Did you know that the well-known French writer, Tanguy Viel, will be in Bristol next Wednesday?

Tanguy Viel will be meeting French teachers, students of both Alliance Française de Bristol et Bath on Wednesday, 28th May at 7.30pm at Redland Park URC Meeting Rooms, 1,Redland Park, BS6 6SA . Tanguy Viel is a very respected writer of crime novels ( des polars) . 
We have been studying passages from L'absolue perfection du crime, ( Absolute Perfection of Crime) in which  the narrator and his friends in crime are preparing a burglary which will be their last and will reach perfection.....
"Ce roman impressionne d'abord par sa virtuosité et son inventivité narrative." ( This novel is impressive by its virtuosity and inventive style)   
We have also studied Paris-Brest, here the narrator tells us about his family, his chidhood and his chidhood "friend". The story keeps going backwards and forwards which makes it very gripping. "Tanguy Viel est un romancier rare par sa double maîtrise du style et de l'intrigue" .  ( Tanguy Viel is one those rare writers who can master both style and plot).

Students studying French in Bath with Véronique enjoyed an afternoon talking about Paris-Brest while tasting some delicious Paris- Brest. A Paris-Brest is a cake which was invented in the late 19th century to advertise the first cycling race: Paris-Brest-Paris.

 

Here is a link to Tanguy Viel with some videos:
http://www.babelio.com/auteur/Tanguy-Viel/2060

Why not join us next Wednesday? For more info...

Did you know that we're having our next French wine workshop in Bristol next Thursday?

Lionel, specialist on French wines and ex French teacher will take students from Alliance Française de Bristol et de Bath through a journey of discovering wines, vineyards and wine producers with a degustation. His enthusiasm and knowledge always make these evenings memorable.

This time we will taste wines from Savoie- Bugey-Jura.

There will be a:

   Bugey AC Montagnieu Méthode Traditionnelle NV – Franck Peillot

= il s’agit d’un vin pétillant du Bugey très connu et apprécié dans la région lyonnaise. ( A sparkling wine from Bugey very well-known and appreciated in the Lyon region) 

Here is a photo of Franck Peillot in his vineyard ( son vignoble) 

 Bugey AC 12 Montagnieu Mondeuse – Franck Peillot

= cépage typique de la région ( A typical grape variety of the region) 

A photo of the vineyard:

And finally the wine bottle with label: ( la bouteille de vin avec son étiquette):

If you would like to hear Lionel speaks on wines, you can watch a video taken at one of the French wine workshops, for more info...

If you wish to find out more about our activities and events, go to our website. For more info...

A trip to a restaurant in Lille

 Isabelle, French teacher with Alliance Française de Bristol, took her Wednesday French evening class to Lille for a long weekend.
Her students had just learnt how to use the imperfect tense so Justin wrote the short passage below using the imperfect, the perfect and the pluperfect tenses. Bravo Justin!

Activités à Lille à l'imparfait:
Il était tard quand nous sommes arrivés à Lille. Heureusement, nous avions réservé* un restaurant donc nous y sommes allés  dès que possible.
Le restaurant s'appelait 'La Gailette' et sur la carte il y avait  un plat qui s'appelait la Carbonnade Flamande. C'était une type de ragoût avec du boeuf à braiser cuisiné à la bière brune. C'était bon mais peut-être trop sucré.
A bientôt,
Justin 

Here is a photo of une carbonnade flamande: 

If you would like to improve your French and learn how to use the various tenses, here is your opportunity: we are enrolling on 15th May and all this week for our French intensive courses running in June or July. For more info...

Un acrostiche

Un acrostiche ( acrostic in English) is a poem you make up using vertically all the letters from one word, each letter starts a verse.
Alan, student in Martine's Tuesday morning French class, wrote one using the word: A tire-larigot, which means doing something to excess.
Here is Alan's acrostic:

Un très pauvre acrostiche

A l’écol’, un bel  élève,
Thomas, un enfant dissipé,
Ignor’  le fait « la vie est brève »,
Refus’ d’apprendre « A, B, C ».

Ennuyeux et agaçant,
Le cauchemar de ses professeurs,
Applaudit-il, en ricanant, les
Rigolos et rapporteurs.

Impossible d’enseigner, mais
Goss’ d’une bonne  famille,
Or  --  il a une qualité:
Thomas aime bien les filles ! (à tire-larigot)


‘ = e muet

Acrostics are fun to imagine and can be written whatever your level of French as the French teacher can use a very simple word as the basis of the poem.
You could try yourselves with the word muguet ( lily of the valley), it is the custom to give a sprig of  lily of the valley to your loved ones on the 1st May. The custom goes back to 1st May 1561 when the French  king Charles IX, having received a sprig ( un brin de muguet)  on that date as a good luck charm ( un porte bonheur) decided to give one to all the ladies of the royal court ( les dames de la cour), every year on May 1st, and the custom has lasted ever since.

 

You could offer lily of the valley à tire-larigot, except that just one sprig is vey expensive!
Why not come and join one of our French courses now to learn and have fun at the same time? We still have a couple of places in the French drama workshop and our intensive courses will start soon. For more info...