I've recently finished my masters, so I now have time once more to pursue more fun things in life. One of those things is that I want to learn how to speak (and read) French to a passable standard.

BUT

I don't know the best way to go about it. So I need your advice. Is it best to use a tutorial cd? Use a book? Combination of the two? Lessons? Group or one-to-one? How do I know what places are any good? Are they expensive? How long will it take me approximately to reach a competant standard by each of these different methods?

Lots of questions. So yeah, fire away if you've got any advice for me. Ta.