EmilyA

Here http://www.unicaen.fr/decouvrir/universite-inter-ages/ It is called the U3A in the UK but UIA here.

Why would you need to set up a separate one? The existing UIA is really good. There are quite a few Anglophones at existing branches, I think.

Not really a recipe but here goes. I have a tagine (Emile Henri) which keeps it all very moist with a minimum of liquid, but any old casserole will do. I chop onion, garlic and meat and add spices - normally raz-al-hanout but you could use cumin, coriander, turmeric, saffron etc. Leave it for an hour or two to pick up the spice flavour. Vegetables are normally a selection from squash, courgettes, aubergine, beans (any kind), tomatoes etc etc I either add chopped dried dates / apricots and a teaspoon of honey or preserved lemon and olives. Lamb would be the former, with fish or chicken the latter. Towards the end I add nuts and some chopped spinach or chard. I add just a bit of water, cover tightly and cook for an hour or two, depending on the meat. With fish I cook the tagine and then pop the fish in for the last few minutes until cooked.

We don't have puddings, cakes or refined carbs for health reasons in this house, so soups and casseroles feature a lot. Recent winter food has included a hearty oxtail casserole and lamb shanks with borlotti beans. Tonight we are having a tagine with leftover guinea-fowl, butternut squash, jerusalem artichokes and courgettes from the garden. I also cook a lot of curries and Middle Eastern dishes (obviously avoiding rice and couscous).

Strangely enough, we have just been watching Le Chagrin et La Pitié again. I do not think that anything can surpass the raw power of the personal testimony in that film. No wonder it was banned for so many years.

My grandson is on the autistic spectrum. Despite the fact that they live in Spain and his mother and grandmother speak only Spanish, he much preferred to speak English a very small child and didn't speak Spanish until later (which was tricky for them). He used to watch CBeebies and copy the different accents perfectly. Once he went to school Spanish became his first language. My granddaughter has much more of a Spanish intonation when she speaks English. I suspect it is because she doesn't have a female / child model for the language (apart from Skype). When she is with us and her English cousins she comes on in leaps and bounds. They definitely learn in different ways.

I find a lot of French language learners find it difficult to stop saying, "I am living here since"... That is obviously another confusion from L1.

Oh of course that is true Norman, you can't translate literally, but I didn't think that is what the link was suggesting. Actually my bi-lingual grandchildren do do that sometimes though. My granddaughter sometimes says "for what" (por qué) instead of why. Despite "one parent one language" as the house rule they do get in a bit of a muddle sometimes. We just keep modelling the correct structure for them.

Yes I agree - I would hate to live in a ghetto and quite like being the only Brits in the village. I don't think we have quite the same concentration of ex-pats / lifestyle migrants here in Normandy - but then I tend to avoid the social circuit, so I may be wrong. However long I live here, I don't think I could learn to love the local cuisine (pork, apples, tripe and rice pudding), the dress style and the relentlessness of the five annual village events which have to be exactly the same in every detail every year (though I do go to them). The smell of curry will always spread round the hamlet on a Friday night from my house.

I think it depends what you mean by culture. I will always want to watch films, read books, have lengthy discussions in English as well as French. I will always want to explore the culture of other countries as well. I will always be British in France even though I speak French, study in French, have French friends and take part in village life, including serving on the council. My son has lived in Spain for over twenty years, speaks the language fluently, has a Spanish wife and half Spanish children; he would still say that he is an Englishman living in Spain. Some of my French friends have children who live and work in the UK. I think they would be horrified by the idea that they had to somehow become British. I do know a few British people who don't mix with the local community and I think that is ill-mannered and wrong, but frankly most of them now seem to have gone back to the UK. I don't have much time for narrow-minded patriotism or nationalism to be honest. Speak the language, understand the culture as much as you can, respect the way of life, be a good citizen - yes to those things, but I would not want to try and pretend to be something I am not.

