I am currently in France for the first time in 15 years, and it's great to be back in the land of frogs legs, snails and smelly Gauloises!
By the way, I like cuisses de grenouilles, escargots and, before I saw the light and gave up smoking, Gauloises.
[Wikipedia]
La France "et moi"
I started learning French at Grammar School in 1961 aged 11.
I subsequently did French for A-Level and got a B, in the days when a B was the second-highest grade (no A* back then).
Although I applied to study French and German at university, I was persuaded at interview for my first-choice, Salford University, a pioneer of "modern" modern languages degrees, to start Spanish ab initio instead of French. That decision changed my life. How? See the link below.
After graduation with a BSc Hons. in German and Spanish, and a subsequent post-graduate teaching certificate (PGCE), I became a secondary school languages teacher.
Salford University original building [Wikipedia]
In my first and third schools I taught Spanish, German and French and in my second school, a Roman Catholic Grammar School, mainly Spanish with a bit of German.
As head of modern languages I led several school trips to France, namely to
Rouen, the Loire Valley and Paris.
Later, as a LEA advisor/inspector for MFL, I organised several projects through the European Union Socrates programme, eg work experience for sixth formers in Chalon-sur-Saone and a study visit for young workers to Brussels.
Chalon-sur-Saone [Wikipedia]
My family and France
As a family we travelled frequently to French-speaking countries (my then wife, Jeryl, was a graduate in French and Russian).
I recall Charente-Maritime; Lyon; Valence and La Voulte (Ardeche); Belgium; Luxembourg and the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean.
Post-retirement
After early retirement I spent three-summers-running with my pal Alan, also early retired, to work on the garden of his French father-in-law in Metz (Moselle).
By this time my spoken French had apparently become very good, or so I was told, by Alan, who ought to know, being bi-lingual himself.
Metz [Photo: Lonely Planet]
After meeting German Rita in Ronda, and "shacking up" with her in Montejaque (Malaga), where she'd been living as a divorcee for a couple of years, we passed through France twice on our way from Germany to Spain, but by then my fluency had deserted me after five years of no contact with the country next-door.
By the way, "I made on honest woman" of Rita when we got married in 2010, in Maulbronn Monastery in Germany.
Kloster Maulbronn [Photo: Minube]
Back to the present day
Now, after another 15 years speaking French is a struggle (French and Spanish are not that similar, even though they are both Romance languages, ie derived from the Latin spoken by Roman legionnaires as they advanced on several European countries to establish the Roman Empire - long since defunct, of course, like all empires.
Putin's Russia must be due to collapse any day! (We wish!)
Map of the Roman Empire [Wikipedia]
Speakers of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian can communicate rather more easily.
***
This is my third day back in France after that 15 year break. I am in Provence in the Marseilles, Avignon area on the Cote d'Azure, where we are "glamping" with Rita's daughter and family.
They like to camp. We don't!
So we are staying in a wooden lodge, with beds, a kitchen and ensuite toilette.
Our pitch [Photo: Paul Whitelock]
So far I've enjoyed being back in France, in that expensive, grubby, secular (Good Friday is not even a Bank Holiday!) and increasingly anarchic country, that is full of 'orrible "Frogs".
But I'm loving it!
© The Spanish Fly
Photos and images:
Camping La Couteliere, Lonely Planet, Minube, Paul Whitelock, The Spanish Fly, Trip Advisor, Wikipedia
Sources:
Camping La Couteliere, Paul Whitelock, The Spanish Fly, Wikipedia
Tags:
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