Hazel wrote what she thought of the novel La liste de mes envies

Une critique de La liste de mes envies de Grégoire Delacourt
J’aime bien la lecture et La liste de mes envies est facile à lire et, aussi, l’histoire pousse à la reflexion. C’est un bon exemple de ce genre de roman populaire, bien écrit et divertissant.
Il y a ceux qui disent que ce roman est un conte de fées et ils ont raison mais je ne pense pas que c’est une histoire qui finit bien.
Le roman est fondé sur un tissu de mensonges qui présentent des questions contemporaines- l’obsession de faire bonne figure et de posséder des objets matériels.
C’est un roman des illusions, de perte et ça tourne à la chimère que rien n’est comme il semble.
Les personnages principaux ne sont pas attrayants, leur vie est circonscrite. Ce sont les victimes d’illusions. Le message de la narratrice est un peu désagréable- faites attention à vos souhaits, soyez heureux avec les choses que vous avez mais, si vous vous risquez à entrer dans un terrain inconnu et efrayant, il faut que vous soyez dur et impitoyable- il n’y a pas de place pour la culpabilité et la faiblesse.
La liste de mes envies n’est pas un roman agréable mais il retient l’attention du lecteur et pose des questions inconfortables.
Grégoire Delacourt sait bien raconter les histoires. Je le recommande.
Hazel
Unfortunately Hazel passed away this Summer and I wanted to publish this post in her memory.
She was a dynamic lady, who loved books and always had interesting comments to make about the novel we were reading in the French class. She had a great sense of humour and was a fantastic story teller in French as well as in English. All the students in the group she was in terribly missed her when she was taken ill.
Thank you, Hazel for all you brought to us. The photo below is taken on a boat going off to visit Les Calanques de Marseille.

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Have you read mon enfant de Berlin by Anne Wiazemsky?

Martine' s French tuition groups on Tuesday evenings and Friday mornings read it last term.
Anne Wiazemsky is François Mauriac' s granddaughter, she was an actress between 1966 and 1988, married Jean-Luc Godart in 1967 and played in several of his films, among which La Chinoise. She turned to writing at the end of the 80ies and has won several prizes like Le grand prix du roman de l'Académie française pour Une poignée de gens in 1998.
She wrote Mon enfant de Berlin in 2009 in which she tells the story of her mother, Claire Mauriac from 1944 to 1947.
Claire was an ambulance driver with the French Red cross in the 2nd part of the 2nd World War and was sent to Berlin at the end of the war to help repatriate the French men who had been war prisoners.
This is where she met Wia, who became her husband, Anne was their first child, born in Berlin she is therefore Mon enfant de Berlin ( my child from Berlin).
Thanks to her mother's diary, letters and friends' accounts, Anne relates her mother's life, feelings and emotions, her courage while doing her job and the passion which brought together her parents.

What did Martine' s students think of it?
"Nous avons aimé ce livre car nous avons découvert une histoire d'amour mais surtout, nous avons appris beaucoup de choses sur la fin de la guerre en France et sur les prisonniers, par exemple les Malgré-nous qui étaient les Alsaciens et les Lorrains qui avaient dû faire la guerre avec les Allemands. Nous avons fait des exposés sur plusieurs sujets liés à cette époque comme Le service du travail obligatoire, le rôle de Jean Moulin dans la résistance, la division de Berlin et bien d'autres choses encore." Groupe du vendredi matin
" C'était très intéressant de découvrir la vie d'Anne quand elle était à Paris, chez ses parents, de voir leur style de vie et sa relation avec sa mère, avec qui elle se comportait souvent comme une petite fille et et avec son père qui avait l'air de lui faire peur mais qu'elle semblait admirer beaucoup." Groupe du mardi soir
Both groups highly recommend this book.

If you would like to learn French but also read novels in French and discover French life and culture through this media, come to enrol either with Alliance Française de Bath or de Bristol. For more info...

Troisième week-end pare-choc contre pare-choc sur les routes de France: what does this mean?

Bumper against bumper: this was the head lines on the magazine L'Express yesterday and below, finds the beginning of the article:

"Lyon - "Bouché de chez bouché !": après les deux grands chassés-croisés de l'été, le trafic était encore dense samedi, classé "rouge", avec 430 kilomètres de bouchons à 11H00 sur les routes de France, le pic de trafic du week-end du 15 août étant attendu à la mi-journée" 

 

Bouché de chez bouché, this expression where the same adjective is repeated twice with de chez in the middle has become popular in the last 10 to 15 years, it is only to emphasize the adjective. In this case, it means that the roads are really, really blocked up. 

You  can say cher de chez cher, for instance, meaning that it is really expensive.

Les chassés-croisés is used when one group of holiday makers is coming back from holiday while another one is going on holiday, so they pass each other on the roads.

Classé rouge is a classification explaining that the traffic is really heavy. We have classé vert, classé orange, classé rouge et classé noir. Classé vert means that the traffic is light and classé noir indicates that it is absolutely terrible!!!

430 kilomètres de bouchons: 430 km of traffic jams!

Le pic de trafic is the worst of the traffic, which was expected at lunchtime.

So what do you need to remember from all that?...... If you are going on holiday in France in the Summer, avoid the end and beginning of July and August and also the weekends in the middle of each of these months!! Or else be prepared to sit in queues......

You would like to know more about our quirky habits?  Join our French classes starting soon. For more info...

Les JO de Rio!

Les JO are les Jeux Olympiques. You may know that François Hollande has flown over to Rio to support the French athletes. In 2012, the French delegation won 34 medals ( a récolté 34 médailles), 11 gold ( 11 médailles d'or), 11 silver ( 11 médailles d'argent) and 12 bronze ( 12 médailles de bronze).
This was not as good as in Pekin were 41 medals were won, so the French really want to do better than in London.
So, who to look for among the French athletes? Here are a few:
Tony Parker, basketteur, est le meneur ( point guard), he is a legend, with him, the French team won the European cup in 2014.
Louisa Necib, footballeuse, unfortunately, the French team has never yet managed to reach the podium.
Charline Picon, véliplanchiste ( wind surfer) was world champion in 2014.

 

Renaud Lavillerie, perchiste ( pole vaulter) won a gold medal in London.
Florent Manaudou, nageur ( swimmer) won a gold in London, in free style ( nage libre).
Teddy Riner, judoka, has been world champion 8 times.

 

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, cycliste, ex world champion on the road ( sur route) and mountain biking ( VTT: vélo tout terrain).
Bonne chance à eux et à tous les autres!! ( good luck to them and to all the others!)

Alliance Française de Bristol et Bath does not offer any very demanding sport but ........ we do have un tournoi de boules ou de pétanque on 15th September! For more info...