Sunday 3 December 2017

Literary Life Lessons - Part 3!

In 2017, the era of the constant barrage and chatter about ‘mindfulness’ and ‘self-development’ I decided to dig deep and see what we could learn from our elders in classic French Literature. 

As a lover of the classics of French literature I found myself wondering:
What can we learn and apply to life today from the characters we love and feel that we know so well.”
Welcome to part three of French Literature life lessons! The characters in classic French literature have had to encounter their own life problems: oppression, crime and illness to name a few. Their situations can help us to learn from what they did right…or wrong.
What would these characters advise us to do in our day-to-day problems?

7. Life lessons: Lamiel – Do everything that makes you happy

Lamiel from Stendhal’s Lamiel is an extremely oppressed woman in her household. She is forced by her family to respect the same beliefs, including seeing books as sin. They try to control who Lamiel will be suited for, and not, what she truly wants.

Click here to go to MyFrenchLife and read on! On y va!

Tuesday 24 October 2017

French Literature Life Lessons - Part 2!

Life lessons – 4 to 6: French Literature – what can we learn?




Welcome to the second article in the series on life lessons from French Literature. In 2017, in the era of the constant barrage and chatter about ‘mindfulness’ and ‘self-development’ I decided to dig deep and see what we could learn from our elders in classic French Literature.
As a lover of the classics of French literature I found myself wondering:
What can we learn and apply to life today from the characters we love and feel that we know so well.
If these characters were sitting by my side today, what wisdom could I take away from those conversations? Here are three more life lessons in this series. Let’s see what more we can learn… [You can find Life lessons 1 to 3 here in case you missed them.]

4. Life lessons: Mme de Rênal – Live life to the fullest

Mme de Rênal is Stendhal’s heroine from ‘Le Rouge et le Noir’.
She is seen as a provincial woman with no experience of life. A convent educated lady, this character views literature as sin and deprives herself of imagination as well as discovering passions. Mme de Rênal is not only trapped in a passionless marriage but her lack of worldly knowledge, causing her to feel oppressed.

CONTINUE READING HERE ON MY FRENCH LIFE!









Image - via flickr 

Tuesday 10 October 2017

The Paris of Charles Baudelaire: a guide – 150 years on including podcast

Come with me as I celebrate the life of one of the greatest writers and poets in France: Baudelaire. Given that Thursday 31 August 2017 marked the 150th anniversary of his death in 1857,  I wish to delve deeper into the architectural and social history that Baudelaire would have experienced in 19th century Paris.



I’ve noticed that MyFrenchLife™ magazine has published more than 400 guides – all different ways of experiencing or seeing the French capital. Yet, in Baudelaire’s lifetime, he saw only three faces of Paris: –
  • the ancient Paris,
  • the era of its transformation, and, finally,
  • Haussmann’s Paris


Click here to continue reading on MyFrenchLife!










Sunday 17 September 2017

La rentrée...back to school* time!

Or university as it is properly known*. It's crazy to think that after a few months at home, Nottingham is no longer on the horizon but at the front door. This time last year I was settling into a new life in France - where has the time gone? I really miss a lot of things about France - les Français, my YA family, the travelling, the food, bibliothèques, librairies and the damn cheap French books...

But now my family is only one hour away instead of 6 hours of travelling, I get to live with some of my favourite people (and annoy my friend Vince every day woo!) and have Matt visit! Already a lot easier distance wise than last year! I also get to properly study again, something I've strangely missed. Although I am really dreading grammar as if it was a small dose of plague ready to invade my personal French bubble, it'll be good to have to endure it with my course friends after a year apart!

This blog post is a quick summery-sum-up and what is going on during la rentrée.




Summer!
I know I've done a bit of a recap in my back to the UK life without france but I've done a lot since visiting Julia in Oxford, partying for Bel's birthday, going back to France, having my tutee come to stay with me and seeing Jasmine...

I've been to the South of England with Matt and his family, taking on many milkshakes and the beautiful UK scenes...


I've been to Liverpool Sound city and a mini festival in Coventry with a few friends and went camping... (I still remain unsure whether I'm a camping type of person)












Matt and I went to Chester Zoo having a really good day out with the monkeys




I've been taken out for almost too many great meals with family and friends!















I have explored Dovedale in the Peak District for the day




Reunited with Nia in Liverpool and exploring its town, university and fantastic brunch stop at Moose Coffee
 


Had a fantastic 3 days of birthday celebrations....
 

 


 with a brilliant night seeing Hot Dub Time Machine



French stuff...

Now for the nerdy part: it's nice to love what you do. I've spent the summer concentrating a lot on my grammar (which still remains awful) and writing a research paper on Stendhal. I've read a lot too Balzac, Stendhal, Zola, Proust, Baudelaire! I've tried to research into my dissertation, but this was done lightly as nothing at university has been confirmed yet! It's been a really good summer to cement what I know and to write my applications for master's degrees for next year. It's also horrible to think about - I'd prefer to finish the current academic year ahead before all of this, but the world and applications don't work like that! It's been a fantastic year to cement what I want to do as a career and get into the right mindset for university. It's going to be a hard last year, but I am really excited for this chapter with Linus, Zoe and Vince as housemates. It's going to be a good one I can feel it!

