Mistral
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Posts posted by Mistral
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I'm visiting family in brittany at the moment and all the supermarkets are open on sunday mornings. This has been going on for years.
I'm never really in provence for the tourist season and my part is about as untouristy as you can get (all those oil refineries) so I can't say what "visitable provence" is like in the summer
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I remember seeing it at the cinema when it first came out. I'm not sure I understood it completely at the time (I've seen it a few times since) It's probably in my top 10 French films (probably in the first 10 I ever saw too) Ripoux 2 was watchable but nothing more, I can't remember if I've seen number 3, if i have then but it's so forgettable that I can't remember any thing about it.
We're staying with family at the moment so we'll be watching Dolmen tonight
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The state schools have to accept any child over 6 who lives in their "zone de recrutement" . My school gets several children every year who arrive during the school year. They are supposed to have a exeat or certificat de radiation to prove that they have really left their own school, but that wouldn't be expected from a child coming from abroad.
On the other hand, a private school will only take children if they have the space and I expect it would be more difficult to get a derogation
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And a number of these friends avoid visiting their families or only go under duress because these "family values" often seem to boil down to a lot of obligation to do what is expected of them and guilt if they don't.
Are you sure you haven't met my husband??
His parents brought him up to know how to cook, clean, but they didn't want him to be independant. They had (still have and he's 39) enormous trouble letting go. And yes, the result is the heavy feeling of obligation. He visits them because he feels he ought to not because he wants to.
Actually, I was thinking of a colleague who has no spare money at all because her son (late twenties) is a student in Paris "and you understand, he has so much work and he should enjoy himself in the little spare time he has" and another who works part time but "may go back to full time when her son is older and doesn't need her so much" He's 17.
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There seem to be more grandparents looking after children , I suppose because their parents are at work, than in uk. Perhaps because they can't afford creche. Pat
More probably because there aren't any places at the creche and because grandparents are free. Creche prices are generally income-related and you get some money taken off your taxes, but in some towns you have to put your child down on the waiting list at conception and in more rural areas they sometimes only have very small creches because they can't get the staff.
I think this has got something to do with french "family values" When my sister had her first child, my mum told her that she was definately available for babysitting and helping out, but no way was she going to be unpaid childcare. When I had my first child my in-laws seriously talked about looking after him even if they live 45 minutes away from us (we hadn't contemplated it for a minute) My sister in law took a year before she applied for a creche place because she assumed that her parents would look after the baby (and they still do 4 years on)
Maybe I'm cynical but I've always seen it as the older generation not being able to let go of their children. I know so many people who go on about how they have to help/support .... their children. I expect to be told the child in question is in their early teens and have a shock when I'm told they are in their thirties.
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Thanks Tourangelle. He takes German at his present school so I assume he'd carry on with that - if the others were just starting perhaps it would give him a boost to be a little bit ahead in one subject?
I know you said you were uncertain about sending him to the local school, do you know if that school actually teaches german? I ask because german is losing popularity at the moment and less and less schools are teaching it. My town is not a good example because we have so many families with Spanish or Italian origin, but only one collège (out of three) teaches german as a first language and none teach it as a second language. The lycée doesn't teach it at all anymore.
If he has been doing German from the start of secondary school, then you could look around to find a school that has German as first foreign language. He might be expected to take english as LV2 but it's not obligatory, I had one pupil who did german and italian (although this caused problems for his LEP after)
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SB, I would offer to send you my parents, but I'm keeping them for myself.
Not only do they know where the milk saucepan is (or would do if we had one) but they remember from one year to the next how the washing machine works and where the iron lives. Half their luggage is from cadbury's (and it's all for me!!)
For some unknown reason at least one of my kids is ill when they visist but they resist the temptation to check out the doctor's surgery and prefer to baby sit the other two while I do the waiting with a snotty/puking child (I'm going to have to work on that one)
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[quote]what does "à la mode de bretagne" mean,something I've missed .[/quote]
Sorry
The proper term is "cousin à la mode de Bretagne" and means very extended family. In Brittany everybody is a "cousin" even if the family link is that their great-great grandmother was the second cousin to your great-great grandfather's second wife. I thought it was just one of those old-fashioned linguistic terms (like the French learing "raining cats and dogs) and then I became part of a Breton family....
