French for Cruisers

By Kathy Parsons

Aventuras Publishing Company, Hallettsville, Texas 77964

www.forcruisers.com

ISBN 0-9675905-1-5

$29.95

The success of her “Spanish for Cruisers” has prompted Kathy Parsons to produce an even more comprehensive French phrase book for cruising sailors. This is particularly helpful for sailors cruising the Caribbean where French is widely spoken from Haiti in the west to Martinique in the east, but just as useful for anyone heading for the South Pacific, to French Polynesia and beyond. An obvious improvement, compared to the Spanish version, is having the table of contents in both English and French. Generally, the introductory chapters are more wide-ranging and cover various day-to-day situations even better than the Spanish edition. Being obviously aware of the importance of eating among people whose French is their first language, and who knows what is really important in life, the author has given wide coverage to meats, fish, cheese, herbs, as well as restaurants. The core of the book, however, deals with the boat itself and lists everything that could possibly go wrong, and how to explain it in passable French. Although the pronunciation of every expression is spelt out phonetically, the author very thoughtfully has also included pictures of the various parts, so the user can simply point to the offending part rather than try to make a bemused mechanic understand that “mon ahr-bruh deh-leess eh tohr-dew”, which I doubt that even the most patient angel could possibly work out that it was meant to convey “that my propeller shaft is bent” (mon arbre d’hélice est tordu). Personne ne doit partir en voyage sans ce livre!… (No one should leave on a voyage without this book).

See also Spanish For Cruisers Book Review [BROKEN LINK]

Posted December 2007