Le fleuriste connaît bien la couturière, et tous les deux prennent parfois un café avec la secrétaire.

In French, common nouns usually need an article. So instead of just saying fleuriste, couturière, or secrétaire, French normally says:

• le fleuriste
• la couturière
• la secrétaire

Here, these mean specific people in the situation: the florist, the seamstress, and the secretary.

English often drops articles in places where French keeps them, so this is a very common thing to notice.

Fleuriste can be used for both a man and a woman. The article usually tells you the gender:

• le fleuriste = the male florist
• la fleuriste = the female florist

So in this sentence, le fleuriste tells us the florist is male.

French job titles do not all form the feminine in the same way.

• couturier → couturière
  The feminine form changes ending.
• secrétaire can be masculine or feminine in form, and the article shows gender:
  • le secrétaire
  • la secrétaire

So couturière is explicitly a feminine noun form, while secrétaire keeps the same basic spelling for both genders.

French usually uses connaître for being familiar with a person, place, or thing, and savoir for knowing a fact or knowing how to do something.

So:

• connaître quelqu’un = to know someone
• savoir quelque chose = to know something

Because the sentence is about knowing a person, connaît is the correct choice:

• Le fleuriste connaît bien la couturière.

Here, bien means well.

So connaît bien means knows well.

It does not mean good here. In French:

• bien = well
• bon / bonne = good

So:

• Il connaît bien la couturière = He knows the seamstress well.

Connaît is the il/elle/on form of connaître in the present tense.

Conjugation:

• je connais
• tu connais
• il/elle connaît
• nous connaissons
• vous connaissez
• ils/elles connaissent

The circumflex in connaît is just part of the spelling of that form. It often reflects an older historical spelling. For a learner, the important thing is simply to recognize it as the normal he/she knows form of connaître.

Tous les deux means both of them.

In this sentence, it refers back to:

• le fleuriste
• la couturière

So:

• Le fleuriste connaît bien la couturière, et tous les deux...
• The florist knows the seamstress well, and both of them...

It is a very common French expression.

Because tous is the correct plural form here.

• tout = singular
• tous = masculine plural
• toutes = feminine plural

Since it means both of them and refers to two people, French uses the plural: tous les deux.

Even though one person is male and one is female, mixed groups normally take the masculine plural in French.

Because the subject is tous les deux, which means both of them.

Since two people are doing the action, French uses the ils/elles form of prendre:

• je prends
• tu prends
• il/elle prend
• nous prenons
• vous prenez
• ils/elles prennent

So:

• tous les deux prennent = both of them have / drink / take

In French, prendre un café is a very natural, idiomatic way to say have a coffee.

Literally, prendre means to take, but in many food and drink expressions it works like English have:

• prendre un café = have a coffee
• prendre le petit-déjeuner = have breakfast

You could say boire un café too, but prendre un café is very common and natural.

French usually needs an article before a countable noun.

So:

• un café = a coffee

English sometimes omits words in similar expressions, but French generally does not. Saying just prennent café would be incorrect.

Parfois means sometimes.

Here it modifies the action prennent un café:

• prennent parfois un café = sometimes have a coffee

Its position is very natural in French: after the verb and before the object.

French adverb placement does not always match English exactly, so this is a useful pattern to remember.

No. Tous les deux refers only to the florist and the seamstress.

Then avec la secrétaire adds another person who joins them for the coffee.

So the structure is:

• the florist and the seamstress = both of them
• they sometimes have a coffee
• with the secretary

So the secretary is not included in tous les deux.

Yes. Because the article is la, it refers to a female secretary.

Compare:

• le secrétaire = the male secretary
• la secrétaire = the female secretary

The noun form itself stays the same, but the article tells you the gender.

If the florist were also a woman, you would probably get:

• La fleuriste connaît bien la couturière, et toutes les deux prennent parfois un café avec la secrétaire.

Notice the change:

• le fleuriste → la fleuriste
• tous les deux → toutes les deux

That is because toutes les deux is used for two females.

It is not strictly necessary here, but it is acceptable.

French punctuation is often a little less comma-heavy than English, but a comma can be used to separate two related clauses clearly:

• Le fleuriste connaît bien la couturière et tous les deux prennent parfois un café avec la secrétaire.
• Le fleuriste connaît bien la couturière, et tous les deux prennent parfois un café avec la secrétaire.

Both are possible. The version with the comma creates a slightly clearer pause.