Nothing beats a complete immersion when learning a new language. Montreal is only a 6 hours ride from where you live. It could give you a head start before going to France ;)

>I agree but last year I listened to Pimlseur Hebrew tapes and when I was in Israel later that year I was able to say things like "where is..", "thank you..", "I don't like to eat, drink..." etc.. The problem was that most israelis speak very good English so they would not let me show off all of my skills <g>. I have heard that french people are much less anglicized (is there such a word? <g>) so maybe when I go to France, I will need all the French I can learn.