Hi Andy,

The french have a long tradition for graphic novels and in the country you'll find huge shops dedicated only to this. A good friend of mine goes there once a year to do a bit of shopping and expand on his library (which is already huge...). So if you're into graphic novels, France is a dream for this. Franco-Belgian comics go under the name bande-dessinee, and there's some really great things out there that never got translated to English. You can google it and you'll find a lot of places that sell on-line, I know amazon has some things as well but if you look at the publisher's sites instead they'll have things that are less main stream and a lot of the time more interesting (depending on what you like of course). As well, it will enhance your language skills to do some site navigation in French

Learning a language using children's books and graphic novels can be a bit tricky, as one of my teachers once said to me the language used in these things can differ quite a lot from how people normally speak as it's sometimes specialized and adjusted to a certain niche. But I find that it's always helped me a fair bit and if nothing else it gives you some inspiration.

Depending on where you live it's also possible to find a French Institute. Here in Europe we have them in a lot of the larger cities, but I don't know about the US. They're really good places to go to meet like-minded people and the actual french man Usually they'll have a cafe, a library with books, magazines and newspapers in French and also they'll arrange cultural events like movie nights etc. I think the most important thing to do when you're trying to learn the language is to put it to practical use as much as you can, which can be difficult if you're not in the country so if you're serious about learning French you should try to find someone who you can practice with. They do love their language, so if you're lucky enough to find a french person he'll probably be more than willing to help you out

Another thing you can do is to try and find a radio station or a TV channel to surround yourself with the language. Again, this is easy to find in Europe, but might not be possible in the US. When I was learning French I'd listen to the radio all the time, wherever I went... it's a bit like when you're learning Maya, you start to dream in French...

For a good movie I liked the original "Nikita", it was remade as "The Assassin" in English and I didn't think that one was any good at all. There's also a book for children called "The Little Prince" or "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I love this book, and the illustrations are really quit! It's one of the classics that they'll give you when you study French, so it should be easy to find. I think it's more of a children's book written for adults because I've tried to read it with kids and they've never been as into it as I have

I hope this will help you a bit on the francophil path.

Bonne chance!
Nilla