PeterMollenburg wrote:Nowadays I feel I'm a good B2-level French language user and no longer feel I can self assess myself as a C-level French language user, as the reality is some of the language has atrophied as I don't generally push my skills. Still, when it's time to target a c-level French exam again, it should not be too difficult to pick up the books again, dust off some dusty vocabulary cobwebs...
You'll be familiar with my tiresome waywardness with regard to people gunning for the coveted 'C2', though from what I read in your log (which I do read; not religiously, but I'm not religious anyway) this sort of thing is more of a hindrance to you than any sort of help. Why would I say such a thing? Only because it collides with your general approach as outlined in a couple of the replies above, with regard to 'doing' and playing the game:
PeterMollenburg wrote:Is it more interesting to train for the game or to play the game?
I agree. Not that I would be a clever dick and say 'only play the game', because I believe in study as much as anyone. You seem to me like a confident user of French, with a lot of experience. Also someone who doesn't need to punish himself with the acquisition of something dictated by an exam with a name. For you the question probably shouldn't be: 'Pierre, are you C1/C2?' But rather: 'Alors Pierre, depuis combien de temps parles-tu français? Tu parles très bien!'.
I will posit Pieter Mollenburg and invent his identical twin brother Dirk Mollenburg. We all meet in the van Gogh museum and walk around speaking in Dutch about the paintings we're looking at. In a café the next day Pieter tells me (at length and in Dutch) about how van Gogh's style changed when he moved to Arles in the south of France; more light and colour. Le Baron finds this all very impressive, including the Dutch. Then Dirk intervenes to tell me about what possibly led to the unhappy painter's mental decline...also in very respectable Dutch, but Dirk also tells me he passed the C2 exam in Dutch, since he had to provide the certificate for a job. Pieter, looking into his empty coffee cup, laments ruefully (in Dutch) that he hasn't and that he actually failed it. And yet Le Baron is puzzled because Pieter is speaking perfectly good Dutch, no different than Dirk. At which point a waitress asks if we would like another drink and Pieter automatically responds with: 'Ja graag, ik neem nog een koffie, and 'mogen we een lunchmenu?'
Anyone I've ever met with whom I spoke a different language, has never asked me and I've never asked them if they 'passed C1/C2'. Or any other CEFR level. It only mattered that each party understood.