Some of the stuff in the link is good, Mint, but I absolutely disagree that to learn a second language you have to "let go of your first language". That doesn't fit with what we know about language learning and bi-lingualism. Children learning a second language do much better if they have a rich first language on which to draw and it is surely in nobody's interest to lose a language in which they are fluent. I think as an adult language learner you need to be clear about your objectives (chat to neighbours, deal with everyday life, write a dissertation) have a structure to your learning and have sustained exposure to speaking, listening, reading and writing in the target language. I agree that listening to radio, watching TV, reading in French and talking to a range of people is necessary, but I certainly don't think you have to cut yourself off from your own culture. One thing I have personally found difficult is to seek out the opportunities to have the kind of discussions and debates that I would normally have in English. I am now studying with the U3A and this is helping. I haven't used it for French, but for learning Spanish from a basic level I have found the free Duolingo app excellent.

Oh and Pat, it wasn't USA based, it was the pioneering work of the wonderful Lorna Wing in London who contributed so much to our understanding of the condition.

Thanks for those, Norman - really interesting. Of course the discussion about whether it is or isn't ASD based on certain behaviours just shows how important the notion of a spectrum is to understanding autism. I think Camus could have been describing behaviour he saw, but I come back to the extraordinary insight about photosensitivity and wonder how he knew that.

I think it is that moment when he is so disturbed by the light and then shoots that made me realise. Extreme sensitivity to light and noise is such a well-documented part of ASD. And then of course all the reaction to the mother's death, classic symptoms really. So do you think Camus was just describing someone he knew? I don't think Asperger's work was widely known when the book was written.

It is indeed known as Autistic Spectrum Disorder and has been very helpful to people working with children and adults who have this condition. It includes people who have no social or verbal communication through to those who can function very well in society. The condition normally includes the triad of behaviours; problems with communication, problems with social interaction and repetitive behaviours. My grandson is at the high end of the spectrum and manages well in mainstream school in another European country. I gather that France was for a long time stuck with the now discredited notion of autism being "caused" by "refrigerator mothers". This can't have helped the development of strategies to support people with ASD in France. Incidentally I recently re-read L'Etranger and realised that it sounds exactly like a description of a man with high-end ASD or Asperger's Syndrome. Has anyone else noticed?

So would something the size of a UK supermarket delivery van just be a camion then?

My Granny used to talk about trips out on a charrerbang" or just a "charrer"! With camionette I was trying to describe the vans that bring your on-line shopping in the UK. Perhaps the underlying concept was the problem.... I also tried to explain that my daughter's shopping arrives with Darren in the Strawberry Van, but gave up on that one fairly quickly.

Le bastion is the only exception I know (because it isn't formed from a verb?) Just out of interest what do people say for "van"? Camionette seems to get a bit of a blank look round here.....

I think about her too. People keep asking post Brexit about how health cover works without an S1 and I think, "I know this stuff because I worked with Deb on the campaign in 2007/8”. A brave person who put her ideals into practice.

I think I read that the river "bacs" were on strike too, but I am not sure now. We travelled last week when the Ponts de Normandie and Tancarville were blocked and got across the Seine using the Pont de Brotonne which has not (so far) been blocked. We left the autoroute at Yvetôt and cut across country to the bridge then picked up the A28 further down.

Just to warn anyone travelling to Ouistreham for the ferry that the southern side of the Caen ring road is blocked (the bit past Mondeville shopping centre and the autoroute to Paris). The northern side with the turning to Cherbourg is OK at the moment.

Do we get a report? Did you have to sing that "allez allez allez" song? Was it a pièce montée or a "weddeeng-cake"? Was her robe bien adaptée a sa morphologie? Do tell....

I am always shocked by how casual the dress code is at weddings here. Definitely not suit and tie, I would say. We normally give a present, but others give money and quite a few seem to take plants. Mostly it seems to be rose petals rather than confetti and bubbles are popular. You could try watching "4 mariages pour 1 lune de miel" at 5pm on TF1. It is a ridiculous programme really but I love it (c'est trop too much, trop bling bling, je n'aime pas le wedding-cake etc). You will be an expert in a week!

No, no VPN on. They are obviously getting my requests for service client as I get the automatic response, but nothing after that.

Thanks Norman. We tried from the PC at 10am yesterday and still nothing. Since they are not replying to my requests for help either, I am not sure where to go from here. It is over a week since the first request for help from the service client.