We have had our first red wine incident in one of the suites - one of the guests knocked over a glass onto the carpet. It might have been worse if it had gone onto the white flocati rug but I would happily have taken a broken glass and a spillage on the tiled floor instead.
They were very pro-active in trying to soak the wine out but a red wine stain is the devil to remove. After I had dropped Debrah at the airport at lunchtime, I went off to the DIY superstore and the supermarket and scoured the shelves for a 'wonder' product that might solve the problem. I now own a whole array of products and as I type, I still have a red wine stain on the carpet in the Studio. No wonder.
I don't think it is any coincidence that we held an impromptu rosé wine tasting earlier in the evening. Myself and Debrah and Chris and Alan, the guest in question, sat around our kitchen table and tested four different rosés with the aim of finding something suitable as our house rosé for the summer. It was conducted in all seriousness and most of each bottle remains in my fridge - but rosé has a dangerous way of creeping up on you, even in small quantites - be warned!
As you will have gathered, Debrah has gone back to London - which left both of us feeling a bit miserable. It is only for a couple of days and she will be back on Friday but the place always feels a bit empty just after she has gone.
Maybe that contributed to my awful performance in my French lesson this evening. For the first time, I felt as if I couldn't understand a word that Amelié was saying to me - she did admit that she was pushing me to go on up to a new level - but I felt as if, suddenly, I couldn't speak the language - oh for one of those Matrix style brain implants - 'downloading modern French with southern accent and swear word addendums' - instant fluency but none of the 'fun' of getting it wrong all the time.
This afternoon, because my French is better than his, I helped Chris get a couple of extra keys sorted out for his new apartment in town that he is sharing with Susan (they only had one key between them so had to keep calling each other to be let in). Then we went off to visit Niall in the money pit 'Domaine' to see if we could find a way of doing some work for him. Whilst nothing is agreed, we are making some progress towards working out a schedule and a specification and a price. We shall see.
And then finally, this evening, our first honeymooners booked to stay here, which is very exciting - and another first for 42rvh. All together now - aaahhhhh!!
Showing posts with label french lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label french lessons. Show all posts
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Speaking French
I have been having French lessons in a bid to finally try and raise my game here in every day communication. It caused a bit of a stir with Debrah when she saw the names Amelie and Ann dotted all over my diary - but they just happen to be the names of my French teachers. Next month I will try and meet some local girls whose names begin with the letter B !.
Amelie is a qualified teacher and I am paying her for proper lessons. She is very good and is very structured in her teaching. Somehow she speaks in a way that I can understand, and if I can't, she instinctively knows and rephrases what she has said. She is very clear and very precise and very patient and when I am with her I feel as if I can speak French. She has explained the difficult differences in the usage of 'tu' and vous' and also when to use 'savoir' and when to use 'connaitre' and has tested me on the past tense and future tense and tells me that I know it but just need to practice it. 'C'est tres facile pour elle de dire'.
Ann is a friend with whom I have a timeshare agreement - that is to say, we spend half an hour just talking in French and she corrects and helps me and half an hour talking in English and I correct and help her. This has been a less than successful arrangement so far because every time I arrange to meet her something comes up to do with the Apartments or my London job to cut short our arrangement. I suspect she will fire me soon for non-performance, especially as I am going back to London at the end of this week for eight days so won't be able to help her with her English for a while. I hope not, because although she is a little serious, she is a good counterpoint to Amelie's approach because it is less formal and more everyday.
If only it were that easy! Oh No - I live in a region that has a very strong local accent. In fact, this part of France has only really spoken French, as we know it in England, for the past 150 years - prior to that the whole of the south of France spoke Occitan, which is nearer to Catalan than it is to French. In fact French was the language of Northern France, the Capucins, William the Conqueror, Charlemagne etc and has only recently been spoken here in the south and is still regarded with some suspicion in many quarters.
So, when the Parisian born chef was here this past weekend, he told me, that on at least two occasions, he had been blatantly ignored to the point of profound rudeness by local traders who immediately recognised him as being Parisian because of his accent - despite him having lived in London for fifteen years. He went into a shop and asked for something, in fluent French, and they ignored him for five minutes before getting round to begrudgingly serving him. Whatever happened 1000 years ago with the Cathars and despite the fact that tax laws are made in Paris, the centre of government and, therefore, hostility - that is still rude behaviour to the extreme.
My upstairs neighbour - Brigitte (you see I already know a 'B') - is also originally from Paris and admits that she was unable to understand the local accent when she first arrived here.
Apparently, it is the same as only ever having heard the Queen's English and suddenly finding yourself in Newcastle or Liverpool. Alors! What chance do I have of being able to speak fluent French, when my own inability, the local dialect, the local prejudice and my own friends are conspiring against me. This evening my friend Pierre called, incognito, asking in very rapid French if I had availability for 3 weeks in July. I was taken in absolutely and failed the test completely - I just floundered - so much for my improved language skills.
Amelie is a qualified teacher and I am paying her for proper lessons. She is very good and is very structured in her teaching. Somehow she speaks in a way that I can understand, and if I can't, she instinctively knows and rephrases what she has said. She is very clear and very precise and very patient and when I am with her I feel as if I can speak French. She has explained the difficult differences in the usage of 'tu' and vous' and also when to use 'savoir' and when to use 'connaitre' and has tested me on the past tense and future tense and tells me that I know it but just need to practice it. 'C'est tres facile pour elle de dire'.
Ann is a friend with whom I have a timeshare agreement - that is to say, we spend half an hour just talking in French and she corrects and helps me and half an hour talking in English and I correct and help her. This has been a less than successful arrangement so far because every time I arrange to meet her something comes up to do with the Apartments or my London job to cut short our arrangement. I suspect she will fire me soon for non-performance, especially as I am going back to London at the end of this week for eight days so won't be able to help her with her English for a while. I hope not, because although she is a little serious, she is a good counterpoint to Amelie's approach because it is less formal and more everyday.
If only it were that easy! Oh No - I live in a region that has a very strong local accent. In fact, this part of France has only really spoken French, as we know it in England, for the past 150 years - prior to that the whole of the south of France spoke Occitan, which is nearer to Catalan than it is to French. In fact French was the language of Northern France, the Capucins, William the Conqueror, Charlemagne etc and has only recently been spoken here in the south and is still regarded with some suspicion in many quarters.
So, when the Parisian born chef was here this past weekend, he told me, that on at least two occasions, he had been blatantly ignored to the point of profound rudeness by local traders who immediately recognised him as being Parisian because of his accent - despite him having lived in London for fifteen years. He went into a shop and asked for something, in fluent French, and they ignored him for five minutes before getting round to begrudgingly serving him. Whatever happened 1000 years ago with the Cathars and despite the fact that tax laws are made in Paris, the centre of government and, therefore, hostility - that is still rude behaviour to the extreme.
My upstairs neighbour - Brigitte (you see I already know a 'B') - is also originally from Paris and admits that she was unable to understand the local accent when she first arrived here.
Apparently, it is the same as only ever having heard the Queen's English and suddenly finding yourself in Newcastle or Liverpool. Alors! What chance do I have of being able to speak fluent French, when my own inability, the local dialect, the local prejudice and my own friends are conspiring against me. This evening my friend Pierre called, incognito, asking in very rapid French if I had availability for 3 weeks in July. I was taken in absolutely and failed the test completely - I just floundered - so much for my improved language skills.
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