23rd June 2013

Everything was set. The long-awaited Birmingham guests were arriving. Nothing could go wrong...Sunday rose with glorious sunshine. Friends arrived, all smiles.  First trip: the capital of the Tarn region, Albi - Cite Episcopale, listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Toulouse-Lautrec Museum was good, we gazed at the Cathedrale Sainte-Cecile, the largest brick cathedral in the world, and we were lucky to see a bride and groom. But then the wind blew and the mini-train was cancelled. Literally, a blow. Tuesday we did Toulouse, the pink city because of the sun's rays tinting the red bricks. But, all was not well.  The boat was cancelled due to floods. Black clouds loomed, thunder and lightening snaked down, so we ran to the metro. Disaster. Someone had pulled the emergency cord and all the trains had stuck!  How to get back to the car? Absolutely no taxis anywhere, so we asked and asked, eventually finding Bus No. 14 in the rain and gloom. Yesterday our friends wanted to treat us to dinner. Surely nothing could go wrong there. But....they have a special diet, one can't eat gluten, and fish was preferred. Not wanting yet another salad, we found a nice place. We ordered:  must be ordinary white fish, absolutely no crustaceans. A strange rubbery concoction arrived. Him indoors being intrepid cut off a sliver, then promptly spat it out - calamari, squid. Urgh!  And, I had to argue to get a big reduction in the bill. Today can only be an improvement, but with my luck....

27th June 2010

A bad week for the French. First, no warning from France Meteo about the terrible floods in the Var region. One poor woman opened her front door and found herself swimming to her neighbour's house. Then, the debacle with the French football team, where everyone blamed the manager.
And now, the UK'S former Europe Minister, Chris Bryant, calls French a 'useless' language and questioned whether it should still be taught in British schools. A fine cultural ambassador he is! Meanwhile, a study here in France found some top firms were unable to deal with phone calls in English. Try talking to British or American firms in French! It is our job to learn their language, not the other way round. French, Spanish and Latin should be mandatory lessons in school - we need more linguistic scholars, who could then turn to Mandarin and Arabic/Hebrew. It's common for Chinese business people to communicate in several languages. The official language of the UK for about 400 years was Norman French, so it's at the heart of our language with only 184 pure Anglo-Saxon words remaining in the English dictionary.
So, in summary: Don't worry when things go wrong. It's just a dip in life's ever-changing graph. Teach discipline and respect for those in authority, and bring back language teaching. Only when we understand each other can we live in peace.