Monthly Archives: September 2008

Not quite the Olympics

Posted on by Richard
2

Table-Tennis (le ping-pong) is very big round here. The college has several tables in the playground and the kids all like to play it at break time. Sadly, proper tables are usually in excess of €130 so that makes it not entirely a priority for us. However, undeterred by the lack of a big, smooth surface to  play on, our children have managed to work up some pretty exciting ping-pong action on  our rather warped outside table.
Our table-tennis table
It’s not quite olympic size, but it certainly provides enough entertainment!

A morning at the market

Posted on by Richard
12

This morning we took our first real trip to the market at Fontenay-le-Comte. I know, we’ve been here for 10 months and this was our first visit, but its a Saturday morning, and with 3 kids it’s a struggle to get them to do anything on a Saturday morning, never mind get dressed and go out!

Most markets we have ever seen in France are pretty much the same – a mix of beautiful fruit, vegetables, fish, cheese and bread, with some rather old-fashioned clothes, hats and lots and lots of pants!  Fontenay market was certainly no different.  However, there is something special about the atmosphere of a French market that is really worth sampling.
Fontenay-le-Comte market
The fruit and vegetables are especially resplendent in their colour and size. Much nicer than their supermarket-bought cousins. The people are all friendly and happy to chat (not much chatting in your local Hyper U I can tell you!) and the road-side cafés make a welcome break where you can just stop for a coffee (or a pineau :) ) and watch the world go by.

We picked up a fair selection of stuff to keep us going over the weekend…some mussels, oysters (yes, more oysters!), lots of bread, some roquefort cheese (to go in the sauce for the mussels)… and Molly bought a scarf,  kindly reduced by the merchant skilfully negotiated down by me from €7 to €5. Yes, I know it’s still 22 degrees and sunny here, but you’re apparently nobody if you don;t have a scarf round your neck…
Fontenay-le-Comte market

I think we may make a habit of a Saturday-morning trip to the market. The kids will be fine to run riot/sleep all morning on their own and Lisa and I can enjoy a pleasant morning perusing the fine produce, having a quiet coffee and generally enjoying this essential part of everyday french life.

Sounds good to me. What do you think? :)

A mixed bag of news

Posted on by Richard
1

A few snippets of news for you today…

Lost languages

Today the BBC are featuring a story [here] which reveals that half of all UK adults have forgotten the languages they learned at school. Luckily for me this wasn’t the case as my schoolboy French had to get me through many tricky situations when we first arrived!

What is hopeful for our kids is the following:

more than two thirds (69%) said they were jealous of people who were able to speak another language fluently.

Of those who can speak another language, 61% said it had been of benefit to their career, with a third (34%) saying their language skills have given them opportunities to travel and work abroad.

This bodes well for the future of our 3, who will leave school being fluent in at least 2 languages, possibly even 3.

Happy Birthday Craig

Craig McGinty runs the superb ThisFrenchLife web site [here], which is on my daily read list. It’s a great read, always full of interesting articles and news about all things French.

Well today is Craig’s birthday (age not revealed!) so what better time to head on over to www.thisfrenchlife.com and wish Craig a joyeaux anniversaire!

Front-page news toady includes Nicolas Sarkozy and his extra leg (!), news about banned Chinese milk products in France and a pointer to some free travel guides.

A busy weekend coming up

I will fill you in on the details next week, but this wil be another busy weekend!

On Saturday we are heading next-door to the apple-pressing barn where we will hopefully see the whole process from picking to pressing to bottling. With a bit of luck we will walk away with a nice collection of freshly-squeezed apple juice, which should keep us going for a while.

Then on Sunday we will be testing our French again as we meet up with some families who have links with Lisa’s nephew through school exchanges. So a trip to Montaigu near Nantes, then over to the beach to La Tranche-sur-Mer.

On the road again

(Photo under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic by krejcirkmira)

Due to some changes at work, I’ll be hitting the road to England quite a bit this month. This is a real pain and not something I really wanted to happen, but the situation is rather unavoidable at the moment.

Hopefully it will only be a very temporary measure and I can return to my rural hideaway very soon :)

In the meantime, if you’re anywhere near La Rochelle, Stansted or Maidenhead, feel free to get in touch and we can have a coffee.

And finally…

Next Friday I will be the ripe old age of 37. I’m looking forward to a majorly-fun-time-friday, and an especially fun weekend with great friends.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with us. Keep a look out for updates. Or why not subscribe to my email newsletter [by clicking here]? Every time I add something new to La Vie en Foussais  you will receive it in your inbox -  what could be easier?