L'Amour Moderne: My French Shorts, #1

By S J Power

This is a satirical short story that features French text. It's the first book in the My French Shorts series.

 

What this story is about

 

In today's modern world, is there a place for science when searching for a soulmate? Katie is about to find out. After receiving a match through a dating app, she sets off to meet her designated biological life partner. But she quickly discovers that biology might not be the most reliable tool when it comes to finding love. It's more to do with chemistry.  

 

About the My French Shorts series

 

Satirical and featuring topical issues, the stories employ both English and French text. But these are not your typical bilingual books. The narration is in English and the dialogue is in French. Topic areas match those in Edexcel AS and A-level specification using up-to-date, useful French vocabulary in the dialogue. It's language learning, but not as we know it.  

 

All the books in the series are standalone stories and do not need to be read in sequence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clever Parrot Publishers
• Release date: Sep 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223830283

Book preview

Le Rendez-vous

When you arrived to study in Paris you didn’t give much thought to finding love. Love would find you. After all, Paris is the ‘city of love’, n’est-ce pas? Six months later, you are loitering outside a suburban metro station, your romantic fate resting in the hands of a mathematical matching algorithm. Twenty-first century technology has found your ideal partner. All that is left is for you to do is meet them.

Your forthright Montrealer roomie, Sylvie, is with you. She reassures you that she won’t be far away should you feel the need to extricate yourself from your date.

‘Ecoute, Katie,’ says Sylvie through a stifled yawn. ‘Ne t’inquiete pas.’

Don’t worry! That’s easy for her to say. She’s not the one about to go off and have lunch with a complete stranger.

She can see you’re still nervous. ‘Quel est le problème ?’ she presses.

The problem, you explain, is that you don’t know this guy.

‘Quoi!’ splutters Sylvie in disbelief. She grabs your phone, which is held out in front of you in the palm of your hand, and scrutinises your date’s details displayed on your dating app. ‘Il s’appelle Eric,’ she says grandiosely, then trots off his profile: il est étudiant; il a 20 ans; il habite près de Strasbourg...’ The list goes on and on. You know everything about Eric down to his shoe size.

Sylvie wants to know why you are even using a dating app. She says you don’t need help finding a guy. But this wasn’t about finding any guy, you tell her. It’s about finding the