Thanks ginge. Haven't heard from you for a long time but that's because I rarely use this site. Have you done this Speccie? If so I might ask for some hints!
Hi again farr, I did but it was a labour (certainly not of love). I'll try to help if I can but I've already deleted the puzzle so you'll have to provide clues (I do recall thinking at the time a couple were iffy).
No worry ginge. I live in Canada and get the Speccie crossword by email so there's always a time gap. If you recall the crossword, it's about 'French' and refers you to Brewer's. I presume the answers are contained somewhere in the given quotes contained under FRENCH. I can only find one. The big unclued are 1a and 1d which are- 1a ??SH?L?E???D?S and 1d ??C?U?R?R?EP?T. Hope these ring a bell. All the best
Having the right edition of Brewer makes all the difference. Mine from 1999 does not have anything helpful under "French". I managed to get a couple of the phrases (which I hadn't heard of before) by guessing some French words.
Getting 6d would put me out of some of my misery: AU?R?SES.
Hi again orson, I don't have any edition of Brewer's but like you I got 2 of the phrases from trial and error with Google using words I "recognised", 1 I (quite incredibly) remembered from school but had to refer to a friend who's fluent in French, along with quite a few other languages, to get the last.