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SB, out of interest, are there any members of your family (and it's starting to sound like a family à la mode de Bretagne) who haven't spent hours at your local urgences?
Especially when a french person or several tell them how things are, as many french people have a real talent for this. A slight air of being condescending and obnoxious and most certainly 'right' and sometimes closing with 'pourtant c'est vrai' at which point 'fin' should magically appear, as those words signify the end of not only their closing argument, but that particular discussion.
TU, beautifully put.
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One of my ex-pupils said last week he was expecting his on 5th July
The results are by academie, here's the ministry page giving the links to the results in each academie site http://www.education.gouv.fr/sec/baccalaureat/resultat.htm
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When each of my kids had chicken pox, the doctor just prescribed an antiseptic lotion in case the spots got infected (he didn't look all that enthusiastic about it but he said it was the recent guidelines from the ministry) He said to use paracetemol if they had a fever, but that was it. I used some homeopathic remedies which I believe helped too.
I remember seeing one friend's daughter who had chicken pox and then, to add to the indignity, had a red eosine splotch on every single spot. For years I believed that French red ink pens had terrible leak problems because I kept seeing pupils (and teachers!) with red all over them. I still don't understand why people keep using red eosine. I've been told that it's so you can see where you've put it. But I don't generally have trouble with that with something transparent. Clear eosine hs been available for years but no-one seems to want to use it.
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Oh SB what a relief to read your message
It's been a long time coming. As a mother of a boy the same age, threatening to strangle him sounds pretty normal to me. Depending on how flexible/open the school is, it might be an idea to discretely ask them if he could have at least one of his friends in the same class in 5eme (I'm assuming he's going up)
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My answer is more or less the same as Val2's. I've been here so long and my life is so tied up in france, that I can't ever see myself leaving. My children may be bilingual, half French etc but in reality they are much more french than british. At the age they are, it would be possible to change countries with them. But there will come a time when they will have made their own lives and that's probably going to be here.
On the other hand, I would probably move up north like a shot.
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Brian doesn't seem to exist in french.
I have a Bryan in class at the moment, but he's the first I've ever met. It seems to be pronounced Bri- yann
Most french names are pronounced with the stress on the last syllable, which can change the sound a lot.
When naming our kids , we had to be careful not to use names which caused too many difficulties for French people (I had wanted Ruth, but that's out)
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Another trip planned!!!! A day-trip to Arles, only 12 euros hey, he was really looking forward to it, especially the Roman stuff. Guess what - cancelled, because there's a bus strike now organised for the same day.
12 euros!! That's quite a lot for a day trip. My 6F didn't pay that when they went last week, although we are a bit closer. Arles seems a popular one this year, we've got another trip going this week. Of course it goes well with the 6eme hist-geo programme and all that; and the new-look museum is very good
Pity about the bus strike.
Middle child is going to visit an "ecoforêt" next week.
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No, it's technically free. The whole thing probably cost me around £30. The only things you have to pay for are photocopies (did mine at school) a recent UK birth certificate, the translation of the birth cert and stamps. All the french paperwork is free and there's no need for a lawyer (didn't even cross my mind)
There are no exam fees, you have two interviews; one with the judge who checks that it's really you and you really want to become french and you sign everything. And another with the police who are supposed to fill in the "integration" form-they have a selection of language competance levels to fill in and then ask about whether you've tried to learn the language in france and whether you associate with french people. I've heard that people applying outside of france usually have lessopns at the alliance française as this can count in their favour. Between the two interviews, I think the police is supposed to check you out. I don't think they bothered that much for me, but I'm in a small town, I've heard that in bigger towns with a lot of immigration they can be much more invasive.
Having watched too many american films I was prepared for the FBI style interrogation to check we were really married (I almost went and checked what colour TOH's toothbrush was) but they even said he didn't have to bother coming in with me.
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Reading your post, it sounds so logical and straight forward, and that's how I thought it would be. But in fact, it was more emotional that I had imagined.
