa comme un souvenir qu'il aurait voulu oublier. Quarante ans de sauce béarnaise, de cassoulet mijoté, de pain…
- B2Le Secret de MontclairThe Montclair Secret · Family, MysteryLe bureau du notaire Devereaux sentait le cuir ancien et l'encaustique. Philippe Arnaud était assis au bord de sa chaise, le dos parfaitement droit, comme s'il…
- B2Le Secret de Grand-mère ColetteColette's Secret · Crime, FamilyL'appartement de Colette sentait le café froid et la térébenthine, une odeur que sa petite-fille Émilie n'avait pas oubliée malgré ses années à Paris. Le chat Monet…
- B2Le Retour de Marc DelormeThe Return of Marc Delorme · Sci-Fi, FamilyLa librairie de Véronique occupait le rez-de-chaussée de l'immeuble, et l'appartement de Marc était juste au-dessus, trois pièces exiguës qui sentaient la poussière…
- B2Les Secrets de Grand-mère LucetteGrandmother Lucette's Secrets · Mystery, FamilySophie avait toujours dit que le silence était une forme de respect. C'est pourquoi, en ce samedi matin gris de novembre, elle soulevait chaque morceau de tissu…
- B2Pain et ChocolatBread and Chocolate · Romance, FamilyÀ quatre heures du matin, la rue des Tanneurs dormait encore, mais la Boulangerie Delorme, elle, ronflait déjà comme un vieux moteur. Camille enfournait ses…
What French does a family story teach?
How families talk, which is not quite how textbooks do. Parents are Papa and Maman and grandparents Mamie and Papy, used as names, without an article. And there is a great deal of tu, including the short commands people only give to those they know well. In Les Secrets de Mamie Odette, Camille arrives at her father's bakery in Meursault to plan her grandmother's surprise party:
Papa, c'est l'opération Lavande. Le gâteau est pour samedi. Ne dis rien à Mamie.
Dad, it's Operation Lavender. The cake is for Saturday. Don't say anything to Grandma.
Les Secrets de Mamie Odette (A1), chapter 1. Ne dis rien is a negative tu command: ne and rien wrap round the verb. He promises twice, then hides the order form in a sack of flour.
The family words themselves turn up across the levels. All of these are in the free chapters:
- la grand-mère, Mamiegrandmother, Grandma
- la petite-fille, le petit-filsgranddaughter, grandson
- le neveu, la niècenephew, niece
- le cousincousin
- les jumellestwin sisters
- hériterto inherit
Mind the hyphen: petite-fille is a granddaughter, while petite fille without one is just a little girl.
How family stories change from A1 to B2
At A1 the families are loud and loving and hopeless at secrets: a father who can't stop saying "I'm not saying anything!", a twelve-year-old who writes everything down in his detective notebook, two cakes and the wrong one delivered. At B1 the arguments get sharper. A brother and sister meet again in their late mother's Lyon kitchen, and she sums up the inheritance in one bitter sentence: nothing but debts, et ce carnet de recettes qui est coupé en deux comme tout le reste dans cette famille, and a recipe book cut in two like everything else in this family.
By B2 the families are in the notary's office. In Le Secret de Montclair, three relatives sit through the reading of a will, and then the notary reaches the clause that changes everything:
À ma chère Simone Mercier, je lègue l'intégralité de la propriété de Montclair, en Bourgogne, ainsi que tous les revenus générés par ses terres
To my dear Simone Mercier, I leave the whole of the Montclair estate, in Burgundy, together with all the income from its land
Le Secret de Montclair (B2), chapter 1. The language of a will: léguer (to bequeath), l'intégralité (the whole), ainsi que (as well as). Philippe has never heard of her.
Which French family story should I start with?
- A1: Les Secrets de Mamie Odette, the surprise party; Les Jumelles de Montmartre, twins who swap lives; or La Bataille du Marché de Strasbourg, two charcuterie families at war across the market.
- A2: La Chorale du Lavoir, a village choir in Burgundy, or Les Lettres du Moulin, in which Sophie inherits her grandmother's bakery and the letters hidden in it.
- B1: Les Deux Moitiés, the siblings and the split recipe book.
- B2: Le Secret de Montclair, the will; Le Secret de Grand-mère Colette, a grandmother whose old painting turns up at auction; Les Secrets de Grand-mère Lucette, a sewing box full of fabric scraps; Le Retour de Marc Delorme, an engineer home from a lunar programme with a story that doesn't hold up; or Pain et Chocolat, two rival shop families on one Lyon street.
Family series run through every level but cluster at B2. For a gentler start, see the A1 French stories, or the funny French stories, many of them family comedies.
Frequently asked questions
Are the French family stories sad?
Mostly warm, sometimes bittersweet. Several start after a mother or grandmother has died and left something behind, such as a bistro, a bakery or a sewing box, and the story is what the family finds out. The A1 ones are comedies.
Which French family story is easiest?
The A1 ones: Les Secrets de Mamie Odette, Les Jumelles de Montmartre and La Bataille du Marché de Strasbourg. Their free chapters run 143–228 words.
Why do characters say Mamie and not la grand-mère?
Because that is what French families call their grandparents. Mamie and Papy (or Papi) are used like names, with no article, the way English uses Grandma and Grandpa. La grand-mère is how you talk about someone's grandmother.
How many family chapters are free?
Chapters 1 and 2 of every series here, 22 chapters in all. The rest are part of Contos Premium.