Did you know that Alliance Française de Bristol is organizing another wine workshop?

Above, a photo of : La fleur de vigne ( grape blossom). ( Photo taken by Lionel)

Lionel, sommelier and also qualified as French tutor, is going to talk about Bordeaux wines with une dégustation de vins blancs, rouges et même un vin liquoreux!
If you want to find out about:
Le cépage, le terroir, la vinification, l'ébourgeonnage, la vendange en vert, le vin de presse, le vin de goutte and much more Lionel is your man and contacting Alliance Française de Bristol is what you need to do: for more info...

Treat yourself to a French film at the cineclub of Alliance Française de Bath.

Ma vie en l'air came out in 2005, it tells the story of Yann ( Vincent Elbaz) who works in air security but is terrified of flying ( a une peur terrible de prendre l'avion). Unfortunately, the love of his life ( l'amour de sa vie), Charlotte ( Elsa Kikoïne) lives on the other side of the world. He loses touch with her because he cannot take a plane to join her! Although he has lots of love affairs ( des aventures amoureuses) and quite a serious relationship ( une relation sérieuse) with Alice ( Marion Cotillard) he can't forget Charlotte, one day...........
If you wish to find out more, go to the cinéclub in Bath on Friday 27th April where our French tutors will welcome you. For more info...

Did you know that our next drama course is starting soon?

Audrey, our French drama tutor, is preparing some fun activities while helping you remember this grammar point that you keep getting wrong or teaching you some typical French expressions that you would certainly not have picked up at school!
For instance:
Le videur: the bouncer
Je me sens nu sans mon anorak: I feel naked without my anorak on.
Bouge de là! Move away from here!
Dégage! Move away from here! ( but a bit more familiar)
Casse-toi! Get off! (not very polite !)
If you would like to know what students get up to, here is a video:




If you would like to join the drama workshop starting on 1st May, have a look at our website for all the details. More info...

The oldest student at Alliance Française de Bristol sadly passed away recently.

John who was 98 last May, was a student in Martine's French class for 16 years. We celebrated his birthday last year.


Here is a tribute that Robin, a student in the same French group, wrote about John:

JOHN DAVIS (1913-2012)

John was a stalwart member of Martine’s groupe de mardi matin and it was with great sadness that we heard the news of his death on 25 March. At 98 years old, he was fondly regarded as le père du groupe. In spite of his great age, he was still very sharp mentally, read Le Monde regularly and kept us au courant with the finer points of French politics. He enjoyed French literature, particularly Mauriac and Colette.

Unfortunately, John was very hard of hearing which made it difficult for him to follow and participate in discussion but, typically, he did not let this get him down. He was very appreciative of Martine’s efforts in helping him to cope with this problem. He was conscientious with his homework and prepared contributions to des nouvelles at the beginning of each lesson. He had a lovely, gentle sense of humour and we will all remember the day he teased us with an anecdote about a recent experience where he had lain supine enjoying the attention of three charming young ladies only to reveal that he was referring to a cataract operation he had undergone. In our end of term Christmas sketch, he played the role of Père Noël with great conviction and pleasure.

John was always beautifully turned out, wearing a smart shirt, tie and dark suit. He took pleasure in providing good French wine to accompany our end of term lunches. When I went out for a pub lunch with him, he confided in me that he had a list of ten things he wanted to do before he reached a hundred: voilà comment il faut faire!

It is good that John had a long, full life and that he died peacefully in his sleep. However, we will miss him greatly on Tuesday mornings. He was a real gentleman and we will remember him for his dignity, his humour and, above all, his positive outlook.
Robin Young

Le 1er avril est le jour du poisson d'avril: April fools day!

The tradition seems to go back centuries but nobody is quite sure where it comes from. When I was little, my sister and I always cut out big fishes and we used to try and stick one on each other's backs without the other one noticing. My sister being much older and bigger than me always succeeded first and would say: Poisson d'avril! We tried it on my mother sometimes, she would not notice the dangling fish on her back for ages and we would find it really funny.
Here are three stories, one is true and the other two are des poissons d'avril, try to guess which one is true:
1- Bears ( les ours )are going to be reintroduced in les Vosges.
2- Nicolas Sarkozy made up the word méprisance instead of mépris ( contempt) in a speech.
3- The French are going to be charged one euro when they vote.
At Alliance Française de Bristol et Bath we are very keen to pass on customs and traditions in our French lessons, with French events, on the blog, Facebook and Twitter as well as teaching the language.
This coming week is going to be special, all our French teachers have learnt a very old and traditional dance from Corsica ( la Corse ), the famous minuetta. Instead of a normal French class, every student is going to be taught this dance. Please go to our website for more info...