I know that you can ask for French nationality after, what, 5 year residancy or 2 years mariage, but I waited a lot longer than that. I needed to be sure that it was a declaration of intent I was prepared to make. The day I handed in the paperwork, I felt quite strange.
This all sounds stupid: by becoming french I don't lose any of my British nationality (and as a russian friend once said "it's not what's on the piece of paper, but what's in your heart") But it was still a bigger deal than I had imagined.
Apart from being able to vote, join the army or work for the impôts, being french hasn't changed much in my life. It's still a long, moderately complicated process which asked for paparework right left and centre (for goodness sake, did they really need my parents' and in-laws' birth and wedding certificates?) and several trips to the Tribunal. This is another reason why it took me so long to decide.
And yes, I applied for the reasons you quoted. I payed taxes, but couldn't vote for the people who spent them, I work for a french ministry, but don't vote for the minister.
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It all depends on where they first come across the word. "nice" is in the 6eme vocab programme (yes, there really is one) and so most french people have been taught it at 11. It's usually in sentences such as "my mum is nice" so the first translation they get is usually "gentil". I generally tell my pupils to try out "agréable" or "pleasant" as translations first.
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Incidentally, what are binmen called officially in France? Ingenieurs des Ordures/Dechets? M
Eboueurs.
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Most of my favourites have already been mentioned; duck, foie gras, tartiflette, raclette....
Then there's alouettes sans têtes, castel (a local cake) fondant au chocolat, the pizza from the local pizza van (just the idea of pizza vans)
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Yes, please (for the recipe.) Can't you get the 95% alcohol at the pharmacie? That's where our school nurse gets hers to make whatever her family alcohol is.
We're down to our last bottle of italian bought limoncello now and I'm not that tempted by the limoncé you see in leclerc and it's so nice with strawberries.
I'm in the wrong part of france to you, but thanks for the offer.
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Chauffour, can I have your limoncello recipe, please?
Why France and not italy? Well, I suppose my reply is linked to Val's comments about Italian not being taught in many UK secondary schools. I studied French and German and I happened to marry a frenchman. I suppose germany might have been a possibility if I had met a German instead but not Italy.
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I saw this here the other day in French - forgotten the title in French but the cover is the same.
I saw it the other day too. I think it was called "god save la france" It's come out in France much faster than "a year in provence" which took years.
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Some colleges have a section that is called SECPA. It is for pupils who are not doing so well.
And there are colleges where the kids normally board during the week that is often out in the countryside that takes on lost causes. If I have remembered properly it is called a Maison Familiale. You could contact the Inspectorate in your area and ask about such establishments
The SEGPA's are for pupils who are in "echec massif et durable" they will give a bais amount of teaching in french and maths and a lot of professional training in something like woodwork or cleaning. (it depends on the SEGPA) They don't do the full collège curriculum, but they are part of a collège. Children who go into SEGPA have to have an IQ check and an interview with a psychologue. the there is a dossier to fill in and a comission to pass. the classes are limited in size because of the amount of professional training. this means that there aren't always places available. They have been absolutely wonderful for some of my pupils
I don't know much about the maison rural (I think that's the term) but I know that some of my less "academic" pupils have gone to them with and have found them just what they needed.
You don't say what class she is in. There are some more adapted classes in 3eme (3eme PP, 3eme I;, 3eme PDA..) but she has to get there first. Some schools have adapted 4emes but these are much rarer
It would probably be a good idea to start by having a meeting with your grand daughter's prof principal if you haven't already done it. He or she should know what is available or be able to find out and will be able to advise you about how she feels/acts at school. And then you can always ask to see the Conseilleur d'orientation psychologue (COP) who probably does a day or so per week in her school. Or you can go to the centre d'orientation et d'information (CIO) The COP and CIO are sure to know about the more specialised schools.
Film alert
in French Culture
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I didn't enjoy Tais toi as much as some of the other Vebers although Depardieu/Reno was a tandem worth watching.
I avoided Dolmen in the end and watched L'aventure c'est l'aventure (ventura, brel...)
I haven't had a single galette since I got here. (loads of cidre though, most of it homemade:whistling