Things you didn't need to know

A new atlas has been published based on those sondages and statistics collected by the various organisations concerned. But the author suggests that by and large the atlas (and hence the statistics) is of no use whatsoever. Make up your own mind on the following:
Moselle uses most Viagra
Creuse is where you are most likely to win the lottery
Nord is where flying saucers are most seen
Champagne region is where 4 bisous is still in vogue. Two is most common and one is now extinct.
Herault has most wife-swapping clubs
Drome has the only industrial elevage of edible frogs in France - where 8000 tonnes are eaten each year.
see the Atlas de la France Incroyable , by Olivier Marchon (pub Autremont).

The chestnut fair is at Laguepie today

It will be a busy day at Laguepie today for the very popular chestnut fair and the weather is great again.
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Parisot mourns its maire

The mayor of Parisot   Frederic Kerestedjian  was laid to rest yesterday.
All the residents of Parisot were there to pay their respects along with dignatories Jean Michel Baylet
President of the general council of Tarn et Garonne and  Valerie Rabault local MP. Tributes included references to his generosity, fraternity and his willingness to listen.
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nous sommes dimanche le vingt six

and the clocks were altered and went back last night.
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A great attitude

Hi Malcolm & Val

As somone who is not a natural linguist I would like to comment on the debate about people learning to speak French later in life. We all have different learning styles and for me it had to be a methodical approach, which began with learning a few verbs and some simple grammar. I will never forget the first Christmas party that I organised for 15 of my french neighbours. I had to listen so hard to what was being said and probably missed 50% of it but then we ladies found some common ground - baking! We talked about favourite cakes and each lady left with  a recipe for lemon polenta cake. When we go to dinner with french neighbours it is amazing how often we end up talking about food - they tell us how to get a licence to have eau de vie made from surplus fruit,   how to find truffles and so on. I have fairly recently discovered the magazine Bien Dire, which contains fascinating articles at varying levels of difficulty, with some vocabulary attached to help with understanding. When going to the doctors or going to Leclerc to discuss the fact that they have delivered a table to me with no legs, I still look up some potentially useful vocab in advance. I will never forget how my ability to communicate over the telephone improved so much once I had learned the basic skill of pronouncing letters properly when spelling words - like my name! I still feel much more comfortable reading a book in french than speaking the language but it is so satisfying when I do manage to make myself understood. My neighbours are unfailingly kind and generally manage to hide their amusement at my English accent. 
I do hope that Val is making good progress.
 Much love to you both - and see you for Butterfly, Moya xx
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do you know your sugars

                            Cakes in France ©

 SUGAR

         

ENGLISH

 Granulated sugar

 Caster sugar

 Icing sugar

 Soft dark brown sugar

 Light brown sugar

 Demerara sugar

 Unrefined sugar

 Unrefined brown sugar

 Jam sugar

 For caramalisation use refined white sugar as the impurities in unrefined sugar can cause crystalisation

 FRENCH

 Sucre cristal

 Sucre en poudre

 Sucre glace

 Sucre vergeoise brune

 Sucre vergeoise blonde

 Cassonade

Unrefined cane sugar

Cassonade

 Canne

Sucre pour confitures or sucre gélifiant

  cuivrée (light) or ambrée(dark)

glynis

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free to any home ALL GONE NOW

Hi Val -
Could you put this on for me please?  :
Free to good home (or homes): 
1 'Denver' flat screen TV,  21" screen. Can be connected to a computer as a monitor.  Cheap little TV with with dreadful sound quality, but it might be useful to someone. About 4 years old,
1 Sony DVD player, about 6 years old, working perfectly,
1 Panasonic Sky digibox, about 11 years old, working perfectly,
And 1 scart cable.
Please phone Jill on 05 63 26 45 57.
Thank you.
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Advice on walnuts

Dear Malcolm and Valerie,

Fresh  walnuts kernels can be put in the freezer immediately. I crack & weigh  200 grams at a time and wrap in plastic film. I find this a useful quantity for cakes and salads. Fresh kernels also keep if immersed in honey -nice  on dry  cake ice cream & no refrigeration necessary. You can also make and refrigerate pesto using fresh kernels in lieu  of pine nuts. However, if you keep the the whole nuts until the New Year they will have dried out  more and so keep better when out of shell. I am still using last year’s with a crop with success.

