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Tourangelle

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  1. "No one has actually said that they have noticed other people speaking French that way." I have!  My French husband  (bac+4) does that all the time, he uses "tu as"  instead of "il y a".  He's not from Normandy.
  2. no opinion on the schools, but Lyon is better than Grenoble to live in I think. It is cheaper than Grenoble It has a large international airport and excellent rail links The climate is better The city itself has an excellent transport system There is lots to do, cinemas, theatres, concert halls, evening classes The people are very enthusiastic about their city There are a number of pleasant festivals (la fete de la lumiere, le Beaujolais nouveau) I loved living in Lyon, and stayed there for 8 years.
  3. I totally agree with the above, the only exception being if you live in a big city (are there any in the Limousin?) where you might find a job teaching business English more easily.  I used to do this myself, and worked with people who spoke very minimal French, but this is only valid in bigger places (Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Lille, that sort of size) where there are lots of clients.
  4. Have a look in the yellow pages, but don't worry, your son will be given all the necessary information about lycées during the year, but it is a little too early just now.  Within the next month or so you will probably be invited to meetings and have the system explained to you.  You will not be expected to know.  However, I am surprised your son can't tell you, don't his classmates have brothers and sisters who have already been through the system?
  5. She's not eligible to work as a foreign language assistant through the central bureau (British Council) as you have to have done two years of higher education to apply.  I think she would find it easier to find a school that wants to take her on, which would then help with any paperwork.  They would presumably want a criminal records check and a health test of some kind.
  6. Good it is all going so well!  "A" means acquis, she can do whatever it is, and ECA means en cours d'aquisition, she is on the right road.  However unless something very odd is going on in your neck of the woods and all the kids in her class were born in the first eight months of the year, she is not the youngest in her class, the kids are put in classes according to their age January to December, not September to September, so they are all born in the same civil year.
  7. This is why there is always a negotiation element and why the price stated by the agencies is not the price that people pay.  It is so sellers can get out if something goes wrong and they so desire.  We considered a house on the market at 349 000, it went for 310 000, there is just such scope for negotiation. You look at the prices and remove 15%, or else it is a bad deal. 
  8. I think this is very much wishful thinking as Ryanair have increased the number of flights to Tours recently, and is starting a service to Dublin.  You can see why, around Tours is just much more of a tourist destination than Chateauroux.  Also, there is now a Poitiers to Birmingham flight, which starts any day now, as well as the Poitiers to Stansted, so it looks like they have made their choice of regional airports for the time being.
  9. Tourangelle

    Lyon

    Place Bellecour, I expect.
  10. Tourangelle

    Lyon

    Don't take a car, the traffic is terrible, but the transport system is fantastic, speedy, clean and efficient.  Get a day pass.  Don't visit the traboules in the Vieux Lyon area, but go to the Croix Rousse ones instead. This is still a working class are and there are some fantastic places to look out for in this area.  But walk up the hill, don't take the metro because there is absolutely tons to see.  Get a map and walk up la montée de la Grande Cote, take rue Neyret on your left and go and look at the amazing unfinished church.  Keep going to the impasse des Chartreux and look at the wonderful Church of St Bruno.  Then continue up to the top of the hill coming out on the Boulevard of the Croix Rousse.  Walk to the end, Rhone side (so east) and have a look over the city, it's a lovely view if they have finished building the underground car park.  The brasseries on the boulevard are fine, the Vera Cruz on rue Godard is very nice if you like Mexican, a five minute walk.  The big tourist attractions in Lyon are the basilica, worth a look, and the nearby Roman amphitheatre, which has a reasonable museaum attatched to it.  Avoid the restaurants in the area immediately underneath these two sites in the Vieux Lyon, they are overpriced and not great.  Also touristy, but frequented by Lyonnais, is the rue Merciere on the presqu'île, the middle bit.  There are some reasonable restaurants here.  Lyon also has a great China town, or more accurately Vietnam town, where there are some great places to eat.  It is is the 7eme arronidissement, one of the best and cheapest is la Jonque d'Or, rue Pasteur.  Another very attractive aspect to Lyon is the painted walls they have everywhere.  I think the best one is the one showing books, which is opposite the bridge that leads to St George station and is on the presqu'île.  There is another good one near to this going north of famous Lyonnais.  For hotels, I don't really know, because I used to live there, so hotels were not an issue.  Avoid around the Perrache area, especially to the south.  Anything around the Part Dieu station will be safe enough, and the transport of course is great.  Also, I think there are quite alot around the place de Charpennes, which is just in Villeurbanne (like a suburb, but it is actually a town) so could be overlooked, but should be cheap.  You can now walk along the banks of the Rhône 6ème side, which has been recently done and is quite nice.
  11. [quote user="allanb"] Incidentally, the UK name also implies that "Great Britain" is something different from "Britain", but that's another question.  Perhaps it has something to do with the Isle of Wight. [/quote] I always thought it was as opposed to Brittany, but thinking about it now, I wonder whether it is not more that the British Isles is GB and Ireland, and the largest part of this land mass is Great Britain, in the sense of big, not in the sense of wonderful?
  12. I thought it was ok, certainly don't not go to see it for the language element, because if you don't happen to know the local expressions, you just discover them with the character from the south.  I agree with the comments above and I also think it was suprising that with a film about stereotypes the main character didn't have more of a southern accent. I once had a trainee from Salon de Provence and I found him more difficult to understand than anybody in the film!
  13. Before we jump to conclusions, we don't know that the OP is actually English, the French often make the mistake and say great in something rather than at something!  So original poster, did the answers you got help?
  14. Perhaps it is a cultural thing, perhaps the French don't wish others on holiday with them?! For us it is part of everyday language, (think of the TV show) but I've never heard it here.  It is like "looking forward to seeing you", although you can say "j'attends avec impatience de te voir" I have been reliably informed that this is not a very "standard" thing to say at the end of a letter...
  15. But there are so many words in French that sound similar to each other, why change this one?  what about fish and sin? 
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