>>>>>>>>>For my ears, the french r is pronounced somewhere at the root of the tongue, not the tip (like most european ones are), so it's not so distinct (or rolled, as we call the english r), but I can clearly recognize when it's pronounced.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I see the difference between 'crois' and 'croissant' as 'night' and 'day' :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Seeing it is easy. But do you hear it? :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Tamar is hearing the exact sound I am; so she and I were on the same page. Lutz was the first who correctly brought up the notion of nasal 'r' and not guttural 'r' that all the "experts" were hearing :)
>>>>>
>>>>>Pronouncing r through the nose... now there's a concept. I thought it was called a snort.
>>>>
>>>>No. Snort is when you take something through the nose :)
>>>
>>>Ah yes, what we call "bosnian r"... or "r in reverse"... well, nasal r sounds to me then like snort in reverse. Though to me the french r still sounds like guttural but slight, not too audible. The nasal... well that's probably the nearest vowel. To me, half of french vowels sound nasal.
>>
>>No matter what, french is a beautiful language, I love learning it.
>
>A beautiful French woman speaking Parisian French, mmm mmm ...
>
>OTOH French is too pretty a language for some things. During the end credits for the movie "District 13" some guy starts rapping in French. That just doesn't work, I started howling with laughter. Like a 5 year old niece trying, and failing, to use potty mouth ;)

You got me at "beautiful french woman" :). Rapping in any language does not sound appealing.

About a week ago my wife and I went to see a french movie, one of the movies of the Boston Jewish film festival. The title of the movie is The Art Dealer (L'Antiquaire); very good film. But I was getting lost in the plot several times when trying to understand without reading the subtitles (which is way too early for my level). Now, also, when I watch a french movie, in Netflix, I am so focused on trying to understand the words that often times stop following the plot :). They call it "obsessive-compulsive" :)