Love, S 

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Be positive, say "corsican" / course i can

hi Val 
 I do agree with Ginny. Don’t be too hard on people who don’t speak much French. As Ginny and Hazel said, we all have different abilities and strengths. I studied languages at school and college, so am OK with French, but when it comes to music and painting, for example, I am useless – as the FiFi Singing Group would agree. You could find me the best music teacher in the world and send me on tour with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the result would be the same – a noise that would make dogs howl. Thinking it must be possible to learn, I did once take piano lessons, but my repertoire starts and finishes with a short burst of Happy Birthday to You (using one finger). Just as those who struggle with French would love to be better, it’s not always possible.

Doreen

 Val says:

I am that person who could not learn French. I was thrown out of French class in third form and was so relieved to see the back of it. When we arrived in France I was happy that Malc a linguist could speak for me... well happy for a while. Thirteen years on and I am still struggling but gosh how I am improving. I will never be in a situation where I can say everything I want to... or will I?

Saying to people "oh you you will never learn" or accepting it when they say it to you shows a distinct lack of encouragement. Close friends of ours  know  how I have struggled but persevered.

I would be the last person to be critical of anyone's French but encourage anybody for trying.

Please do not give up ladies: be more positive within your group.

Malc as you know is disabled; he could not swim but wanted to sail with myself and daughter. In his thirties our daughter taught him to swim. He bought a one man boat, a Laser, and started racing. We called his boat "Corsican" as I used to stand on the bank shouting "course you can Malc", and he did.

For doubters start saying "corsican" instead of "I can't learn".

As Reggie Perrin's boss might have said "I didn't get where I am today by saying I cannot do it".

Speaking the language of the country where you live seems to me to be a fundamental need, not like singing, cooking, art, etc.
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Advice on walnuts needed

Bonjour Val

Pleased to see you 'back at the helm' and trust the pain management routine
is working well.

I have a question for you and/or your readers. Having gathered a suitable
quantity of walnuts this season, I'm now needing to know how long they need
to air-dry. All clean-shelled, I've hung them to dry in a re-cycled onion
bag. How long do they need to be aired before they can be hulled?
After two previous attempts to use them, I've ended up with a 'furry' mess
after just a few days. The first time I stored the kernels in an airtight
container in the cupboard, the second I left in an open bowl. Fungus won
both times, so I'm assuming they were still too green to use.
Any hints coming my way would be appreciated otherwise I'll just need to
hull when ready to use.
Much appreciated
Di T
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Citizenship and integration

Dear Val

Luckily for us, a fellow TAG reader said that if we were over 60 we did not have to pass the formal French exam just an interview where we will be asked basic questions based around a rather verbose pamphlet sent to all 18 year olds on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. These range from recognising the colours of the French flag, to the duty to voting and the responsibility to send children to school to the age of 16. Disabled people are also exempt from the language exam.

Having read the recent debate in TAG on integration and the ability to speak French all of this rather intrigues me. You, Val, very kindly think that we are a good example of people who are integrated. We are surprised to hear this every time we read it. We basically moved here because neither of us wanted to get dragged back into consultancy when we retired. Ross does things in the village because there are so few of us here and if he gets sufficiently irritated by weeds or something else he does something about it. I think I am integrated by going to a Patchwork group for my own pleasure. Now is this integration or behaving as we would have in the UK? Doing what we like? Similarly trying to restore the church is something we are doing for our own pleasure. We love the reward of the concert, the sound and giving people pleasure and we cope with the brickbats, fatigue and effort.

However the ability to speak French is another issue. As someone who is dyslexic the very idea of an exam filled me with such fear that I would have played the disability card had it included a written section. I cannot spell in English and French is an absolute nightmare. When British people talk about reading the language I think they must have come from a land of geniuses. Hazel was so right when she said we all have different abilities and have come from differing educational opportunities and different levels of confidence. Every time I ask a British person with poor French, how they got on in hospital or at a restaurant, the reply always is that they didn't need to because the French wanted to speak English to them.Finally we should all remember that while some of us may be shaken by Mr Farrage, the country we are so keen to become integrated in is much more racist and anti-semitic than the UK and if Marine Le Pen becomes an even stronger political force after the next elections we may have become integrated in a country we no longer wish to be part of.Ginny

Val says a reasoned post without resorting to intemperate language.

