Charles

This one is for you Keith. On Saturday morning, I stopped in at one of our old haunts, le Marché de la Buffa. Charles was there manning his stall of fresh fruits and vegetables. I struck up a conversation with him in French and asked if he remembered me. He said he did indeed. Before I left, I took his picture and showed it to him. He smiled and added "Quel bel homme". I agree. 

Hôtel Villa Rivoli in Nice

This charming, boutique hotel is where I'll be hanging my hat for a couple of nights. Much to my surprise, I was upgraded to a larger room which is absolutely lovely. I was told that I was upgraded because I had stayed here previously (see blog Feb 27). In my humble opinion, the Interior Designer for this hotel was very skilled and paid attention to every detail. I love the decor and took many pictures. 

Below is a close-up of the canopy - c'est belle, n'est-ce pas?

The walls and shelves were covered in traditional French toile which simply means cloth in French.

The original toile patterns from the 1760's usually depicted pastoral scenes of the French countryside.

I love French curtains. Many are white embossed cotton or lace often with scalloped edges.

Here is a close-up of one of the lamps. Once again the ornate metal work seen on the canopy is repeated around the base of the lamp.

My modern bathroom.

This is the salon. There is a piano in the corner and guests are invited to play if they wish. You can also purchase a variety of beverages. There are doors to the exterior which open onto an intimate courtyard.

Just beyond the salon, you will find la salle à manger where guests are invited to enjoy a lovely petit-déjeuner. It is a buffet with a wide variety of choices.

The serveuse (server) even offers you an "oeuf à la coque" (a soft bolied egg). It is served in a beautiful porcelain egg cup topped with a "chapeau" knitted by the owner's mother I believe. 

The staff at the hotel from the front desk to the cleaning ladies are so friendly and helpful. They just can't do enough for you. The hotel is spotless too. Although it doesn't overlook the Mediterranean, it is only two and half blocks away. It is quiet and conveniently located close to public transportation, shops, restaurants, museums, the old city, markets and the theatre. I would highly recommend staying here if you happen to visit Nice. Thanks for finding this gem Marianne!

Graduation Day

It is with mixed emotions that I write this blog. On the one hand, I am relieved that school is over. It has been a very intensive and tiring four weeks. It is now time to relax and and rejoin my wonderful and supportive husband, my sweet dog and all my dear friends in Canada. On the other hand, I am sad to leave this beautiful country, excellent school and the amazing people that I have met here. 

A beautiful view of the shimmering sea from my terrace. I don't think that I will ever tire of it.

A view from the school overlooking the same port. It was absolutiely glorious outside.

On our final day, we had to repeat the same exam we took on the first day in order to measure our progress. I was really quite nervous, but managed to get through the initial part which tested our comprehension, audition and writing skills. Following that, we were given a short break at which time students, including me, gravitated outdoors to take advantage of the sun and warm weather.

We reconvened for a two hour séance pratique with Frederic, at which time we were called individually to meet with a prof to complete the oral part of the exam. I was tested by Sylvie whom I also like very much. I had lunch at her table one day and she made the subjunctive sound so easy with her explanation. "C'est super qu'il fasse beau aujourd'hui" (It's super that it is beautiful today.) 

At 12:30, all of the students had lunch together for the last time. The meals prepared by Natalie and her staff have been exemplary. Everyday the menu changed and I have eaten everything from rabbit to salsifis (a vegetable root that resembles white asparagus - I liked it). Following lunch, we participated in another séance pratique with Julien to review material learned in the past. As always, there were some good chuckles. During "La Pause" our respective profs called us to the classroom on an individual basis to review the results of our test and show us the comparison to our previous results. I was shocked by mine as I had fared much better than I anticipated. Bruno was very kind with his words and suggested that I had really improved over the four weeks and that my determination and hard work had paid off. He felt I had a good foundation of the language and now I need to spend time talking to people in French to build my confidence and fluidity. 

Last, but not least, the Grand Salon was transformed into a graduation hall. As we filed in after the break, we were given the words to the song "La Vie en Rose" by Edith Piaf along with a glass of champagne. 

To begin the ceremony, we all sang "La Vie en Rose" together and then Frederic, Master of Ceremonies, said a few words before he commenced issuing certificates to the graduates. 

Each student received a beautiful certificate accompanied by applause from the crowd. 

Classmates Dania and Lynn with their certificates.

