les Davey de France

 

Very popular now for holidays - some of the canal runs through ravishing countryside, I understand. 

A French church toilet. The French call these "Turkish toilets". I have never been to Turkey so I couldn't possibly comment. And I can't answer anyone's questions about these, whatsoever questions they may be.

This doesn't show the nasal ones - but there's 4 (ish!), nasalised versions of: . a postérieur (gr an d, bl an c) . backward c thingie (r on d, b on ) . greek e or epsilon (p ain , v in ) . joined together oe ( un ) so, un bon vin blanc or un grand pain rond The two I have problems producing distinctly are the on and the an, and when you look where they are it's not that surprising. They are next door neighbours.

I (Pat) found this in a pocket. It took a while to work out what it is . Alan dreamt the other night that he was driving in Britain on the righthand side of the road. He just COULDN'T get used to driving on the left. 

Honestly, reading in French is still a chore. One of the first things that happened when we arrived is that lots of people gave us books in French, so we have quite a library of Agatha Christies ( Christies Agathas in French, of course), countryside novels, political books by future presidents (!) and even some Readers Digest condensed novels. But reading in French is still a chore. Though Pat and I now read our Bibles in French, we would MUCH rather chuck our French Bibles away and go back to English, because reading in French is still a chore. Then there's the books we are set at DEFLE. Countryside novels set in Morocco, strange introspective novels about how hard it is to write a novel, or about mobile phones that ring on trains in China, or about cooking cuttlefish (I kid you not) or a man on a bus who has a long neck, a string round his hat and a button missing from his overcoat (that one is actually very entertaining). And history books about the battle of Verdun, of course....

For Alan, homework and paperwork. For Pat, the restoration of the crown to one of her teeth (we hope). So meanwhile why not cast glance at: http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2005/12/tripping_on_fal.html