This week has been another busy one, and I don’t think the business will let up until the end of my stay really, the time which is left is filling up fast.
Last Thursday evening I went to Pascale’s house for dinner and to say goodbye. We had an aperitif on the balcony in the early evening sunshine and then a lovely three course meal, with her husband and son. (I’m wondering if I should’ve said four course meal… we had two puddings, because there was a slight misunderstanding and I took one along but she’d made one too!) They’re a friendly family and I really enjoyed my time with them. My cultural knowledge grew when they showed me a clip of a national competition which used to happen every year for around 30 years in France and was really popular but no longer runs. It’s basically a dictation, and the competitors write as the host speaks, trying to not make any errors. The person with least errors wins. Dictation? What’s so interesting and challenging about that? There are lots of endings of words which are pronounced the same but spelt differently in French, and the dictator throws in plenty of difficult words that are not very common. It’s also something for all ages to participate in, as they have a children’s category and many of the French love their language. Whole families used to sit in front of the television giving it a bash. Afterwards the host of the competition goes through the whole text explaining where people have gone wrong and why.
On Friday night, I had my good friend Lucile for dinner and a sleepover. We also attempted baking scones but it didn’t quite work as I’ve got the wrong kind of flour. I’ve always thought of baking as being fairly simple (depending on what recipe you attempt of course!), but it becomes a whole lot more complicated trying to reproduce stuff in a different country. Anyway… we had a really lovely time together.
On Saturday evening it was time for a youth group social, namely a laser game and pizza night. This suited me down to the ground. There were only 7 of us (including 3 leaders) which was a bit disappointing, we found out at the last minute that 3 weren’t coming. Nonetheless we had a great time together; I’m really going to miss the group. I didn’t play the laser game to my usual standard coming 5th out of 7, but it was good to see some of the others happy with their positions! The pizza, cake and ice cream with a few games of Maffia squeezed in afterwards was fun too.
On Sunday, I went to the French speaking church in the morning and headed off to the beach with Nathan and his family afterwards. (The weather last weekend was amazing!) We stopped off for a picnic on the way next to a river and drove on to ‘La Panne’, in Belgium. We strolled along the beach and I dipped my feet in the water, we sat down for a bit of cake and chatter and then later on we walked along the promenade. After that we went to a restaurant and they stuffed up the service quite considerably which spoilt the meal a bit, but what they served was tasty. We had another stroll afterwards and the sun was beginning to set, it was beautiful. It was a fantastic day.
Monday here was a bank holiday and the sun continued to shine. I went to eat lunch at Catherine’s house and her daughter and two grand-daughters were there too. The baby didn’t stop smiling and giggling, which was lovely and very infectious! Afterwards, Catherine and I headed out to a place called Arras which was lovely. We went on a tour of the ‘boves’ (underground tunnels) and up to the belfry to a beautiful view. We also wandered around the town a bit and I got a lesson on architecture and furniture and all sorts. In French of course. I’ll admit, (but maybe you already guessed?) that I didn’t understand everything! Still, she was happy chatting away and I was doing my best to understand!
Over and out for now,
Fiona x
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