The idea for Flyover French came like a bolt from the blue last July when my long-suffering partner and I sallied forth on an all too fleeting weekend break to Paris. Beneath the sun-drenched canopy of a bustling café in St-Germain-des-Prés, I watched on in equal measures of awe and envy as my better half - a French and Spanish schoolteacher, of course - indulged our archetypal waiter enough to ensure our espressos were the way Mr. Espresso himself would have intended; I, on the other hand, was cast in more of a supporting role.

Not content to let my school-taught French kick the proverbial bucket, I was lucky enough to embark on a graduate degree at one of France's Grandes Écoles in September '06. So, guidebook in one hand, textbook coffee in the other - my French at a level somewhere between layman and competent - the "idea" unfolded before our sightseeing eyes.

After carrying out the necessary due diligence on our return, we saw a wide enough niche for a fresh and free; contextually-focused; user-friendly French language website. Its natural position would be somewhere between a refresher and all-encompassing French 101 course that would allow one to quite literally fly over French - eureka!

Taking the project from blueprint, around cul de sacs and under flyovers to the site you see before you was a trying process. In spite of everything, Flyover French is live and we're looking forward to the task at hand. Plans aplenty afoot but, à la fin du jour, we've learned much, there's much to learn and we hope our little site can help you learn a little français, too - après tous, c'est vraiment une belle langue.

Cordialement à vous,

Team Flyover French