Today was our second “language school” walk!
A friend of mine, Béa Fauste suggested that we should walk every week , taking it in turns to speak only English one week, only French the next & not letting any mistakes go uncorrected. Good idea!
The Faustes own Les Granges Hautes in St Crepin. With 5 chambres d’hotes ( B&B rooms) and 2 gîtes we at least had some common ground to start our discussions.
Les Granges Hautes, chambres d' hôtes & gites in St Crépin
Last week we started from Jayac with a one and a half hour stroll round the Chemin des 3 combes. I’ve walked here a few times now so I was on home territory, both geographically & linguistically. I enjoyed searching in the dim corners of my mind for correct grammar, interesting vocabulary and new phrases which would stretch Béa’s level of English. After 6 years in France our family conversations tend to be in Fringlish, an easy blend of both French & English, often in the same sentence and more often than not the line where one language starts and the other stops is fairly blurred. How Emma & Alistair manage to do so well at school in perfect French and then come home and speak in perfect Fringlish never ceases to amaze me! With that in mind I was determined not to teach my eager pupil a lot of nonsense! I think it went well – Béa went home with a few new linguisitic gems and we’d enjoyed the country walk.
Cottage with lauze roof in Jayac on the Chemin des 3 combes
Winding country roads along the Chemin des 3 combes in Jayac
Our second class was on Béa’s home turf , starting from Les Granges Hautes (15 mins from Les Crouquets) and wandering through St Crépin & Carlucet. This is a lovely walk with lots of interesting things to see including an old lavoir where many years ago women would come to wash their clothes and a cemetery with the tombs built into the thick stone wall.
Lavoir on the walk round St Crépin & Carlucet - the women would come here to wash their clothes
Cemetery with the tombs built into the thick stone walls
This picturesque trail is peppered with fields of wheat, poppies, streams and lots of the region’s honey coloured stone – the perfect backdrop for learning French! Béa taught me a new expression – avoir la banane, literally ” to have the banana” the French equivalent of “smiling from ear to ear” ! Logical I suppose!
field of wheat
I definitely had the banana when Béa pulled me up on a little faux pas a bit later on. We were just past this pond when I happened to mention the words “en route”.
On the walk round St Crépin & Carlucet
My pronounciation of the word “route” must have fallen short of Béa’s high standards as she stopped me mid-sentence and pursing her lips into a perfect circle she emitted a sound somewhere just left of centre between oh and ooh with immaculate French articulation.
Now if I can just imitate this, she tells me I will actually then be telling people that I’m on my way somewhere and not that I’ve just entered the rutting season.
Presumably up until now , since I’m not a deer, sheep or goat, people have worked this out for themselves as no-one has mentioned it, but, maybe they were just being polite, so I’ve been practising. Hoping to get 10/10 next week!
Chateau at St Crepin