Yesterday afternoon I headed into Carlton for an afternoon at a French theatre.

I had arrived early and drove down Rathdowne Street, somewhere I hadn’t been in years. I parked the car in Canning Street which had a great view of the Melbourne skyline.

The theatre was in the corner of this street and as it was early, I decided to go for a walk around the block to kill some time.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the Carlton Baths! I went in through the double doors and told the lady at the desk that back in 1978, it’s where I learned how to swim. She invited me to come in and take a look at the pool. It was obviously modernised since then but I remember the walls around the pool. She told me that the children from the nearby Carlton Primary School still come to the pool for lessons – just like I did many years ago.

Later, I had a cup of coffee at a nearby cafe and started a lovely chat with a young man who was reading a book. I love seeing people read books in public!

Finally it was time to get to the theatre.

I saw my fellow classmates gathering outside this tiny theatre and ready to go in.

The play was called Love Struck or La Surprise de l’Amour by playwright Pierre Marivaux about how love can be engineered between people. You can read more about it here.

It was the first time I had gone to a French theatre. It was tiny and we were all sitting quite close to each other. To be honest, I was thinking more about not catching something but then I thought, “what if I don’t understand what they’re saying?!”

I needn’t have worried. The subtitles were shown above the heads of the actors on the wall so I could understand what was going on.

Overall, I enjoyed the play and the Saturday afternoon and vowed to come back again and walk around Carlton soon. Maybe even come and have a swim at the baths!