Have you ever spotted any celebrities while out and about? In my 9 years in France, I’ve spotted a grand total of 3. Clearly, I don’t live a showbiz life! And in fact, I’ve never seen any celebrities in Besançon, the city where I’m based. Unless you count local TV news presenters – which I don’t. Despite the picture above, I haven’t seen any celebrities in Paris either.

In this week’s episode, I’ve decided to reveal which 3 celebrities I’ve seen and in which circumstances. Of course, it would be easy just to tell you, but to make things a bit more interesting, you’re going to guess who I’ve seen. See below for some clues.

Before You Listen

Who are the 3 celebs I’ve spotted?

I’ll ask you to do this in the podcast of course, but which 3 celebrities do you think I’ve seen in my 9 years in France?

I can give you a couple of clues

N°1 is a footballer from Ivory Coast spotted in the French city of Lille. Don’t get your hopes up, it’s not the most famous one!

N°2 is a French film director spotted in Beaune, a town in Burgundy famous for wine-making.

N° 3 is an American musician spotted in Dijon, also in Burgundy, best known for its mustard !

Useful Vocabulary

Just a few words you may find difficult:

• The Eurostar – this is the train service that links Paris and Lille to London via the Channel Tunnel (the tunnel under the sea between Calais and Dover).
• A concert venue – a place you go to in order to see live music. It could be a bar or a bigger place where an audience can watch a group or singer perform.
• During the episode you’ll hear me say ‘salut’ (saa-looh) which is French for ‘hi’
• Burgundy – a region in the centre-East of France which is famous for its wine and mustard, which is a yellow-coloured, slightly spicy sauce you can put on sausages, use to make vinaigrette etc.

While Listening

As usual, I’ve picked out some sections for you to transcribe. Listen to them several times and write down what you hear. The answers are underneath. Good luck!

Dictation Answers

Here are the transcribed sections of each dictation. Which words or expressions did you find difficult to catch? Let me know in the comments.

Dictation 1: Well, I told you the towns but you know, maybe you could think of a more specific place.

Dictation 2: And my boyfriend was like, “Hang on a minute, I think this guy is a famous footballer.”

Dictation 3: I’ll put some links under the blog post so you can take a look at these people

Bonus Activity: Confusing Pronouns

Which pronouns refer to my boyfriend? Which ones refer to the celebrity we spotted?

And my boyfriend was like, “Hang on a minute, I think this guy is a famous footballer.” And he was on his phone umm checking Wikipedia to find pictures and it was, it was definitely him. We didn’t talk to him but you know, we saw him waiting for the Eurostar.

Answers

And he was on his phone (my partner)

it was definitely him. We didn’t talk to him but you know, we saw him waiting for the Eurostar. (celebrity n° 2)

The Big Reveal

I reveal the names of the 3 celebrities in the podcast, so make sure you listen. As promised, here are some pictures in case you don’t know who they are!

Salomon Kalou

Footballer Salomon Kalou back when he played for Lille.

Cédric Klapisch

French film director Cédric Klapisch is on the right of this picture.

Cédric Klapisch directed one of my favourite French films ever, L’Auberge Espagnole.

Matt Mondanile

Matt Mondanile playing live at ‘Deep Inside’ in Dijon, in November 2015.

Matt used to be in the band Real Estate, but now concentrates on his own group, Ducktails.

Over To You

Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode. I’d love to hear from you in the comments – have you seen any celebrities before? Did you speak to them? Or were you too shy? Tell us your celebrity spotting stories.

Photo credits:

Blog post image by Pixabay. Available at: https://pixabay.com/en/paris-france-french-eiffel-tower-843229/

Kalou in Lille shirt: By Liondartois – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20716821