I must admit I was getting a little worried as I hadn't been called to receive my certificate and there were only a few students left. Even though Bruno assured me I had improved significantly, maybe it wasn't enough to warrant a certificate. As it turns out, there were six students who received an Honorable Mention for their laudable efforts and improvement. My classmate, Kyle, was one of them and so was I. I couldn't be prouder!

This school has been an excellent experience for me. I know that I have made significant progress in both comprehension and speaking due to excellent profs, innovative teaching strategies, immersion in the language and culture, extracurricular activities and hard work on my part. I recognize I have a long way to go, but there are certainly worse things to do with my time and money in retirement. I expect I'll be back several times yet. In the meantime, I'm heading to Nice for a couple of days and then I face the long trip home to Canada.

The Last Day of Classes

In past blogs I've talked about some of the teaching strategies here, but this time I wanted to share a few pictures along with a description of "le laboratoire" or "la chambre de torture" as it is fondly referred to. Everyday for an hour, each class participates in the language lab. The picture below is where the prof is seated. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture with Bruno in his chair. From there, he has us work through a series of audio exercises to reinforce lessons taught in the classoom such as verb conjugations, pronoun placement etc. It is also meant to strengthen our listening comprehension and pronunciation. We repeat the same exercises over and over while he introduces different subjects, verbs, pronouns etc. for us to integrate into the sentence structure. The hope is, at the end, it becomes reflexive or instinctive rather than analyzing each word.

This picture is rather contrived. We definitely don't smile during the lab. Take note of "les casques" - headphones to listen to the exercises and the microphone in which we give our responses. 

Although the lab was rather arduous, I believe it was very useful. Below is a picture of some of my colleagues, Laila, Doug and Lynn in our tiny classroom. For the last two weeks, there were only seven of us in the class and three of us were Canadian!

On the last day of classes, Douglas kindly brought a bottle of champagne and chocolates for us to share. We enjoyed both as we finished our last debate on "country versus city living". Because Laila and Douglas were both leaving at the end of the day, we decided to give Bruno his gift of wine and chocolates along with a card signed by each of us. It was an absolute pleasure to have him as a prof and I thank him for his patience, support, humour and sage advice.

After school, Jackie (R) invited Larry and I to join her for a glass of wine on the terrace that we shared in our complex. What a lovely way to end the final day classes!

 

Lucinda

If you have read some of my recent posts, you'll be aware that the subject of my exposé for a class assignment was my blog. Several students in other classes heard that I was writing about my experiences while I was here at school in Villefranche and started to read it. Lucinda, a student from the Advanced 2 class, wondered why I hadn't posted a picture with her in it. So I pulled out my camera to take a photo and lo and behold, my battery was dead. On the last day of school I made a point of taking her photo to include in this blog post. 

Lucinda is presently retired, but has had an interesting work history. She was a chef and proprietor of a restaurant in Philadelphia. Following that, she was a Vice President with the Campbell Soup Company. Now she is having a wonderful time improving her French. 

Une Blague pour mon Blog

Our last restaurant excursion was a wonderful dinner and evening at a restaurant called Coté Jardin on the Place de la République in the old city. As before, we paid a fixed price for a fixed menu. My table mates were British, American and Swedish folks. We began the evening talking in French, but by the end of the night most of us had resorted to English. 

Some of the younger students from around the world.

Julienne, our prof, is on the left.

We had a choice of entrées - salade chèvre chaude or salade niçoise. This time I chose the salade chèvre chaude and was not disappointed. 

The plat du jour was either fish or lamb, and I chose the lamb. The portion was huge, but it was cooked perfectly. 

Now on each table, there were carafes of rosé wine and pichets of red. People helped themselves to whatever they wanted throughout the evening and the servers just kept replenishing them. At one point, we ran out of red wine and my colleague, Jane, asked (in French) for another pichet. I believe our server's name was Yves. He looked at her very seriously and said "non". I piped in and said "Monsieur, un autre s'il vous plâit". He returned a few minutes later with a pichet and handed it to Jane. She thanked him profusely and then she offered to fill my glass.  Of course I said yes and she began to pour from the pichet. It was water! The two of us started to laugh and Yves just grinned as he passed us another pichet that he held in his other hand. This time it was filled with our red wine. The joke or la blague was on us. Hence the title of my blog post.

