Save £150 / $200 on the complete course·offer ends Sunday 21st June
Coffee Break French Coffee Break French
Join now
La Vérité éclate toujours – Complete Course
Advanced French · C1–C2

Read a novel. Learn French. La vérité éclate toujours.

James has been summoned to Paris by his friend Max under mysterious circumstances. Follow the trail across Europe through 40 chapters of intrigue, and reach a new level of French along the way.

Start the story A Coffee Break French course for advanced learners · Lifetime access

A story worth finishing in French

Most advanced learners hit the same wall: the textbooks run out, and real French feels like a leap too far. La Vérité éclate toujours is the bridge. It's a full novel, written for learners at the top end, that pulls you forward chapter by chapter because you want to know what happens next.

Travel with James and the characters he meets along the way as they race against time through European cities, gathering clues and evidence to uncover the truth and help a friend in need.

You'll pick up vocabulary, idioms and natural turns of phrase the way you do in your own language: in context, carried by the plot, without lists to memorise. By the final chapter you'll have read an entire novel in French, and felt your comprehension climb with every part.

See the level for yourself

Here's a passage from the novel, exactly as you'll read it in the course. If this feels within reach, with a little effort, you're ready for the story.

Chapitre 7
La Vérité éclate toujours

James soupira et s’assit sur le lit. Il n’avait rien mangé ni bu quoi que ce soit85 depuis son croissant et son café du matin et il fallait maintenant qu’il aille86 manger un morceau87. Le restaurant de l’hôtel ne le tentait88 guère89 car il ne se sentait pas le courage90 d’affronter91 les regards de tous ces gens attablés92 autour de lui. De plus, il se serait demandé sans cesse si c’était lui qu’ils regardaient, pourquoi ils le faisaient et qui ils étaient vraiment … Il n’en fut rien car James prit la carte du restaurant qui était sur la petite table de chevet, parcourut le menu, fit son choix très rapidement et appela pour commander et se faire monter un petit plat, comme ils les aime, c’est-à-dire avec double ration de frites !

Il sortit son ordinateur, le brancha et alla se changer pour être plus à l’aise et réapparaître en survêt et en sweat, brandissant la clé USB. Il se dit qu’il fallait éplucher à nouveau son contenu, sortit son calepin et attrapa un des stylos de l’hôtel pour pouvoir prendre des notes.

Quelques minutes s’écoulèrent quand tout à coup on frappa à la porte. James pensa que le service était vraiment rapide et, sans se poser de questions et sans un mot pour demander qui était là, ouvrit la porte pour récupérer son dîner qu’on lui montait. En fait, ni employé, ni chariot, ni dîner ne l’attendaient et James fut surpris de se retrouver nez à nez avec une jeune femme. James lui sourit en pensant que cette jeune femme devait avoir vingt ans tout au plus et lui dit : « bonjour ! » en lui suggérant poliment qu’elle se trompait de chambre. La jeune femme lui sourit à son tour et lui dit : « bonjour James ! » …

La Vérité éclate toujours Chapitre 7 · Page 3 / 4

Tap any highlighted phrase to see how it’s explained. Every chapter is annotated like this in full, alongside audio, video and language study.

What's inside the course

The complete story runs to 40 chapters across four parts. Every chapter comes with a full set of support materials, so you're never reading alone:

How the course works

Everything is built around the same simple idea: read a little, understand a lot, and let the story do the heavy lifting.

40 Chapters

A complete novel across four parts, read at your own pace from the first page to the last.

Read & Listen

Annotated texts paired with native-speaker audio, so you take in the language by eye and ear.

Language Study

A dedicated study episode for every chapter, unpacking the grammar and vocabulary as it appears.

Atelier Linguistique

Extra workshops for the finer points, for learners who want to go deeper still.

Yours to Keep

Download the audio, video and notes. Lifetime access means you can revisit the story whenever you like.

At Your Pace

No timetable and no pressure. Read a chapter on a coffee break or binge a whole part in an evening.

Is this course right for you?

This is genuinely advanced material, pitched at C1–C2. It's designed for confident learners who already handle everyday French comfortably and now want to stretch into authentic, native-level storytelling.

As a rough guide, you'll get the most from the course if you've completed Coffee Break French Level 4, or an equivalent advanced course. If you're still building toward that level, the story will be more rewarding once you arrive there.

From the team behind Coffee Break French

The course is created by the Coffee Break French team: language teachers, native speakers and host learners who have helped people reach a higher level of French since 2006.

The same care that goes into our podcasts and courses runs through every chapter here, from the writing of the story to the language study that supports it.

La Vérité éclate toujours

Get the complete course

All four parts, all 40 chapters, and every audio, video and study episode that goes with them.

£499 £349 Pay in GBP
$675 $475 Pay in USD
Save £150 / $200 · offer ends Sunday 21st June
Start the story

Prices are inclusive of tax. You'll choose your currency at checkout. Lifetime access included.

Find out how the story ends

The offer on the complete course closes soon. Once it does, the price returns to full.

Offer closes in:
--Days
--Hours
--Minutes
--Seconds
Start the story Lifetime access. Read at your own pace, for as long as you like.

Questions, answered

What level of French do I need?

This is an advanced course, pitched at C1–C2. We'd recommend it for learners who've completed Coffee Break French Level 4 or an equivalent advanced course. If you can follow a conversation between native speakers and read longer texts with a bit of effort, you're ready for the story.

How is the course structured?

The complete story spans 40 chapters across four parts. Each chapter comes with an audio lesson and annotated text, a language study episode, a video lesson and an Atelier Linguistique episode. You get all of it at once and work through it at your own pace.

Do I get everything straight away?

Yes. Unlike our time-limited Masterclasses, the complete course is available in full as soon as you join. There's no drip-feed and no schedule to keep up with.

Can I download the materials?

You can. The audio (mp3), video (mp4) and notes (pdf) are all downloadable, so you can read and listen offline wherever you are. You keep lifetime access to everything.

Do I need to read the parts in order?

We'd recommend it. La Vérité éclate toujours is one continuous story across four parts, so reading from the first chapter to the last is the way to enjoy the mystery as it unfolds.

What happens after I buy?

You'll get a confirmation email with a link to log in to the Coffee Break Academy, where all the materials are waiting for you. From there you can start reading straight away.