On Tuesday
they have a farmers market in Apt- where they sell local organic produce, more
expensive albeit but you know you're getting the good stuff. It is held
opposite the school and the last couple of Tuesdays I have been down to see
what it's like. There isn't a lot on offer; a fish van, lots of cheese, wine
sellers, apple juice and the most novel to me- Persimmon fruit. Last week I
bought one to try, and needn't have bothered because the seller asked if I had
ever had one, and when I said no, he promptly sliced one up for me there and
then. They are so tasty- so juicy and tropical and so cheap I ate my second one
that evening and have been waiting all week to buy more. I also bought some
goats cheese as a gift for Mum and Dad last week- though being a non cheese
eater, I was under the impression the longer you kept cheese, the better it
was. Apparently not- I went back and asked the vendor yesterday how long it
lasts and he said a week at a push. So I bought some more for Mum and Dad and
now have the conundrum of what to do with some good quality, pricey but very
smelly and borderline gone-off goats cheese in the fridge. I have Alison coming
for lunch today so I'm planning on buying a baguette and plying as much as
possible off on her. After picking everything up I joined Becca in Bar
L'Aptois, where the front has the best of the days sun on it and all year round
(though perhaps not when the Mistral arrives) the locals sit out of the front,
smoking and grumbling.
I didn't have a picture and found this on a Wikipedia page from 2011- but it's such an accurate depiction of the scene today- from the sign to the first man with his apple juice and the blue sky- it could have been taken yesterday. It shows how little must change in this sleepy part of Provence!
After lunch
I met Sabine to drive up to school and she told me she had a dentist appointment
and 'rendez-vous' that had come up tomorrow when I was supposed to be going for
lunch but that next Wednesday was still okay and would I be free at the weekend
to do something with them. I told her I was going back to England on Friday but
certainly after the holidays I would still be happy to start our lunches. I
wasn't too disappointed because I sense she is entirely genuine about wanting
to help me and include me, as she proved later in the day.
My first
lesson is the oldest class in the school, and I started the same lesson I have
done all week on Christmas. The oldest classes are always the least
enthusiastic about Christmas, they have moved on so far from my Year 4s, who
show absolute uninhibited attention and enthusiasm, and their only desire is to
misbehave, send me up and make each other laugh. This is all fine as long as
the teacher is with me. I am not in a position to discipline the children- I
don't know the process, I don't know the language well enough- and I am well
aware of the humour for them of a teacher who cannot find the words to tell
them off, or who does so in very grammatically incorrect French. So I teach the
class, and I rely on the teacher to make sure the children listen and behave. Unfortunately
half way through the class my teacher left to go and do some admin. Immediately
the noise started and while I was ineffectually shouting 'quiet', the boy
started up their amusing game 'ca veut dire quoi?' (that means what?) at
everything I said. I looked at the main offender and told him to be quiet, and
tried to continue with the lesson. Except we had just come across the picture
of Father Christmas ('Père Noël- Father Christmas- ca veut dire quoi?) when one
of the girls burst into tears- and her friend was angrily addressing one of the
boys at the front and from what I could make out of the conversation, he had
called her fat. Of course he protested, I called Père Noël fat. No- you called
me fat. No, it was Père Noël. I have no idea what happens because I didn't
hear, and may not have necessarily understood if I had, but I had a girl
crying, I could not tell the boy off because I didn't know what had happened, I
could not comfort the girl because I didn't have the language skills and I had
a noisy badly behaving class to behave. So I carried on. It was a nightmarish
half hour, and the boy never stopped his tirade of 'ca veut dire quoi?' so I
sent him outside, at the point the teacher returned. She seemed unconcerned and
went to the back of the class to continue her paperwork, while of course the
class fell silent. Because I leave half way through the lesson and not at break
time I did not have the opportunity to speak to her about what happened because
I felt she should know, and I also wanted to tell her she could not leave me
alone with the children- because the more a class like this happens, the less
respect they have for me. But I didn't get a chance to do this, and I left
close to tears and disappointed that my last week at school would end on such a
bad note.
My second
lesson is with the mother of one of the boys I tutor. The lesson went
moderately better, but I felt diminished after the first one and lacking in confidence
which the children pick up on immediately. I stopped behind at break to talk to
the teacher about her son, because I was worried that he wasn't getting enough
out of my classes- his level is so far above the other three. She reassured me
it didn't matter, it was revision for him, it was interesting and it occupied him
(he's a bit of a live wire). She told me she had two older daughters at the lycée
whose English is in a much worse state, and much more important. So I offered
immediately, should she wish, I would be very happy to have English
conversation/ grammar practise with them. She was immediately delighted, and
said she would love that- and we promptly arranged that Wednesday evenings I
would wait for her outside the school and she would take me to their house,
where I could do half an hour's conversation with each daughter. She offered me
15€ a session which again, adds to my weekly income, and also fills up the
hours in the day with things to do, French acquaintances to make and language
practise to be had.
So I was
feeling more cheerful and more upbeat when I did the last lesson, and another
pretty drawing, entitled 'vive emi' was presented to me at the end. I headed
out to wait for my private class when the teacher stopped me and said to go
down to the class of CE1, the teacher, Madame Faustin, had something to ask me.
I had never met Madame Faustin but I did so, and she told me, she had been
speaking to Sabine about how I wanted more practise at French conversation, and
she had a friend who lives in Apt, who wants to practise her English
conversation in return for practising her French conversation. I could have
kissed her at this point- this is what I've been wanting to arrange all along,
and was about to thank her, leave her my mobile number and depart for my
lessons, when she dialled the number of her friend and passed the phone on to
me. So we had a brief French conversation and arranged a 'rendez-vous' for
Thursday night.
I'm glad
that what could have been an awful day, turned into a good one, though slightly
worried about how my classes went. Fortunately today Alison is coming over to
Apt for lunch and we're planning a leisurely 'déjeuner français', which will be
the perfect way to remind myself, I'm not an alien or a social pariah- I'm perfectly normal in England but I just need some help fitting in!