French Classes

I have completed my third day of classes and thought it would be good to share with you a little about my classes.

Practicing French with Professor & Other Student

Each weekday I have a group class for four hours.  During this class, I and two other students attempt to learn the French language.  Because no English is allowed, when we have questions we must ask them in French and get the answer in French.  It is easier for our professor to make us understand what she is trying to say than you would think. What is hard is to learn all the rules.  The vast amount of memorization that is required is time consuming.  Learning what is masculine and feminine is tough for me as there seems no logic.  Why is a boat masculine but a car feminine?  Or for that matter a chair feminine but an armchair masculine?  Imagine my disappointment in learning that I must learn gender for each of our 50 states.  I would have thought all states would be one or the other. 

The View

In our class discussion, it is very difficult for me to figure out how to say what I want in French.  Each day generally begins with us telling each other what we did the day before.  I must admit that four hours is a very long time for me (and then I have so much to review and study after class).  During two of these classes, we have gone on field trips, which made the time go faster.  On our second day, we went to the bakery and the cheese shop.  (This is the area known for goat cheese (crottin du Chavaginal.))  On the third day, we went to the post office to mail a letter.  Each day we stopped at a cafe on the way back to school and had a drink.  Although it is frustrating to try and talk in French, we are struggling and seem to have a lot to share with each other. Today we had a conversation about how territories are treated in Canada and the U.S.  This is not a subject I know a lot about and having to say what I do know in French was a challenge.  I’m sure this kind of conversation will help expand my vocabulary and improve my grammar, especially with our professor there to correct us.  My professor is wonderful and seems never to tire of helping us. She is very patient and has an amusing personality so this helps.

In assessing my first few days, I did not realize how hard classes would be for me.  I guess I should have realized that having not been in classes like this for decades, it would be tough.  It is tough to do the homework.  I am used to working hard, but I am usually accomplishing something.  With my homework it is hard to be motivated to study for hours.   I am hoping over the weekend to be able to do a lot of studying and thus I will find next week easier.

I think I’ll stop to keep this from getting too long.  In subsequent posts, I’ll write about my fellow students and the city.    I think I may like the idea of speaking French more than I like learning to speak French. 

Sancerre -- Tres Jolie

When I arrived at the train station in Cosne (pronounced "Cone"; my first lesson) and the professor meeting me refused to speak any English, I was sure this was going to be tough.  The other student seemed to have no trouble conversing with her and I thought I am in way over my head. 

My first glance at the Loire River and the surrounding countryside and I was glad I was here.  Sancerre is a charming little town with old buidlings and many beautiful flowers.  I'm posting a few pictures but these don't do it justice.  I will post some better ones later in the week. 

My Corner

Ny Apartment (Blue Door)



My apartment is in a very old buidling and is quite large.  My only complaint is the tv has no English channels -- oh wait, I'm supposed to learn French.  Amazingly what I understand the best is the French verison of So You Want to be a Millionaire?  I can read the questions and I understand the written much better than the oral.



Today, I had my first class for four hours.  Four hours all in French is tough.  I feel better now that I have books to study.  And I found out the woman conversing was Intermediate 2 and takes a French lesson once per week at home.   It really is tough for me to want to say things and have no idea how to.  Today we talked about vacations we had taken. I left a lot out!

Speaking of French, I need to go and do my assignments for tomorrow.  Plus I need to review the conjugation of French verbs.  Amazingly I remembered the main verbs -- avoir, etre and aller, but we are going to have a quiz tomorrow. 

Perfect Pizza in Paris

The best decision I may have made on Friday was to go to Andiamo’s restaurant for pizza. Deciding on pizza was easy for me, but selection of the place was a bit of a challenge. I was intrigued by the “Speed Rabbit Pizza” place, but decided a delivery pizza place wouldn't offer the charm of a Paris restaurants.

At Andiamo’s, I sat outdoors enjoying the cooler Paris weather and began with a Kir Royal, a favorite drink of mine a few years ago and definitely Parisian.

I was intrigued by the Principassa. From my French, I thought understood that it had olives and cheese. It also included salade roquefort, which I assumes was some sort of a salad with Roquefort cheese. Although it seemed a little odd to have a salad on your pizza, in a country where it is popular to have a fried egg on your pizza it didn’t seem out of the question. It also had jambon de Parma. I knew jambon is ham, but didn't know how the “de Parma” changed the meaning. I decided I would ask and I would ask in French. (I knew I needed to start speaking French, despite my limited vocabulary.) In my best French I inquired “what is this” and pointed to the “jambon de Parma,” The waiter replied that it was “ham, very nice.” Okay so I didn’t learn a lot but I tried. I ordered the pizza.

Shortly thereafter, I am brought a tiny dish of black and green olives. One of the points made in a book I just finished reading about France was that French women say in shape despite three meals a day (two consisting of 4 courses) by exercising portion control. She says for example they have one olive as an appetizer. Okay, so another opportunity to try and be French. I try but can’t quite do it – I think I had four of each kind of olive. They were small. And, if we are looking at the glass, or in this case, bowl half full, I did leave about a third in the bowl. Perhaps I am getting the hang of this French thing.

