Forget everything I said about summer being gone – it’s back with a vengeance! C’est fantastique!
It’s Saturday and with Rob away at Donnington in the UK, it’s just the girls and me here at Chez Sherrard. So we three made an excursion to Annecy en velo (on our bikes). What a magnificent outing.
As we wove our way through the Jardin du L’Europe there was a wedding in progress and everyone looked so beautiful. We stopped for lunch in Annecy then cycled back past the Imperial Palace on the waterfront.
I’m so impressed with how well the girls are handling their bikes. They really are using the bike paths properly, staying in the right lane and keeping a good pace up. In fact I’m astounded at how far they rode – in total around 8 kilometers! (And of course we had to finish with the uphill climb to Veyrier – they felt the pain then!).
Near the Imperial Palace the girls took a swim in the lake alongside the swans and said it wasn’t even freezing today! And I’m taking on some French habits – I hadn’t packed my swimsuit because I didn’t think it would get that warm. So I decided if it’s good enough for the locals, I could do it too and I sunbathed in my bra and knickers. Ooh la lah! Bronte kindly pointed out that I looked ridiculous being in my underwear at the beach.
Brendan and Tam headed off yesterday for Marseille. It seemed like they had just arrived and then they were gone again but it had in fact been 6 nights. Amazing how time flies when your nose is buried in a text book. They had a fantastic run of weather while they were here, so they really did get to see the area at its best. We made some excursions down to different beaches – lunched at Talloires and had a picnic dinner at the beach at Veyrier with them. The girls really loved having bedtime stories from Bren and Tam. So now relaxed and refreshed they are off for new adventures with Italy in their sights. (Their itinerary sounds pretty amazing with stays planned in Positano, Venise and Croatia).
The French course Rob and I are doing is fantastic. I say WE are doing it, but in fact Rob now has missed three more lessons, so I think he’s going to find the going tough if he comes back next week. Each day of class covers so much ground and this really is quite a complicated language. We’re learning all about the past perfect, the imperfect, auxillary verbs, conditional forms and parts of grammar I didn’t even know existed! So in addition to learning French, I feel like I’m also revisiting grammar. It’s brilliant and already I’m more confident when I chat with Christoffe and Severine next door.
The course is really intense – it seems to me to be almost the equivalent of one semester of university level French being delivered in 14 lectures over a 20 day period. So even though the lecture is just 3 hours daily from Mon-Fri, with the homework added in and the two French excursions per week you feel like you are absolutely immersed in the language. I’m exhausted and exhilarated at the same time!
So mes amis, au revoir maintenant, je dois faire du devoirs pour ma lecon Lundi! Bisous, Sherridan
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