Totton U3A French Language Group

Only nine of us today meeting on a morning threatening snow. We read, translated and read again a short description of two people hiking in France over 14 days staying in hotels or mountain cabins.

La Haute Route
En été 2010 mon frère et moi avons fait une longue randonnée dans les Alpes. Le chemin s’appelle «la haute route». C’est une randonnée qui va de Chamonix en France à Zermatt en Suisse. La randonnée fait 200 kilomètres. Elle commence au pied du Mont Blanc à Chamonix et elle traverse onze cols jusqu’à la fin, au pied du Cervin à Zermatt. Pendant la randonnée nous sommes montés 12.000 mètres environ et nous sommes descendus 10.000 mètres environ. La randonnée a duré quatorze jours. Chaque nuit nous sommes restés dans un hôtel ou une cabane de montagne. Nous avons porté seulement nos vêtements. La plupart du temps, nous avons déjeuné dans un restaurant le long du chemin.

We then did some grammar with dan,dedan, en,sur, and sous finishing with hearing the dialogue on the radio. After a break we again went over what we learnt last week and then continued with the ear worms.

Watch Funny French Lesson Skit in Comedy  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Nice morning around Pat's with Myra back in command. Myra provided a French story by Rafiki about le roi lion, le soleil et la lune. A most blood thirsty tale where a trick to make the la lune paler leads to a revenge that kills le soleil's family so that only la lune shines tout le nuit with all of his family twinkling behind him/her.

Oh well it is a fairy story. We continued with the ear worms after a selection of biscuits and cakes.

Today was a small class even the "Prof" was absent although Myra did keep in text contact from Oxford railway station. Despite this we started something new a story about Lucie, étudiante des États-Unis, vient d'arriver à Charles de Gaulle, l'aéroport qui accueille chaque jour à Paris, 1 million de visiteurs. Paris. Enfin. Ça a toujours été le rêve de Lucie : vivre dans la Ville lumière, la ville des beaux arts, du quartier latin, du vin, et qui sait, peut-être la ville d'une petite histoire d'amour. We read of her journey to stay with her copine in a strangely decorated room. We then stopped for tea and I enjoyed a very rich chocolate biscuit with it. Afterward we continued with the wordworms with a quick test to see how much had wormed itself in then we listened once again.

Ten hardy souls braved the pouring rain and the heavy traffic to wend our way to Geoff's city home, only the thought of Janet's cakes drove us on. John arrived late as he had to walk some distance as his car space was blocked at least that is what he said. Myra had prepared an essay at about our level so that we all could read and translate. After in my case a strawberry jam covered scone we settled back to listen to a new DVD of EarWorms a technique of listening to the words and phrases backed by music.

Myra's today, fewer than usual but we split up into two rooms I stayed in the warm one with the sun streaming in. The rest went into the front romm on the cold North side of the house. On our table there was an assortment of objects to excite our imagination. The coal horse did with Sue telling us about a certain item made of coal that was in her bedroom which led to speculation as to what it was. Myra came back to our room to help prompt us in our attempt at oral descriptions and finding it warmer and perhaps more interesting stayed with our group. Sally kept a strict watch on us by writing down points of interest. Not having a lot of time after the tea break we never listened to Coffee Break French before most of the group left to go to Brockenhurst for lunch.