Last night I attended a lovely French dining experience with fellow classmates from our French School. Our teacher Nathalie had organised an end of term dinner at the nearby Providore Cafe on Hampton Road. Chef Guillaume laid out a fantastic charcuterie spread of French products like hams, terrines, butters, cornichons (pickles), cheeses and delicious confitures […]
Delectable Desserts
Every Tuesday afternoon, I have French classes. Our teacher serves us dessert at the end of the class and it’s fair to say I’ve had some delicious cakes in this class. Today, she pulls out a large box of hamburgers! My first thought was “this is different! No cake?” The mini hamburgers were actually the […]
La Surprise de l’Amour
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 […]
Visit to Bastille Day French 🇫🇷 Festivities at the Queen Victoria Market
What a glorious sunny Melbourne winter’s day! Today I decided to head into town to see the French 🇫🇷 Bastille Day winter markets at the Queen Victoria Market. I hadn’t been there in many years so I was keen to see how the place had evolved. It’s usually quite busy on market days with the […]
Tasting Raclette
One of the things I love about my French school is that our teacher includes cultural experiences within the lesson. We speak in French and then we learn various cultural and traditional aspects of the country. Today was our last lesson for the semester before a three week break and she put on a “raclette”. […]
If You Can’t Travel to Paris, Go To Bendigo in Regional Victoria
It was a very long time since I had a school excursion so on Saturday, my French School organised a day trip out to regional Victoria, the old gold town of Bendigo to see the French Impressionism Art Exhibition of Life in Paris during 1880-1925. And shock horror, we were all going to go out […]
Learning Inclusive Language for French
We had an interesting lesson in French today where we talked about inclusive language in French. To be honest, I thought that anyone who doesn’t identify as male or female would have used “vous” which is the equivalent of “they” or a formal “you” in French but I was wrong. The pronoun iel is used […]
Cafe Rando
Once a month on a Sunday, our French School has Café Rando, an informal and leisurely beach walk at the Rickett’s Point Marine Sanctuary followed by a coffee at the beachside cafe there. It’s an opportunity to meet other students and Francophiles and bavarder en français. 🤣 What a stunning day! We have been lucky […]
Learning a Language According to Me
I’ve been watching my husband using DuoLingo to learn German. It’s that little ding when he gets something correct, that I now hear every night. 🤣 However, when he gets something wrong, he becomes frustrated because he loses points. He has to repeat something and then he can’t move on to the next level. Welcome […]
When You Can’t Travel…
Just sample produce from another country you’d like to visit. My French 🇫🇷 classes started again today. I always enjoy the classes at My French Journey in Hampton because Nathalie makes them so interesting. The term goes over ten weeks and our teacher also organises various events such as Sunday walks, book clubs and even […]
Champagne & A Little Bit of Bûche de Noël
So it seems my little virtual jaunt through Rimes recently to explore the champagne houses, vineyards and underground caves stocked with champagne came in handy. While YouTube can only go so far in firing up my imagination, there comes a time when you simply need to “do it for real”. So it wasn’t exactly a […]
French Markets in Melbourne
Our weather in Melbourne has been wet, cold and miserable. As an indication, I’m wearing a scarf and beanie at the moment – unheard of at this time of the year. The constant grey dampness is affecting my mood. I don’t mind cold weather – it’s when it just constantly rains for days that affects […]
My French Journey
It’s been interesting to be learning French these last few years. It’s now well and truly ingrained into my life. I cannot go a day without listening, watching, writing or talking French. When you learn a language, you pretty much should make a pact with yourself that it should be part of your life. And […]
Another Second Hand Book Haul
I bought some more second hand books yesterday. Here they are:
Achievement Unlocked: I Speak French
In the last few months, I changed from one University of the Third Age French class to another. It was unfortunate that I left the first one even though I enjoyed the class however, it reached a point that I realised I needed MORE conversation than grammar classes. Don’t be under the illusion that you’re […]
Virtual Trip to Lyon
It’s unlikely we will be travelling anywhere overseas for at least another few years but thankfully, we have an abundance of wonderful videos, programmes and other resources to do virtual trips instead. Some time ago, during the pandemic lockdowns I created a Virtual Tour of France where I created an itinerary for 5 days that […]
La Bohème
Annoying my neighbours by playing this song in the house quite loud. I dare you not to shed a tear. (For the song, not me).
Hier Encore
La chanson nous allons étudier la semaine prochaine. Dis-moi. Aznavour a raison. Une chanson triste à commencer mon jour. Où est passée ma vingtaine?! 🤣
I Shouldn’t Complain About Work…At Least I Didn’t Make A Lot of Holes….Les Petits Trous
This is the song we studied in French class so now I can’t get it out of my head…. Puis, I started to think if I did a search en francais about songs that have been created by AI, je l’ai trouvé ça. (Heureusement, il n’y a pas de chansons de Gainsbourg. Phew).. I’m mixing […]
I Wagged School Today
I did a Ferris Bueller. I wagged school. I didn’t feel like going to the U3A classes today because I had been playing the ukulele and practising French in my own time all weekend. Those classes could wait another week. Instead I wanted to walk the city streets and have some time to be in […]