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Well done Gavin

Hi Val
How's this for integration - Gavin has an article published in this week's edition of the Occitan language newspaper, La Setmana. It's on the Scottish legal system and he wrote it in Occitan. Not an easy subject in English, let alone Occitan (or even French!)
Doreen
Val says: well done Gavin, what a remarkable achievement.
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Picnic at the barrage de Sivens today

It is expected again for today's picnic at the barrage de Sivens at least 5,000  people protesting in an "ambience familial", a family atmosphere. A lot of the young people we know are taking children and picnics and going to make their protest. If I was not one handed I would have liked to join them in the peaceful protest about protecting this bio diverse area.
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Fall back

Today is the day when we alter our clocks and put them back an hour. (technically tomorrow morning at 2 am).
It means sunsets at 6pm instead of 7pm, a real reminder that winter draws on. We just hope that the animals take this into account and don't want their breakfast at 6am. We have weekend gite guests and don't think they will appreciate donkeys braying at the crack of dawn.
Also means that the Friday boules meetings move back down the hill to Varen next week.
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French polishers are hard to find

If you don't get an immediate response try contacting a couple of local ebenistes - chances are that they will know someone who is a French polisher.  One may even be professionally connected to a French polisher who work together on commissions where repair and polishing are both required.

Vocab?  french polish is 'vernis a tampon anglais'  
Peter
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Linda Hatfield Fifi President and stalwart of the Folk'n'Jazz Club

1.What is your name and profession past or present ?

Hello, My name is Linda Hatfield. Prior to my retirement I ran my own computer business. Today I am the founder and President of FiFi Friends in France International

2.Do you have other family members here?

I don’t have any family here.

3.How long have you lived in France and are you here full or part
year?

I have lived full time in France for 12 years.

4. Do you have an activity or profession you wish to promote?

Yes I have several.

Firstly, FiFi (Friends in France International), which offers a range of activities locally for English-speaking women of all nationalities. Men are also included in some of our regular events, for example: wine tasting, quiz nights, history tours, annual dinners and outings. Pursuits for ladies range from creative writing, cooking and crafts to photography, poetry, book clubs and walking, to name just a few. Our singing group leads our Christmas Singalong and our annual clothes sale is very popular — both attract an increasing number of local residents. We enjoy monthly lunches together in different restaurants around the region and coffee mornings every Thursday; members also receive an informative monthly newsletter.

Within FiFi, we have Friends on Call, which has a register of volunteers ready to help members with emergencies — anything from being stranded if the car breaks down, to taking a member or her partner to hospital, picking up prescriptions or food and even cooking. We also temporarily take care of pets for a few days if a member is hospitalised. In essence we help with whatever is needed as good neighbours and friends.

If anyone would like more information, they may wish to look at our Website: www.fifi82.org

Secondly, a special mention for. “Folk n Jazz” which is a lot of fun with dedicated resident singers: Trevor Carter, John Taylor and myself as well as many other performers including French singers and a musician. We meet every month at the Salle de Fete, Verfeil at 8pm on the last Thursday of the month. All are welcome and entry is free.

Find us on our “Folk’n’Jazz” Facebook page.  
nb this evening is on 30th of october this month

FiFi singing group run by Judith Reynolds is also a lot of fun, it’s for all abilities and we sing mainly popular songs. We are well known for our Christmas Songs evening in the Salle de Fete Verfeil and recently we sang at the WW1 commemoration concert in Varen

Voices Choir in Villefranche is a new discovery and I love learning to harmonise with popular songs in readiness for a concert next year. Our group is taught by Becky Brown who does an excellent job with 17 French and 3 English singers.

5. Would you say you are enjoying integrating, give examples?

I do enjoy meeting my neighbours and chatting with them, popping into the boulangerie or Bibliotheque where there is always someone to pass the time of day.

I have meetings with the Mayor about FiFi and Folk n Jazz. He is very helpful and corrects my French and laughs with me but not at me.

When walking the dog I sometimes meet la Chasse and my can they talk if there is no action going on. Giving English conversation to local adults also helps. Going to a repas solo is the best way to integrate but not easy.

Thankfully due to FiFi ladies teaching English to the village children, it has helped to break down barriers and it does in some ways bring us closer to our French neighbours.

6. Do you think you will stay in France for some time or forever.?

My life is here in France but I now understand there are no guarantees with forever.

