Quelque chose intéressant

Dear Friends,

You would think that we would have had time to write on the weekend, but we were very busy and tired.

We left off looking forward to dinner at the school.  It was a very fun night, and we achieved celebrity status with many of the younger students and perhaps even some of the older ones.  As we all had anticipated, the buffet dinner was fantastic as you can surmise from these photos.

After dinner, the teacher in charge of the evening announced that the dancing would begin with some games.  Needless to say, that did not sound very good to us.  We did not participate much in the games but the young people seemed to have a good time, and they served their purpose of breaking the ice.  The music that was chosen was awful and one of the young people said about the music that "they managed to disappoint everyone".  Anyway we danced and a couple of the young people asked if we had taken dance lessons.  After a while it was dancing as a group and the group consisted mainly of the people that were in our section (the "Intermediate Fours").  We were of course the oldest by many years but even when it came time for each person to do a dance in the middle of the circle, we took our turns and the youngsters were really impressed.  It was as much that we would/could do it as what we did.  The Intermediate Fours declared themselves to be the best section in the school in all respects, and our teacher upon hearing our explanation of the evening (in French of course) this morning agreed with us.  In truth our shoulders were sore the next day.

Saturday, we took a tour of Villefranche-sur-mer arranged by the school.  It was a large group so it was split in two parts.  The real guide took the people who wanted to try the tour only in French.  We decided to stay in the other group that would hear the tour in some French and some English, since we wanted to actually learn something.  It was a great tour.  One of the highlights was a sculpture by Volti.  He lost his mother when he was very young, he was imprisoned for five years during World War II and his work thereafter is devoted to his mother and the importance of mothers.  

Since Villefranche-sur-mer is not Minnesota, we had lunch outside by the bay once again with eight of the other students.  Some were almost as old as we are and some were in their 30s and 40s.  Eating outside in the sun when it is 60 degrees and there is a little breeze is perfect.  The food was great also.  

Even with the wine at lunch, we spent part of the afternoon studying.  The intensity and pace of the course is very difficult for us.  The younger people can absorb material much faster than we can.  Reviewing, rewriting and organizing our notes was helpful.  We also quizzed each other.  

Since we had a big lunch as we do everyday, we eat in our flat and began our viewing of the first episode of the new season of Downton Abbey.  Since we had recorded it on our television at home we could replay it on our computer using Slingbox.  It seems like a miracle.  It takes quite awhile for the controls (pause, fast forward, etc.) to react and the picture is not the best but it works.  We were too tired to watch the full 2 hours so we stopped after about an hour.  We watched the other hour on Sunday night.  Slingbox is also permitting us to keep up with the news with Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow and starting tomorrow with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.  However, given that during the week we will be lucky if we have 30 or 45 minutes for the television, we will have to be disciplined about what we watch.  

On Sunday, we joined two classmates for a walk to the old Rothschild mansion that is now a museum with many gardens.  In reality it is about an hour walk but we took longer going because we kept meeting other students and would stop to talk (usually in English).  On the way back it took longer because we tried a new route to be closer to the sea (suggested by Dobby based on what one of our teachers had said).  It was a great route but it involved a part that was on a very rocky stretch of shore which then ran into a dead end and required us to retrace our step  (unsure as they were) over the rocky shore.  

The Rothschild mansion was built in the 30s as were the original gardens, both are spectacular.  We had lunch in the museum.  It was very leisurely and fantastic.

By the time we got home, it was time for dinner.  We did our homework, made our dinner and watched Downton Abbey before falling into bed worrying once again about our exposes.  As soon as we awoke this morning, we each began to look up words and write down phrases.  Jane had one of her back to school dreams.

Getting back into all French today was difficult.  First thing this morning, we listened to part of the morning news cast and then were supposed to discuss it.  We understood nothing except about the rumors of an affair by President Francois Hollande had caused his partner to be hospitalized.  Perhaps next weekend we will speak more French and less English.

Our teacher is very good.  She seems to know where each student is and challenges them where they are.  The younger students can progress as fast as they want and she gives them more complicated questions, etc. than she give us.  Her system works very well and everybody is getting better.

We had another expose today.  Rene, a young woman born and partially raised in Bulgaria and partially raised in Seattle who worked for a United States agency in Bosnia for four years, gave us a short history of the aftermath of the Bosnia war and her insights into how things are going now and what the future there holds.  It was very interesting.  She is not yet 40 and has done a lot of incredible things.

Tonight was not the pinnacle of our culinary exploits, we used up our leftovers by adding them to a cream of mushroom soup from Picard Surgeles.

  

We will leave you with that. 

More later,

Jane and the Unabashed Liberal