French language Q&A Forum

Why is there a le in the dependent clause that begins with bien que

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 .....

I got this question:

How would you say "You went out even though I wasn't OK with it." ?

And I answered with this:

Tu es sortie bien que je n'étais pas d'accord.

Apparently the right answer was Tu es sortie bien que je ne suis pas d'accord, but I don't understand why je ne suis pas d'accord is in the present tense.

To me that sentence means "You went out even though I'm not OK with it.", as in "I'm not ok with in general", but the way the English sentence is written in the question means that the speaker wasn't ok about a particular going-out. Why would one use the present tense there even though the "not being ok with it" was done in the past?

Elle ne le fait pas, bien qu'elle le puisse.

Why is it "bien qu'elle le puisse" and not "bien qu'elle puisse"?

In English there may be a difference in meaning between "You went out even though I wasn't ok with it" and "You went out even though I'm not ok with it"; I might have changed my mind in the interim: "You went out even though I wasn't ok with it [, but now I am ok with it]." Wouldn't this second sense require the imperfect rather than the subjunctive in modern French: "... bien que je n'étais pas d'accord"?

Apologies if this topic has been already been covered, I searched a ways down the thread but didn't see anything relevant.

If a discussion exists, I will gladly accept a posted link.

So, in short, outside of familiarizing myself with "bien que" through rote memorization, I struggle to hear "good that". Is there a separate definition or etymology of the word "bien" that would explain how it came to be used in the sense of "even though"?

Thank you in advance!

This isn't really related to the lesson itself, but in the little quiz under the lesson, for "Je l'aime bien qu'il soit un peu paresseux." the answer was "I love him although he's a bit lazy." (which I answered correctly so no questions on "bien que") but isn't "aimer bien" is closer to "like" than "love" as taught in your lesson about this verb? 

The translation of "Quoi que vous pensiez, gardez-le pour vous" should be "Whatever you're thinking, keep it TO yourself", correct? In other words, don't say what you're thinking?