Bibloburglar - this sounds great! Where do you find Table d'hote to reserve them?

I guess you need to speak a little french to get past any language barrier, I use things like
https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/table-...loire_d49.html

this is a french website for B&Bs (french style) with table d'hotes included. They tend towards very rural but not cold-comfort-farm ;-)
Then you want to search through these and cut out any that have the Union Flag (the british one) in the bottom right of the first fold of the page. So this one might do https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/chambr...oire_39046.htm

Alternatively you should choose one with at least 2 bedrooms. Then, hopefully, the other guest will be mono-lingual-french.

It is literally "pot luck" in more than one way. Of course it helps if all the comments from guests are in French. In your booking remember to ask for table d'hotes

This is such good info - what a great way to practice French! Merci beaucoup, Bilbo!

ce n'est rien

<<It is literally "pot luck" in more than one way. Of course it helps if all the comments from guests are in French. In your booking remember to ask for table d'hotes>>

We stayed at a 5 bedroom table d'hote in Paimpol a few years ago and were very surprised that not only out hosts but none of our fellow guests spoke english. It was quite hard work to keep up but fun.

Like, Fleur_de_Lis, my girls and I attended the Coeur de France in Sancerre, and I agree with her about both its positives and negatives. Our time there was lovely--we loved our instructor, the school owners, and all the people in the town who helped out--but we three rather undermined ourselves by not speaking French to each other 24/7. Still, we certainly improved.

YouTube etc was not around before we left. Instead, we relied on Pimsleur tapes/CD at home and during carpools for months and watched oodles of French films. And that Pimsleur method does work. One's mind can get in the way of speaking, and the constant repetition of grammatical patterns removes hesitation. As a matter of fact, unlike some others here, my French actually comes easier when I'm under total stress, such as when I've lost a purse...or a kid.*

*I'll share that story someday before I die.
Good luck,
AZ

Ann we stayed at a Table d'Hotes up near Calais run by Brits. They were the only people who spoke English and they could speak no French.

What to say

<<Ann we stayed at a Table d'Hotes up near Calais run by Brits. They were the only people who spoke English and they could speak no French.

What to say>>

Mon dieu! bizarre. i wonder how they dealt with the inevitable bureaucracy and red tape of running a business with out even a smidgeon of French?