French language Q&A Forum

in this sentence from  a roman policier La salle des meurtres by Phyllis Dorothy James 

L’appartement, qui donnait sur Kensington High Street, arborait l’ordre excessif et impersonnel d’un logement préparé pour la visite de nouveaux locataires. L’atmosphère était un peu confinée ; bien qu’occupant un étage élevé, Dupayne avait pris la précaution de fermer ou de verrouiller toutes les fenêtres avant de partir en week-end. 

Here  bien que was not followed by subjonctif ! is that correct ? and would you replace it by bien qu'occupant un étage élevé, Dupayne ait pris la précaution .....

Is it "j'ai encore besoin de l'aide de mon fidèle dictionnaire !" Instead of j'ai encore besoin d' aide de mon fidèle dictionnaire!" because it is a specific dictionary that they are talking about?

I know it must be my ear, but, having listened to it over and over, it seems the speaker says "mais cera n'est pas obligatoire."  

Please provide further explanation about the phrase "Peut-être qu'elle est allée dire bonjour..."  I believe that in English, we would write it, "Perhaps she went to say 'Hello' ..."  Why does French not have quote marks around something that is said?  For example, how would you write the following in French:  The farmer said, "I'm going into town to buy a cat."?

When doing the writing tests, I find myself regularly struggling with knowing when to place accents (and regularly second-guessing myself too!).

Are there any rules of thumb to help with this? For example, the 'ô' seems to always appear in words which sound similar in english and one would place an 's': eg hôpital, hôtel, hôte, etc.

I generally have trouble with accented 'e's (ignoring the "obvious" accents, such as when using the passé composé and other conjugation rules) so any advice would be very welcome.

"... notre équipe allie savoir-faire professionnel et pédagogie bienveillante."  Why no definite articles for savoir-faire and pédagogie ?   Is this simply the result of the informality of an advertisement?  Thanks.

Hi, dear forum, I joined yesterday.. I am a French learner and lover of french things.

What is the equivalent of this flower in english?

Pervenche.

Quelqu'un le sait-il ?

Merci en avance!.

I'm fully aware that student counts as an occupation, that the article comes in when there's an adjective, etc. What's confusing me is that is I've encountered people using the article with student (and only with student, no other occupations), with even some statements from native speakers online who say "X est un étudiant" feels more natural to them. I've also seen some other programs teach this as well; I'm well aware this is a different program, and am only stating how muddy waters seem on this! 

Is there a variation or shift occurring in the language (akin to the après que + subj. vs indic.)? Thanks!