Have you ever been to France? If you have you'll know it's quite a big country with great regional contrasts. You may not know that the French language is relatively young. Up until a couple of hundred years ago, every region had it's own dialect and very few people had even heard French, let alone understood it. That probably explains why the lexicon is very much more limited than that of other languages. Nevertheless it is melodic and beautiful to listen to and speak. I learned the language as a child and haven't had much chance to use it, but it was very satisfying to understand and be understood most of the time. I got a lesson in modern French from an artist named Van Luc, who explained the inspiration behind his paintings and I bought a couple of prints. When I have money I intend to go back for some originals.
We spent our week in Normandy, literally the land of the Northmen, once home to Viking settlers (William the Conqueror was a Viking to his boots). The people speak more slowly than in other regions and this makes it easier for non natives to comprehend - by the end of the week our entire party were picking up snatches of useful conversation, like "Un cafe au lait, s'il vous plait" and "S'est delicious!". Everything was delicious - the hot chocolate especially. I'm also hooked on the crepes and galettes ( sweet and savoury pancakes). Linguists will please excuse the missing accents etc - the AD editor doesn't seem to have any.
On our final evening we booked a table at Le Pressoir in Douvres, close to our gite (rented house). For the first time the menu stumped me. Paves sounded promising and I guessed they were a form of steak, but which cut? One has to be sure of these things in France as they like things we don't - like calves foot in aspc and mussels. I know I'm a bit squeamish, but that's me. I did all my food experiments in childhood when my dad would get me eating squid, sweetbreads and other delicacies with the irrefutably logical advice: "Just try it. If you don't like it, leave it."
Nowadays I prefer to go straight to the "leave it".
Of course we didn't spend the entire time eating, although we did make time for tarte Normande, an experience to savour. Normandy villages and beaches are compellingly beautiful and I may well have worn out my camera taking around 1,000 shots of scenes I wanted to capture. We also visited my husband's uncle's grave. He died during the Normandy landings, along with so many thousands of fellow servicemen. He lies in a small, peaceful English war grave and we paid our respects, not just to him, but to the others who lie with him. Later in the week we visited other places linked to the wars and also an American cemetary at Arromanches. All are cared for by the people of France and all are beautifully tended. This may seem a maudlin way to spend time away, but trust me, the experience is moving and it feels like the right thing to do.