Blog blunders

Needless to say, I am not particularly skilled when it comes to editing my posts. Periodically, I find an error in spelling or an omission in a post after it has been published. The only way I know to correct the errors and save the changes results in republishing the post. That in turn automatically moves it to the top of the list so it is out of sync. Unfortunately, most of my posts in Part 3 are out of order.  For that dear readers, I apologise. Once I get home, I will make an effort to figure out how to make edits without republishing. If any of you know how to do that I would be pleased to hear from you. I would also appreciate any ideas to help me with a new format, particularly when it comes to photo placement. Once again I apologize and thank you for your patience.

3rd Week of School

How time flies! It is now Saturday and I finally have some time to catch up on a few blog posts. Once again, the weather this week-end is cool and overcast so I'm not going to venture far from Villefranche. This week has been very full, just like the rest. On Tuesday, I did my exposé in French in front of my class. The subject of my exposé was my blog and I am so grateful to my step-daughter, Robin, who not only inspired me to write a blog, but also took the time to patiently teach me how to do it. My blog is really a personal account of my journey to learn French as an adult and my experiences and adventures along the way. Despite being nervous, I think it went fairly well. Now that all the students in our class have had a chance to present their exposés we have begun a series of debates which will conclude the final day of school. Topics range from wage disparity between men and women to issues around immigration. All students have to contribute to the debate using appropriate verb conjugations etc. and we take turns being monitor of the debate. The following day, as with the exposés, Bruno, gives us feedback and corrects our mistakes. 

I continue to take advantage of the extras such as the morning news segment, restaurant outings and cinema club. This week we watched a film called "Sur les Lèvres". It was a bit violent in parts so I had to avert my eyes a few times. The film had French subtitles which really helped me follow the story. As usual, Julen's synopsis also filled in some of the blanks. When I return to Canada, I am going to make a point of watching more French films. 

Each afternoon, we participate in a class called "Séance Pratique". The classes have been taught by a variety of profs and the subjects are meant to assist us with everyday situations including vocabulary (standard and familial) and customs. For example, we have learned how to greet people on the street, how to make a telephone call, book a plane flight etc. These sessions are generally a lot of fun as students take turns role playing different scenarios. This last session was a bit different. Intitially we were all given chef hats to wear. Then we learned how to make crêpes, but in doing so, we also learned the vocabulary for kitchen utensils, common ingredients and recipe methods. At the end, Neil, one of students came to the front and prepared the recipe alongside Julien. We were all offered a crêpe and a glass of cider. Once again, the school proved to me that it is a "class act". 

"Jay" and "Jo-Jo"

Julien and Neil, le chef du jour.

Neil enjoying his cider. His crêpe is already eaten!

Friday afternoon, we heard there was going to be a fund raising event this week-end to raise money for restoration projects in Villefranche. This event features artisans, music, and food and drinks to purchase. Several of us thought it might be fun, so we headed down early. As we were looking about for the precise location, we happened to run into one of our former classmates, Viveca and her friend, Kia. They were sitting on a park bench outside of a beautiful apartment building. It turns out this was the building where she was renting her apartment for the month. She kindly invited us in for a glass of wine and a chat. If all goes well, she hopes to purchase an apartment of her own in Villefranche in the very near future.

Viveca and Kia on the left; Dania, Lynn and Douglas on the right.

After a most pleasant visit, we continued on our mission to find the music, artisans, food and drink. Sure enough, we heard the same swing/jazz group that we had seen on Tuesday. By this time, more people were coming to the square. We wandered about for a bit and then went into the restaurant La Belle Époque for dinner and conversation. By the time we finished dinner and returned to the square, quite a few of the other students had joined in the festivities. We stayed for a short while, but the long week and subsequent fatigue had taken its toll. Up the hill and home to bed we went.

L'Espace Trinquette

On March 17, St. Patrick's Day, we were invited to an evening out with a buffet dinner accompanied by a swing/jazz musical trio. This time we went to the restaurant called "La Trinquette". We walked down to Port Darse on the other side of the Citadel and found ourselves in a warm and intimate space. The patrons offered us an appertif in the sitting room prior to moving into the restaurant. We sat at long tables and took turns helping ourselves to a lovely buffet of couscous, ratatouille, beef kabobs, salad and samosas. There were bottles of rosé and red wine on the tables for all to enjoy. For dessert, we had a choice of an apple or plum tart with ice cream and crème Chantilly. At the same time, the trio entertained us with some great music including old favourites like "On the Sunny Side of the Street" and "When You're Smiling". After a couple of hours and a few drinks of courage, Julien took to the stage with his bass guitar and sang a few songs, some of which required audience participation. He even sang a rendition of "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash. We nicknamed him Julien Cash. Needless to say, the evening was a lot of fun. The food was great, the company was superb and the music was delightful. Hopefully the following pictures reflect those sentiments.

