17 Feb 2009

Carnival Bize Minervois 2009

Yes, it's that time of year again – many villages, many festivals. And our very own annual cavalcade here in Bize. And for the second year, I was involved in the Troisieme Age float.
The theme this year was 'All the World' – easy for costumes! I returned from Australia to find out I was to be 'un homme Mexicain' – and so out came the needle and threads to put together a poncho of sorts............

et …. VOILA!
(avec mono-brow.....)
And lots of other floats and costumes - identities of some obvious - some not so.






Oh, and last week, the annual Maire's lunch and afternoon entertainment for the over-50s of the village ….. always a good show. I was a little lax on the day in the photo/video department (obviously giving my full attention to the five courses). But I did manage to get a few clips:




However, Margaret's given the event a good coverage in her blog, and more can be read and seen here!
Oh, and for the three days of the carnival, the boules ground was turned into a fairground. For the first time, the kids tried the dodgem cars – after that, it was hard to get them off.

- - - - - - -
I have another little project under way. Late last year, I was having French / English conversations with someone in the village, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside.


I happened to mention this to some friends in the troisieme age walking group before Christmas, and immediately interest was shown by a few people in having conversation classes with me.


Which was great. But …….. it threatened to become bigger than Ben Hur!


In no time at all, I had people saying they would like to participate, and Claude was offering me a choice of rooms in the clubhouse to run English lessons!


I panicked a little and said I need to start off slowly, and in my own house.


And that's exactly what I've been doing.


Just a small group, and with the help of a CD, we're going great guns. And it's certainly mutually beneficial – I'm getting a lot out of it.


I try to explain things in French (can you imagine!) - and that in itself leads to me being constantly corrected by native speakers. Fantastic. And it's such fun that although I thought we'd start out with half hour lessons, each time we've gone on for an hour and a half.


Here's hoping they continue …

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hello my dear friend...

Well, did I get it or not? Are you teaching ENGLISH? woow! that is great! You do not need to explain things in French... you can use lexical groups, visualise the sentence and context, coheseon and others! lol

YOU ARE AN AMAZING WOMAN, MY STUDENTS LOVE YOUR BLOG!
BEST REGARDS
THIAGO

Anonymous said...

hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....

Anonymous said...

I really like when people are expressing their opinion and thought. So I like the way you are writing

Moving sideways

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