It's been rather hectic around here the last few weeks. We had the lovely Paul and Kate to stay for eight days - our first house guests since we moved to France in January and such easy ones. They are equally happy with their own company as with others and being tired Londoners, they helped us to appreciate, if reminder were needed, why we are here. They were also considerate, giving us a wodge of cash on the day of their arrival towards the week's food bill.
During their stay, I had a busy time, French-wise.
The Thursday and Friday I was on a training course at AVF (the previously mentioned Accueil des Villes Francaises). This was offered to all volunteers who staff the welcome desk. We were fourteen in total, seven of whom were English. There was some nervousness amongst us as the whole course was in French, including the excellent two-hour lunches, but we survived. No, we did more than survive, we blossomed. All of us noticed an improvement in our ease and facility with the language, due to the two days' total immersion and the warm encouragement of the other participants and Véronique, our excellent formatrice. For the first time ever, I found myself speaking with confidence and off the cuff, without weighing every word and torturing myself with twisted syntax and sentence construction. I even did ROLEPLAY, and found that my personality was coming across in French rather than being lost in nervous translation.
My immersion continued on Saturday and Sunday as that weekend was a choir practice (the Choeur Departmental, also mentioned in a previous blog). This was our penultimate rehearsal before a series of concerts throughout the region in May. I had expected some tension as we still seem to have a good deal of work to do, but no, all was well. I even asked my first question in a rehearsal in front of fifty-nine others. "Monsieur, pouvez-vous verifier l'interval entre les mesures trente-six et trentre-sept, s'il vous plait." Nobody laughed, everybody understood and I was given the note I'd requested. I then heard a resounding chorus of "Halleluiah" à la Handel, but I think that was just in my head. The language I'd used wasn't complicated, and I believe it was correct. The amazing thing was that I'd asked the question as I would have done in English, no fuss, no drama.
Come Monday I was wrecked, but still able to enjoy Paul and Kate's last two days with us. And as we dropped them off at Carcassonne airport we felt as if it was our holiday that was at an end. We were taken over by work for the rest of the week before the Easter weekend.
It was on Easter Sunday that the previous week's endeavours were rewarded. We'd been invited by a friend from the choir to an Easter Lunch to celebrate his birthday. We arrived in the seaside village of La Palme (having just spotted our first flock of flamingoes on the nearby étang), pot plant and bottle of blanquette for him, and a jar of homemade Lemon Curd for madame, only to find ourselves in our first totally-French lunch party. It was rather clichéd, but wonderfully southern European - eighteen of us sat for five hours around a long table underneath a pergola covered in vines which had just popped their first leaves of the season. We tucked into the only enjoyably edible oysters I've ever tasted, followed by barbequeued meats (not a chicken wing in sight), salads, cheeses, birthday cake, fine wines and lots of good-natured Brit-joshing, most of which we understood. As many of the group were members of various choirs, we were treated to some very harmonious four-part renditions of French favorites, with occasional sotto voce explanations of some of the racier lyrics by Brigitte, seated to my right. Such a day! There was an ease about the afternoon which would not have been possible without all the French exposure through choir and AVF.
If a payoff was needed for the stresses of integrating into French life, this would be it - relaxing on a dapple-shaded terrace, in delightful company, on Easter Day, with the smell of the sea on the breeze. No matter what our difficulties might be and despite France's current economic and social travails, we are glad to be in such a country.
C'est pour ça que nous sommes là.