7.What activities do you enjoy?

There is no greater joy than walking my dog everyday come rain or shine.

I love going to concerts, theatre, cinema and opera. Entertaining friends is a most pleasurable pastime as well as enjoying FiFi and all the singing groups.  
8.Do you enjoy travel ?

I have had the good fortune to have travelled extensively to many countries but still need todiscover more of South America and would like to visit China and Russia. I love to discover new places near and far.

9. Have you got pets?

I have Rupert my chocolate standard poodle.

10.Is there anything you miss living in France?

Yes, just the usual John Lewis and M&S, buying on line is not the same but helps. Plays in English.

irena helps her dad

Hi Val,

 My father has prostate cancer and was given female hormones to lower his testosterone in his body. This treatment plan has proven pretty successful for numerous men in reducing their cancer – however the side effects can be very debilitating. Depression, hot flushes, breast tenderness etc. 

This is my dad’s story…
"Wow… I didn't even know what HOT FLUSHES were until I had my radiotherapy treatment for my prostate cancer! Of course my wife did, however us men have no idea. I am a 67 year-old guy, father and grandfather. 
After my wife died a few years ago my PSA levels trebled – which means my cancer was spreading. I decided to have radiotherapy treatment but not to go the surgery route. I was given hormone injections to stop the cancer feeding off my male hormones and it was very successful in that my PSA has dropped significantly. I felt reborn – I’d been given longer! 
The hormone treatment continued for another two months and then disaster struck again. I started feeling a bit depressed, some days I’d feel weepy, and then the hot flushes began…
I would wake up three or four times a night, the sheets soaked through. During the day I would have to change my clothes numerous times – my hair soaked, sweat pouring down my neck and my shirt wet. It was so embarrassing! Both my doctor and radiologist said this was common and basically I would have to live with it!
My daughter, who lives in France, is a hypnotherapist and I told her about my problem. She had already treated me for sleeping problems in the past via Skype as I live in Northumberland. I have to admit when she first helped me for insomnia I was sceptical.

Anyway to cut a long story short, after four sessions I haven’t suffered from any hot flushes! She showed me how I could use my mind to visualise and take control of my body, how to stop a hot flush as soon as it arrived. Now I haven’t had one in about two months. Sadly my friend who has similar issues to me continues to experience all the symptoms of menopause because his doctor said there’s no alternative – except other drugs.
I cannot tell you what a difference it’s made to my life.”
Irena-Marie comments: “I work with many women experiencing menopause, however my father was the first man! I was totally unaware of this issue until my dad visited us in France. While he was here I did straight forward relaxation with him, so he started to feel safe in hypnosis. Then when he returned home to Northumberland (UK) we started working on his hot flushes via Skype. I am very proud of him :-) he tried something totally new and just trusted in the process.
Dr Annie Evans, a menopause specialist at Nuffield Health’s hospital in Bristol, said: “Menopause is a condition which is often sidelined as just a fact of life, and not something to be taken seriously, but for many women the symptoms are extreme and can have a devastating impact. “Many feel anxious, confused, depressed and exhausted to the point where they are struggling to cope with daily routines…”
Yet many women said their GP either failed to recognise their problems as the menopause or refused to prescribe treatment such as HRT.

 So many woman - and men - don't need to suffer in silence or be embarrassed, there are alternatives such as reflexology, hypnotherapy, homeopathy...”

Bye for now,

 Irena xx

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nous sommes samedi, le vingt cinq

...and we are expecting another sunny day.

"live life with flair and laughter"

I read about your blog on frenchentree.com and I would like to subscribe. Thank you.

Lisa 

Portland, Oregon USA

Determine to live life with flair and laughter© Maya Angelou

val says   what a great quote and for more click on the link...some are wonderful.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/maya_angelou.html

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Anyone want a lift to England for Christmas

Dear Val,

I am travelling to England by car for Christmas, leaving Cahuzac-sur-Vere on Tuesday orWednesday December 16/17 and leaving England January 5/6. I have room for one person in the car, sharing petrol/toll/ferry/overnight stop expenses. My final destination in England will be either Bishops Stortford or Gerrards Cross, but I am happy to drop off / pick up anywhere in the London area. Please could you publicise my offer on taglines82. Is there a charge?

Kind regards

Helene Barratt          helene745@orange.fr

Val says  no charge for kind offers

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