Then the pizza comes. At first I am disappointed that it is not cut. Then I remember another lesson from my book – nothing is to be eaten with your fingers. In a country where you are not supposed to eat with your fingers, it would make no sense to cut your pizza in pieces. You’d have to cut into bite size pieces anyway. So I begin the struggle to cut my pizza. I do wonder, however, if the Speed Rabbit Pizza cuts its pizza into slices. If the French are beginning to adopt the American idea of food to go, perhaps eating with your fingers is coming to France as well.

Back to my pizza. This pizza was phenomenal, but very different than others I’ve had in that it had no sauce. Directly on top of the thin crust was a layer of cheese. In the center, what I thought was going to be some sort of salad was actually a bed of greens, perhaps rocket leaves. It had very thinly sliced ham, not pieces, large, thin slices. Similarly, it included large, thin slices of Parmesan cheese. The taste was unbelievable. I loved it. The ham had wonderful flavor (it was “very nice”) and when you had a bite with cheese, ham and rocket – ahh!

Half way through the meal, I remembered the olives. They weren’t served on the pizza but as my appetizer. I hadn’t expected that from the description – they were listed as just one of the items on my pizza. Interesting!

As I ate the pizza, I started to struggle. I knew I shouldn’t eat the whole thing – it was the size of a large plate. If I was going to eat like the French, I was going to have to start eating small portions, but it was so good. I lost the struggle and ate every last piece. It may have been the best pizza I have ever had. I think the French attention to using only the perfect ingredients resulted in this great pizza.

[I am now in Sancerre, a most beautiful and charming place. I will blog about it soon.]

PS -- Jambon de Parma is literally ham from Parma (in Italy) but really is a type of ham like we have Smithfield ham in Virginia.

I'm in Paris

After all my busy preparations, it was a bit relaxing to get to the airport and wait for my flight. Then I started questioning what I'd forgetten to do or bring. So far nothing comes to mind.

I was reading a book "French Toast" An American's perspective of the French after 20 years of being married to one and feeling pretty good about my French when I could generally figure out the French phrases before reading her translation. That lasted until the flight attendant started making her announcements in French. Basically, I could only understand very basic words. Will I be able to understnd them when I am returning???? I guess that will be the test of my program.

I decided to go for a walk and look for breakast since my room wasn't ready when I arrived. The hotel is not in a touristy area and not alot was open around it. I stumbled on a fish, meat and produce market that looked great. I sound a coffee shop/bar and had a wonderful Omelet Parmentier. I'm not sure about the name since "parmentier" is not the French word for potato.

As promised when I got back to room a little before 11:00am, the room was ready. Only trouble was the elevator wasn't working. When I interpreted what she was saying as the elevator was broken, I was quickly corrected -- "not broken, just some needed work." And my room was on the 4th floor. Good thing I have been working out -- although I still didn't try to bring up my 49.6# suitcase. That will have to wait for the elevator to be fixed, oops "work completed."

My room is extremely tiny, but it has a real double bed. The remote for the TV didn't work but if you are reading this the wi fi did. 

Tomorrow I Leave

I am struggling to get everything done to be ready to leave tomorrow. Yesterday, I got my hair done. According to my stylist, it is the hottest French style. To me it seems really short. Perhaps when I get to France I will see it is just the thing. I also got my teeth cleaned. And a new sweater.

Yes, I know a true immersion should involve experiencing French hairdressers and health care. However, I have not made quite that big of leap.

It is a little late now but was a little concerned when I tried one more time to find a book on France that mentioned the city I will be staying in. Again, no success. It is a little scary that the only information I have comes from the school and one internet posting I was able to find (says good wine and meal was had in Sancerre). None of the books even have the city where I take the train to (although one did have it on a map).

In any case, I am going tomorrow. Lots left to be done.

Heading to France

For those of you that don't know, I'll be heading to France in few days. In the 8 weeks I am there, I will be studying French in a small town.

I decided to create a blog to share my adventures and my best pictures. In this first blog, I will answer the most frequent quetions I get -- what made me decide to do this, how did I select a school and am I going alone?

The idea to do this came when a reporter was interviewing me about resigning from my prior job. He asked what I was going to do and I really had no idea. I had never not worked -- at least not since early teens. I thought about going to more baseball games, participating in a book club, spending more time with loved ones, but none of these really seemed to be big enough for such a major life change. I quickly thought of what had I wanted to do that I had not done and answered that I was thinking of studying French in France.

I had wanted to do this when I studied French in junior high, but my family couldn't afford a European trip let alone an extended stay. By the time I finished high school, I had a child. Over the next few months, France kept coming to mind. I thought my child is grown, I have the resources and I have the time but I still hesitated. With much encouragement from James, I decided it was now or never and began to make definative plans.

Selecting the program and location was tough. I identified the Coeur de France program via internet. Through the school I connected with a previous attendee who was over 40, from the U.S. After a great conversation I was convinced that this would be the place for me and enrolled. It was so busy that I had to wait a long time to get into the program. I will start a week from Monday. (The picture on the blog is my school at night. I'm eager to see if it really look like this.)

I will be living in a small town -- only about 1600 people so that may be a bigger change than being in France.

I am going alone but will participate in group French classes.

My plan is to blog about 3 times a week although depending on what is happening this may vary.

Now, I have to get back to the myriad of things that one must do before going overseas for an extended period of time. With the internet the travel arrangements were easy and no visa was required for stays of less than 90 days, however I was challenged in finding a phone that would work. Packing for 8 weeks is also a challenge. You'll be able to judge how well I did when you see my pictures.

Au revoir.