Larousse French<>English Android Dictionary App - Fantastic!

For years, I have used and loved the Franklin-Larousse electronic French<>English & French<>French dictionaries. The electronic dictionary was superb, but I had hoped that someday, I would have a version on my phone so that I would have one less thing to carry around in my pocket on my visits to France. Now I have it on my Android phone and I love it.

It has 250,000 words and phrases and 400,000 translations. It also has a verb conjugator and pronunciations, and it only costs $6.99 (far cheaper than the $50 - $100 I’ve paid for the separate electronic versions).  This version does not have the French<>French dictionary.

For French dictionaries, pronunciations are very important because French, like English, uses an ambiguous writing system. (The pronunciations are only available when there is Internet access.)

One of the great things about this dictionary is that it has lots of contextual examples.

Some might thing that 250,000 words is an absurd number. However, I’ve found that dictionaries that only have 10,000-20,000 words are inadequate because you often cannot find the words you need once you get beyond the most basic level.

You have to be careful when buying this app because there is another Larousse French<>English dictionary app which sells for the same price, but has 80,000 words.

Alésia Vietnamese-French Restaurant, St. Petersburg - Loved It

Yesterday, friends we were visiting in St. Pete Beach, FL suggested that we do lunch at Alésia Restaurant (http://alesiarestaurant.com/index.html), which specializes in fresh Vietnamese-French cuisine. The food was wonderful in every respect. The flavors of the dishes are influenced by the French, Vietnamese, and Chinese backgrounds of the three founding partners.

My wife started with an appetizer of summer rolls - fresh rolls in rice paper with shrimp, rice vermicelli, mint & pork, served with a hoisin peanut sauce for $3.50. (Chicken can be selected instead of pork.)

I started with a small tomato bisque soup with three toasted baguette slices for $3.

My wife and I each had a different version of bánh mì, a Vietnamese sandwich. My wife had the non-traditional version and I had the traditional version. Both versions are available in spicy and non-spicy variants. The spicy variant incorporates sriracha sauce. I ordered the sauce on the side and found it was not too hot for my taste. I like moderately hot spices.

Non-traditional - grilled pork with pickled carrot, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeño, on artisan bread for $8.5

Traditional - the grilled pork is replaced with pâté, salami, sopressata, jambon de Paris (Parisian ham) for $7.

The taste of the contents of the sandwich was enhanced by the excellent artisanal bread.

For dessert, my wife had chocolate mousse for $3.

I had bread pudding topped with sliced almonds & confectioners sugar, served with french vanilla bean ice cream for $4.80.

The four of us shared a 2010 Sonoma County Banshee Pinot Noir for $29.

The total bill for the four of us was $86.89 - very reasonable for a terrific lunch.

The service was excellent.

The lunch menu can be seen at: http://alesiarestaurant.com/pdfsmenu/Alesia_LunchMenu.pdf
The dinner menu is available at: http://alesiarestaurant.com/pdfsmenu/Alesia_LunchMenu.pdf

Brunch is served on Saturdays.

The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor dining.

The restaurant does not take reservations.

While the atmosphere was very nice, it was a bit loud. Parking is limited, but there appeared to be ample parking a block away on 1^st Ave S.