learning better French

Recently, I bought Michel Thomas' French Language Builder, (UK, US) which is a novel way of enchancing your French. It is an Audio CD book and takes a slightly different approach to normal rote learning. He starts to explain quite complex sentences from the start of the CD. Explaining the constructs used in the real spoken French, rather than starting with small simple sentences. It enables you to quickly speak and understand real French
When combined with an iPod or similar it is a very immersive way to learn French, even if you do end up on the train mumbling away to yourself. They are an enjoyable and effective way of learning a language.
He also has full language courses, which is currently 40% discounted on Amazon. There are courses in French (UK, US); Spanish (UK, US); Italian (UK, US); and German (UK, US).
I'd recommend them quite strongly if you are planning on strengthening your lanuguage skills, maybe prior to a skiing trip.