Dania in the forefront with the trio behind.

The gent on the left is Julien's brother.

"Julien Cash". I think he is a singer/musician wannabe. 

Saint-Paul de Vence, Vence et Tourrettes-sur-Loup

Instead of classes today, we went on a guided excursion by coach to three nearby villages. An important element in learning to speak French is to have a better understanding of the culture. Indeed this field trip gave us some insight into French culture, particularly the arts, history and gastronomy. Unfortunately, the weather was less than stellar, but nevertheless, we had a wonderful day.

Our first stop was the La Fondation de Maeght, a contemporary art gallery in Saint-Paul de Vence. I had visited Saint-Paul de Vence previously (see blog Nov 11, 2014), but I had not visited this gallery. It is a unique example of a private European foundation. The gallery, which opened in 1964, was financed by Marguerite and Aimé Maeght and built by architect Josep L. Sert. Inside the gates, you will find 20th century modern and contemporary art in all its forms throughout the building, courtyards and gardens. 

Sculptures by Joan Miró in the gardens. This one was called Personnâge.

 "La Vie" by Marc Chagall.

Costumes de personnâges by Joan Miró. As a side note, we watched a rather bizarre video where actors dressed in these costumes performed a sketch before a crowd. They were certainly colourful and entertaining.

...another sculpture in the Miró labyrinth.

Bronze sculpture collection by Alberto Giacometti in the courtyard.

Songe et mensonge by Marco Del Re

Danse by Gérard Fromanger

I just happened to like this one...

Following our visit to the Maeght gallery, we were free to explore the village of Saint-Paul de Vence on our own. Here is a view of the old city surrounded by the rampart walls.

As mentioned in my previous blog, I was quite taken by the pretty stone walkways. It is hard to imagine what painstaking work it would have been to construct them.

There is a larger sculpture of this man bound by rebar at the Citadel in Villefranche. The tour guide there said it has been dubbed "the married man"..hmm What do you think Keith?

After a pleasant couple of hours of wandering through the village and enjoying a lovely lunch with some of my classmates, we met up with the larger group to wait for our coach before travelling to Vence.

Our next stop was a brief visit to the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence. Unfortunately, as in the Matisse museum, photos were prohibited. Hence, I will try to provide you with a brief written description. Matisse had surgery for cancer in 1941. He required nusing care and a young woman named Monique Bourgeois came to his aid. She nursed him to recovery and they became devoted friends. In 1946, she entered the religious order of the Dominicans and was ordered as Sister Jacques-Marie. He designed and built the Chapel and all of its elements as a thank you to his devoted friend. He considered it to be the most challenging work of his career and his masterpiece. The Chapel itself is a modest, simple and small building. The interior is entirely white except for the stained windows on one side wall and behind the altar. The stained glass is in vibrant green in the shape of cacti leaves, blue and yellow. The other walls are white ceramic tiles with abstract drawings done in bold black strokes. One mural is of St. Dominique, the founder of the Order, the next is Madonna and Child and the rear wall depicts the 14 stations of the cross. The church is a stark contrast to many that I have visited - definitely a statement of minimalism. There is a small exhibition room attached to the church that houses several Matisse originals and some of the priest vestments that he designed as well. 

Our final destination was the pretty artisan and medieval village of Tourrette's-sur-Loup. It is also known as the Violet village.  Violet ice cream and gelato are among some of the popular products made here.  A couple of my classmates tried the ice cream and said it was delicious.  By the time we arrived, it was beginning to rain which put a damper on our exploration. However, we did roam along some of the narrow streets through vaulted passage ways. In my opinion, this village has the charm of Saint-Paul, but is much quieter and less "touristique". 

 

Julien, our fearless tour guide and prof responsible for extracurricular acitivities. 

Wouldn't you just love to live on this street? ... if only it had been sunny.

Very pretty village n'est-ce pas? 

It was a most pleasant day and once again we are grateful to Julien and the school for the opportunity.