Language

We've just finished a season of French conversation classes. Well, classes is a bit of an exaggeration - mornings of exploration followed by great lunches more like. It's over two years since we discovered the RERS (Réseau d'Echanges Réciproques des Savoirs) network. This is a national network of associations for the free exchange of information all over France. Its local branch around the town of Sommières a few km north of here has over 140 members.

We'd been searching for French lessons, and Quaker friends suggested we try the Tuesday morning sessions of RERS in Calade, a social centre in Sommières. We discovered a vast echo-ey building (an old school, which like many ex-schools in the UK is well-adapted to adult education, but not to multiple groups of loud pupils and loud teachers competing in close proximity to share their limited knowledge of foreign languages), and soon decided to meet in people's houses instead. Mary and I had steered clear of purely British groups like Britsnîmes (a very popular English-speaking association based around Nîmes - lots of French people like it too) because we wanted to prioritise learning French rather than meeting other Brits. We do this anyway in RERS...

Initially, the conversation group was for English-speakers (British people, a couple of Danes, a couples of Swedes, a German person or two) to brush up their French for an hour from 10-11. Then French speakers who liked to learn English started to arrive at 11 to have an hour's English conversation. Soon, the English conversation became serious enough that Mary began a separate Monday evening group - suitable for people who work as well as us retired folk - here in Lunel: this now has a dozen members, and is very successful. But we still have the Tuesday So now, each week except in August, a group of 15-20 meets in someone's house to converse in French for 2 hours, and in English from 11 on, followed by a shared lunch (delicious and varied - surprisingly there is usually enough of everything and rarely too much of anything).

This only describes a fraction of the activities of RERS, of which more anon. But it has been the start of some wonderful friendships for us as well as helping us improve our French.