It's been a quiet week in Pessac

or at least I hope it has. ¤

We have been in Brittany in the gorgeous little town of Belle-Isle-en-Terre staying in an adorable little gite while attending our French association's Assemblée Générale and also preaching to a very gracious church at Guingamp yesterday.

I'll pop some photos on when I can get this phone to synchronise with the pc.

Belle-Isle is gorgeous and Brittany is wonderful in the summer - even when the weather is not brilliant. Also Gwilym and Catrin clicked extremely well with our colleagues the Hartiels' children, Joseph and Lydie. However it is 6 hours drive each way - dual-carriageway all the way - so we are not going anywhere for a while... please...

¤ in fact while we were away the church met at our house yesterday - 35 people by all accounts, which is too many for the number of chairs we have. Oops ! Just as well we were not there.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor
Read more

The Kitchen

 Our new apartment will be equipped with toilet and bathroom etc. but not with anything at all in the kitchen. Not even a sink. So we need to purchase a kitchen and engage a kitchen fitter. A friend who knows how to fit kitchens suggested buying an Ikea kitchen. "They're guaranteed twenty years and they honour their guarantee", he said. "I've proved it". Well I don't know any other kitchen laces in France, and I can't imagine there's much that's cheaper than Ikea, so I was happy to accept his advice. So it was that on Monday I booked an appointment with the Ikea Kitchen Planning Service in the centre of Bordeaux. The woman was friendly. "You've already started the process", she said, (have we?) "so that will save us lots of time". "What are you aiming for?" Something not too country, something discreet, something that can adapt to whatever colours we put in the rest of the room. She understood our dislike of
Read more