mercredi 13 mai 2015

This And That

English Conversation
The English conversation “rencontres” that friend Steve and I are conducting on Tuesday evenings continue to go well. Each Tuesday one or two of the regulars are missing (they usually email to say they can't come) and each Tuesday there are one or two newcomers, leaving us with 10-12 each week. We find this is about an ideal number, though if everyone came together we would have around 20, which might be hard work. We anticipated that different levels of competence in English might be a problem but that doesn't seem to be the case. The level of competence is within a manageable range and so far only one person has ruled herself out for the time being because of lack of understanding. Our ideas bank is beginning to run a little low, however, so we will be asking participants next time for their own suggestions. Hopefully, that plus some more brain rattling by Steve and I will carry us through to the end of June, when we will take a break until September.

Signs Of Summer
Events of one sort or another have started to happen which is always a sign that summer is nearly upon us. I went to Aigues Mortes on Monday and on Tuesday went with the boules crowd to a tournament in Sarrians, a fixture every year. A similar day at Beaumes de Venise will follow in a few weeks time, followed by celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Dauphin fountain, the first of the 11 in the village, and then summer officially starts with the Feu de la St Jean.

Last Monday, for the third Monday in a row, we ate our pizzas outside the Bar du Pont. It's the earliest that has been possible in the years that I have been here, a reflection of the clement weather we have been having. Roses, clematis and honeysuckle are all in full bloom at the front of my house and the perfume from the honeysuckle beside my front door and at the side of my balcony is almost overwhelming. So I'm happily spending some late evenings with a Calvados on my balcony, sniffing the honeysuckle and listening to the frogs' chorus across in the river.

Aigues Mortes
I went with the village club Amitie Mollanaise on a day's excursion to Aigues Mortes, which I found a quite intriguing little walled village. It was built by King Louis the 9th in the tenth century as a seaside fortress from which to launch crusades into the Holy Lands (a rather sensitive history in the current political climate). However, the sea has since retreated and the village now sits in an expanse of uncommonly dry land amidst the marshes of the Camargue. The village walls are truly impressive, having been maintained/restored to their former glory.

The excursion included a five-hour boat trip through the Camargue marshes along parts of canalised rivers. It was very relaxing, the more so in that the flora and fauna (birds) I observed in the first half-hour turned out to be the only ones on show for the full five hours. I suppose that is only to be expected in what are essentially homogeneous marshes. Nonetheless, it was good to see the white horses, black bulls, the pink and white flowers on the Tamarisk trees that were a virtual constant along the river banks and frequent patches of wild yellow iris. Lunch on the boat had Gardian De Taureau on the menu and I got no sensible reply to my question as to why we were eating the gardian rather than the taureau. Anyway, the meat was tender so it must have been a young gardian.

New Blog
I've had some feedback on my new blog at www.theelseclauseonline.com but only from friends and acquaintances so far, despite the first posting getting well over 200 hits. (OK, I know that is peanuts in terms of internet traffic but it certainly exceeds my coterie of close friends.) More problems are emerging from which decent rules for ease of use can be inferred and Air France is taking a bit of a pasting. I'm glad I'm not the only one who found their website seriously inadequate. I'm assembling a second posting that should be available in a few days.

A Joke
We ask participants in the English conversation “rencontres” to speak on any subject they choose for 3-4 minutes, having had the chance to prepare their talk in advance if they wish. Last week one participant decided to recount a joke, so here it is.

A man dies and goes to hell. Arriving at the gates of hell he asks the gatekeeper what happens next. The gatekeeper says the man has a choice of German or French hell. The man asks what the difference is. So the gatekeeper explains that in German hell he will be dumped in a pool of sewage with devils all around it; every time he comes up for air a devil will hit him on the head with a mallet. In French hell he will be dumped in a pool of sewage with devils all around it; every time he comes up for air a devil will hit him on the head with a mallet. The man says he can't see any difference so how can he choose? The gatekeeper replies that the man should definitely choose French hell. The man asks why. So the gatekeeper explains that in French hell half of the time the devils are on strike or they forget to fill up the pool or the mallets are broken.