I'd like to learn French on my ipod whilst I'm commuting to make good use of 'dead time'. Now I'm not going to be sitting on the train muttering to myself in French as I ride to work, I have a 40 minute ride across a moor on a cycle path before I get into city traffic and it's always just me riding it in winter so no one there to think I'm a wierdo. So I want to use this time to learn French.

To cut a long story short can anyone recommend basic French podcasts please? Free would be good but not essential. Cheers.

Doesn't have to be a podcast, surely? Could put any CD on your iPod – I have Dutch and Greek on mine (but still can't speak either of them! I guess I should listen to them and not hope for learning by osmosis…)

You're right it doesn't have to be a podcast but a search on google threw up some free podcasts and I was looking for a recomendation, of corse cd would be fine too.

Try Radio Lingua coffee break ones, I'm doing Spanish atm, very easy to take in.

Michel Thomas CD set – brilliant.

You can probably find it ripped to mp3 online somewhere….

I second the Michel thomas CD's

have used michel thomas for french, spanish and now portuguese. highly recommended

Personally I'd leave the likes of Michael Thomas etc for when you can "actively" listen to them as they're relatively interactive so not ideal for when you're doing something you even vaguely need to concentrate on.

What I would do instead is do the Michael Thomas at home but use things like kids story audiobooks (3-5 yrs etc) for commuting. That way you're working on your listening skills, basic vocab etc but it doesn't matter if you miss a bit when in traffic.