Eeets Chreessmaas

Whilst the UK shivers under a thick blanket of snow, we have been experiencing something a little different here in the Sud-Ouest. I know it is embarrassingly British to talk about the weather, but seeing as it seems to be the sole interest on the news at the moment, I might as well participate in this météo frenzy.  So, having seen first-hand (thanks to Mum and Ellie and a wandering laptop) the uncanny resemblance between Edinburgh and Lapland, it seems almost implausible that yesterday saw 12°C in Sarlat; something made all the more bizarre as the temperature here plunged last weekend to -6°C and even today, much of France has all but ground to a halt à cause du neige. Normally I wouldn’t make a massive deal out of this but I still can’t believe that I was cycling in shorts and a t-shirt and it was December the 8^th. What the...?

Anyway, the weather is weird. Point.

Everyone and everything here is getting increasingly Christmassy. The ‘Marché du Nöel’ is almost ready, the Christmas lights are up and on, and Christmas trees, wreaths and ribbons abound on the Sarladais streets. At school, we have been doing Christmas lessons – drawing ‘les bonhommes du neige’, colouring in cards, doing Christmas word-searches and finishing up by singing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’. I definitely learnt the hard way that ‘Jingle Bells’ is too hard to teach to a class of French under-10s (Even I don’t quite know what a ‘one horse open sleigh’ is...!) It is now that I realise that I have hardly mentioned teaching at all, despite it being basically the most important part of my life here! Soz about that. I will definitely rectify that, especially now that I am enjoying teaching so much. En plus, there is so much that happens in the classroom that is unbelievably funny – like little mispronunciations, shared jokes, kids talking back, lessons completely crashing and burning. Will definitely bear that in mind next term.

Actually, on a little teaching note, I just had my first lesson accompanying some little violin débutants for their lesson. Their teacher, a woman called Sophie Read, plays in a group with her husband called Paris-Londres (http://www.paris-londres.com/.) She was born and studied in the UK and America but now definitely passes as French. On parle que le français dans le cours, parce qu’en fait, on est en France! Anyway, I spent an hour that was as fun as it was funny with Sophie, her three pupils, Aurélie, Tom (who is in one of my Temniac classes), and Ludovic (who is in the Ferdinand Buisson Occitan class), as well as our miniature audience, consisting of Ludovic’s mother and younger brother. Sophie teaches by the Suzuki method, i.e. the students don’t begin by reading music but instead they start learning aurally and only start using printed music later on. Essentially, au début, this means learning a simple tune (such as ‘Twinkle Twinkle’) and then learning several ‘variations’ which use the same melody but teach different facets of the violin à la fois. Thus, the lesson, which took place in a little private apartment right next to the Cathedral, consisted of many repetitions of the same melody while the students played in turn. It was so nice to see some of my students do something other than ‘Hello! Howa yoo?’, and also was great to meet Sophie properly. Next lesson is in January, as this time next week I’ll be experiencing a different kind of violin music as Mike plays the Saint-Saëns Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in the University of Manchester Symphony Orchestra Christmas Concert. Although I absolutely cannot wait to return home - see the concert, go to Cardiff, stay at Celyn's in Wales, see George in Bristol, go to Edinburgh and have Christmas with the clan... - I will be a little sad to leave here, a good feeling, right?