French conversation – January 2022
The French conversation group continues its lively and well attended chats. We have currently ten members with a few on a waiting list, maybe six or seven, though a couple are at a different level but nonetheless keen. We are back to meeting on Zoom because of our new friend “Omicron” We meet twice a month and have covered topics (we try to have a topic) like “Can you tell us about a frightening experience you have had” “ What would you like to be if you come back in another life?” “For what would you like to be famous?”
In our youth, we all had great ambitions – to become a great singer, a dancer, a star, an organ player, a football player, a writer, a naturalist, but we all concluded that in the end what we ended up aiming for was to be a good person, remembered as such, especially by our children and grandchildren. We were all proud of our families and their main achievement, that of staying together, in spite of geographical distances and other barriers.
And, at our last Zoom session last week we talked about Christmas and the new year. We heard about a tradition in France and Belgium on January 6th, “Day of the Kings” (Magi) when they have a cake / tart (galette) … a bit like a Bakewell tart which contains a small charm, fève, which could be a figure of Jesus, but also means broad bean! The person who gets the slice with the fève then puts on a crown and chooses a person to be the other king or queen of the day. Nobody had made any new year resolutions!
Our next meeting is January 20th and we’ve not yet got a topic.
Bridie Cushion, Convenor