Do I need a VPN to access google.fr and other French websites easily?

LeafGreen

I’m currently learning French, and would like to immerse myself more in the language, part of this is accessing websites as though I was in France as a French person.  But whenever I try to access sites like google.fr, I always get redirected to English language versions.
I’ve never had a VPN but I guess that would work, although I don’t want to pay if I can avoid it, I also don’t want my wife to think I’ve got a VPN so I can access adult sites 😂 
Is there any easy way to achieve what I want - an alternative search engine perhaps? or is a VPN the best choice?

x_raphael_xx

I use Tor Browser as a VPN. Logo is a little purple onion.
Its free but I don't know if you can set it for specific countries, I usually just use whatever it sets for me.

Vitor

I like the windscribe VPN add-on for browsers, no cost for moderate usage.

wongataa

You can go to the search settings in Google and change the region to France and language to French.

MyRealNameToo

LeafGreen said:

I’m currently learning French, and would like to immerse myself more in the language, part of this is accessing websites as though I was in France as a French person.  But whenever I try to access sites like google.fr, I always get redirected to English language versions.
I’ve never had a VPN but I guess that would work, although I don’t want to pay if I can avoid it, I also don’t want my wife to think I’ve got a VPN so I can access adult sites 😂 
Is there any easy way to achieve what I want - an alternative search engine perhaps? or is a VPN the best choice?

websites can detect the language settings on your computer, depending on your OS and browser this may be set in the browser's settings or the OS itself. 

If you go to Google.co.uk and go into search settings (bottom right) you can define your preferred language and region as well

Frozen_up_north

The advantage of the VPN approach is that on-line shops will come up running in French, etc. You can also watch French TV streaming services in French too.

onomatopoeia99

wongataa said:

You can go to the search settings in Google and change the region to France and language to French.

Which is what I have done for a decade of learning Italian, otherwise google throws back English language results even if you search with Italian terms.

MyRealNameToo

Frozen_up_north said:

The advantage of the VPN approach is that on-line shops will come up running in French, etc. You can also watch French TV streaming services in French too.

Setting your language and region to France will achieve the former without the need for VPN. 

Streaming services will use IP geolocation so VPN is necessary for that. That said a reasonable proportion of French tv, particularly films, will be dubbed and even without a VPN you can choose the spoken language on much of the content. 

PRAISETHESUN

x_raphael_xx said:

I use Tor Browser as a VPN. Logo is a little purple onion.
Its free but I don't know if you can set it for specific countries, I usually just use whatever it sets for me.

You can configure Tor browser to use only specific countries entry/exit nodes, but I wouldn't really reccomend it given the alternative suggestions listed above.

Heedtheadvice

onomatopoeia99 said:

wongataa said:

You can go to the search settings in Google and change the region to France and language to French.

Which is what I have done for a decade of learning Italian, otherwise google throws back English language results even if you search with Italian terms.

Now why on earth would you set those regions and languages to French....to learn Italian? What a mistaka to maka!

:-)