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Published: March 27th 2013
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Trompe-l'oeil de la Place Saint Roch
The tables are real but the windows (including church reflection) and the people sitting on the steps are not! K- I studied French at school between the ages of 11 and 18 but to say I was rusty would be an understatement. However, we were about to spend 5 weeks en France and I was determined to dust myself off. First stop therefore was French school.
My chosen destination for this potential humiliation was Montpellier (yes, autotext - the French one is spelled this way!), the capital of Languedoc-Roussillon. It is a very pleasant city on the coast of the South of France with a huge student body (around 70,000) and approximately 16 language schools! My chosen establishment was Ecole Klesse. And to immerse myself more thoroughly I was to stay with a host family. Ulp.
Both decisions were fantastic ones and I thoroughly enjoyed my time here. Classes were fun and relaxed with a massive emphasis on spoken French - in fact only French was spoken. If you didn't understand something then the teacher explained it a little more - in French. My fellow students were aged about 12 (OK - the oldest was 23) and mostly Swiss-Germans. They were very sweet and as I wasn't here for a social life it was not a problem. But
wow - hanging around with 20 year olds really made me feel every one of my 35 years 😉
My lovely hostess, Danielle, did not speak English so I was thoroughly immersed and I came on leaps and bounds, even watching French soap operas in the evening and getting the gist (OK there are huge similarities to English soap operas but still!) It is true that if you HAVE to do something then you make sure you get good at it very quickly. Not having the option of speaking English also meant that I didn't get embarrassed that my French was bad, which is one of the main reasons I fail to improve. This meant I practiced constantly and amazingly - I got better! I certainly was not fluent but as I practiced in the following few weeks I felt that this was definitely a language I could master. In fact, on a future night as we ate dinner at a B&B with 4 non-English speakers I managed to hold my own in a 3 hour conversation covering the Californian fois gras ban, bees, motorbikes and plumbing. At least I am pretty sure that's what was being discussed!
Promenade du Peyrou
Arc de Triomphe Montpellier and Louis XIV Statue Montpellier is a very pleasant place to stay and as it was June the weather was lovely. Classes ran from 9-12 and I had a private lesson on 3 afternoons which meant there was lots of time to explore. I spent a relaxed afternoon or 2 at the beach and also pottered around the old town and food markets. Danielle was a great cook and we had 3 or 4 course dinners every night so I also started running again which was a little weird after 13 months off (this is a late blog and I have just run a Marathon 10 months later so I can confirm that running is just like riding a bike!).
It really was a great week and I could have happily stayed for a 2nd. However, Mark was returning from the US to meet me so I caught the train up to Limoges where we were visiting my Mum and her partner Don for a few days. At least I sort of caught it. In a very un-Kate moment I decided the train left at 10.30am and did not check my ticket. It left at 9.45am. And there is only one train a
day. My French may have been up to it but Danielle kindly stepped in to help. Unfortunately no refund was available but I could travel the next day. However, my Mum was waiting and Mark was also en route. So I stumped up a huge amount of Euro (the equivalent of a couple of days travel in Asia!) and traveled a tortuous route to arrive 12 hours later Chez Maman. There is a reason that I am a paranoid organizer and ticket checker - because I am absolutely useless if I am not!
A week was not enough. I plan to go back in due course and do several more weeks of study. And if Mark comes with me then we will have to have 2 host families so we can both be thoroughly immersed!
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