Tongue-Tied

Accueil des Villes Francaises

Last Autumn, our estate agent friend who sold us our house three years ago, suggested that we check out Accueil des Villes Françaises. We'd never heard of AVF and were told that they offered French classes at all levels. We went along, signed up paying an annual membership fee of 26 euros and have not looked back.

Far from simply offering French classes to Dutch, UK, Belgian and other expats, the organisation seeks to support and encourage the integration of all newcomers to a town. AVF has more than 350 local offices all over France and about 11,000 volunteers. We were fortunate enough to be in town for our local office's welcome day. Forty-eight nouveaux arrivants (largely British but also French and Spanish) were taken on a tour of the town and shown around the Mairie by the Town Clerk who introduced us to the heads of the various departments. We then had an aperitif with Monsieur le Maire, who is also our deputé in the National Assembly followed by a lunch for a hundred prepared by other AVF members and volunteers. We were so impressed by the warmth of the welcome not only by AVF but also by the town administration.

Consider the difficult ride most new arrivals get in a strange country. It was so refreshing to come across people who took the attitude that, rather than marginalising the newcomer so that they remain different and wedded to their old ways,  one should seek to support their assimilation in every way possible . I can only begin to imagine how this would go down back in London or elsewhere in the UK.

What's all this got to do with me and learning French? Well of course we signed up for French lessons, then more besides. I'm not one of life's great extroverts and consider myself quite healthily antisocial much of the time. But that wasn't going to bring my French up to scratch. Neither would two hours a week formal tuition. So I jumped in both feet first with a sink or swim attitude. The life-belt of Madame Farrugia's unstinting efforts in my teens allows me to do that. Again, I'm grateful.  

I attend French Scrabble (developing a refreshingly surreal vocabulary e.g. salonnard ~ lounge-lizard, bride ~ flange ) and am learning to play Bridge. I do like competetive games and was described the other week as having the mind of an assassin which I took as a compliment. (It did sound nicer in French.)

If you haven't been to your own AVF yet, it might be worth checking out. http://www.avf.asso.fr .  I feel extremely fortunate with our local volunteers. And there's an expectation, too, that a nouvel arrivant will one day become a volunteer and offer the same support to others as they have received. Its an exchange -  "Ce n'est pas un chemin sens unique."