Bien que les cerises me plaisent beaucoup, je mange de plus en plus souvent de la pastèque quand il fait chaud.

Bien que means although or even though. It introduces a contrast:

• I really like cherries
• but I eat watermelon more and more often when it’s hot

It is a fairly formal or neutral connector. In everyday speech, learners may also see même si, but bien que is very common in written and careful spoken French.

Yes. After bien que, French normally uses the subjunctive.

So in:

• Bien que les cerises me plaisent beaucoup...

plaisent is the subjunctive form of plaire for les cerises.

This is a tricky point because for ils/elles, the present subjunctive and the present indicative often look exactly the same. So even though plaisent looks familiar, here it is functioning as a subjunctive because bien que requires it.

French often uses plaire where English would use like.

The structure is different:

• les cerises = the thing that is pleasing
• me = to me
• plaisent = please

So literally, it is closer to:

• the cherries please me

This is why the grammar feels reversed compared with English.

You could say j’aime les cerises, and that is also correct French. But plaire is very common and useful, so this sentence is good practice for that pattern.

Because me is the unstressed indirect object pronoun used before the verb.

With plaire, you usually say:

• me plaît / me plaisent
• te plaît / te plaisent
• lui plaît / lui plaisent
• nous plaît / nous plaisent
• vous plaît / vous plaisent
• leur plaît / leur plaisent

So:

• les cerises me plaisent = cherries please me

Moi is a stressed pronoun, used in different situations, for example for emphasis:

• Moi, les cerises, ça me plaît.

But in a normal sentence, me is the correct form.

Because the subject is les cerises, which is plural.

With plaire:

• La cerise me plaît = singular
• Les cerises me plaisent = plural

The verb agrees with the thing that is pleasing, not with me.

That is another reason this structure can feel unusual to English speakers.

De plus en plus means more and more.

When you add souvent (often), you get:

• de plus en plus souvent = more and more often

It works as an adverbial expression describing how frequently the speaker eats watermelon.

A few similar examples:

• de plus en plus = more and more
• de moins en moins = less and less
• de plus en plus vite = faster and faster
• de plus en plus souvent = more and more often

This is because the sentence is using two different article patterns.

1. les cerises

Here, les cerises refers to cherries in a general sense: cherries as a category.

French often uses the definite article for general statements:

• J’aime les pommes.
• Les cerises me plaisent.

2. de la pastèque

After manger, French often uses a partitive article when talking about eating some amount of something:

• je mange de la pastèque = I eat some watermelon / I eat watermelon

So the difference is not really about one being specific and the other not. It is mostly about the structure:

• with plaire: general noun phrase → les cerises
• with manger: food as an uncountable quantity → de la pastèque

In French, nouns usually need an article. With food after manger, you often use the partitive article:

• du for masculine singular
• de la for feminine singular
• de l’ before a vowel sound
• des for plural

Since pastèque is feminine singular, it becomes:

• de la pastèque

Examples:

• Je mange du pain.
• Je bois de l’eau.
• Je mange des fraises.

So de la pastèque is the normal form here.

Because il fait chaud is the standard French weather expression for it is hot / the weather is hot.

French often uses faire in weather-related expressions:

• il fait chaud = it’s hot
• il fait froid = it’s cold
• il fait beau = the weather is nice
• il fait mauvais = the weather is bad

C’est chaud usually means something is hot to the touch, or sometimes difficult/risky in informal speech. It is not the normal way to talk about hot weather.

So:

• quand il fait chaud = when it’s hot

In French, beaucoup usually comes after the verb it modifies.

So:

• les cerises me plaisent beaucoup

is the normal order.

You also see this with many verbs:

• J’aime beaucoup ce film.
• Il travaille beaucoup.
• Nous voyageons beaucoup.

Putting beaucoup before the verb is generally not the normal neutral pattern here.

Yes. The French present tense is often used for general truths, habits, and repeated actions.

Here, the sentence is not about one single moment. It describes a regular tendency:

• cherries please me a lot
• but when the weather is hot, I eat watermelon more and more often

So the present tense fits naturally.

Yes, in many contexts the overall meaning would stay very similar.

• Bien que les cerises me plaisent beaucoup...
• Même si les cerises me plaisent beaucoup...

But there are two important differences:

1. Register

Bien que is often a bit more formal or written.

2. Verb mood

Bien que is followed by the subjunctive. Même si is normally followed by the indicative.

In this sentence, the form plaisent looks the same either way, so you do not see the difference on the surface. But grammatically, the mood changes.

A very natural version would be:

• Bien que j’aime beaucoup les cerises, je mange de plus en plus souvent de la pastèque quand il fait chaud.

That is perfectly understandable and natural.

The original sentence with plaire is also correct, but it highlights a structure that learners need to master:

• X me plaît = I like X / X pleases me

So the two versions are close in meaning, but the grammar is different.