MyFrenchLife.org has allowed me to really channel my passions for French and French literature through writing. I now have my own French literature column that I have based on literary characters and the life lessons we can learn from them. Thanks to an amazing friend at the University of Nottingham, I was encouraged to take up this creative idea after a lovely catch-up and coffee. It's going a little crazy on twitter at the moment so I encourage you to give it a read. It truly shows you should never be afraid to put your ideas out there. MyFrenchLife and the lovely Judy have shown me that no idea is too big, too small or too niche! Un grand merci beaucoup. 

I have already started to post some of my articles on my blog - I hope you will all enjoy them!


Wednesday 6 September 2017

My nouveau Column! French Literary Life Lessons!

MyFrenchLife have given me the opportunity to write a column on life lessons! The column will include famous French literary characters and authors and what we can learn from their lives - to help our own situations!

It's like an advice column... through Literature!


Life Lessons 1 to 3: French Literature - What can we learn?

In 2017, the era of the constant barrage and chatter about 'mindfulness' and 'self-development' I decided to dig deep and see what we could learn from our elders in classic French Literature.

As a lover of the classics of French literature I found myself wondering:

"What can we learn to apply to life today from the characters we love and feel that we know so well?"

If these characters were sitting by my side today, what wisdom could I take away from those conversations? This is a new Column and here are my first three life lessons in this series. Let's see what we can learn....

Click here to continue reading my column!








Image - via flickr



Sunday 13 August 2017

A guide to the Paris of Baudelaire: Paris change




Visiting Paris is always a cultural experience due to its food, monuments and attractions. Yet no guide to the Île de France is quite like that of Charles Baudelaire.
Through his famous work of poetry ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’, the famous 19thcentury poet depicts Paris changing through Haussemannisation, with his memories that are “plus lourds que des rocs.”

The Paris of Baudelaire: ‘Tableaux parisiens’ et Les Fleurs du Mal’ 


....Click here to continue reading!




1.’Corner building, Square Alboni, Paris’ by James Petts, via Wikimedia Commons
2. ‘Charles Baudelaire’ by Étienne Carjat, via Wikimedia Commons

Saturday 12 August 2017

Bienvenue to the land of Ch’ti – The dialect of the North of France





The Northern department Hauts-de-France can be a challenge for a French language learner. Under the 2016 new territorial reform, the department is a fusion of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardie, enriched with a difficult Patois, quirky traditions and unusual French expressions.
Through my own experiences living in Lille, I’d like to help you avoid making similar French mistakes as I did and allow you to understand the funny world of the Ch’tis!
Standard French versus Ch’ti
Ch’ti, is the Northern dialect of France and is often referred to as the language used in the 2008 film ‘Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis’ starring French comedian, Dany Boon and often translated as ‘Welcome to the sticks’.
As for the French, the North isn’t somewhere you’d choose to go! Even putting the bad weather aside, another reason for this reputation is the Ch’ti patois, sadly depicted to be used by the uneducated, with its differences to standard French


Click here to continue reading this article on MyFrenchLife!


Lille Panorama by dronepicr via flickr 

Friday 11 August 2017

Literature in Lyon: through the eyes of a bibliophile

It is well-known that Lyon is the French capital of gastronomy, but rather than eating your way through this city what about exploring literature in Lyon? Let's discover a different Lyon through the eyes of Francophone bibliophiles - literature in Lyon for lovers of reading, writers and collectors of books, in French!

Literature in Lyon: favourite bookshops

There can be substantial satisfaction gained in the sense that you’re helping small French bookstores survive and in Lyon, you can do just that, I can vouch for it!

....Want to read more? Click here to continue the article on MyFrenchLife!





Thursday 10 August 2017

The ultimate Lille guide: a ‘Lille’ bit of literature!


Do you love French books and reading in French? Or do you just love to write? From bookshops to cafes, I will take you on a literary guide around Lille to get your creative juices flowing with this Lille literature guide.

After discovering where to eat, drink and stay in Lille, it's time to find out where the best places are for a bibliophile's needs: inexpensive books, collector's items and maybe even a decent chocolat chaud to go with it all!

Want to read more? Click here to continue my article on MyFrenchLife!



  1. Lille by Corina Paraschiv via Unsplash

Friday 14 July 2017

Life without France...sort of.

The month of May was a little crazy. It's safe to say I've really made the most of the month, with mini-holidays to the south of England, festivals, seeing friends and family.

I've really enjoyed catching up with so many different people! It's fantastic to hear how their year has been and to try and settle back into the crazy place we call home!

My grandad has recently told me that I probably will always be at home in my house, no-matter how far I go, but that I've become too foreign for England - but not French enough for France. This really made me consider that being so imbedded in French families and their life styles is bound to affect the way I now see the world, so I guess I'm part of two cultural spheres now - kinda cool really.  They say you should never forget your roots however, and I certainly never will.

After getting used to going back to the pub and going to bars with friends, sunny Bloxwich was at 25 degrees and feeling fine! Summer has recently been up and down with the weather, but the perfect time to catch up with old friends, as well as new ones! 




The 'reverse-culture shock', as they call it, was finally less of a thing towards the end of May, with less French words creeping into my vocabulary...just in time to go back to France!

France was as lovely as always and I have to say a huge thank you to Caro and her family for putting me up again - merci ma deuxième famille! I had an absolute blast of a time and I am a firm believer in photos speaking louder than words so....


                                         





  I then took the last day to spend at my tutee's house, where we went on a 2 hour bike ride and ventured into the biggest park ever... it was very pretty
My ten days in France ended with my tutee coming to stay in England for the last ten days of June, so it's safe to say, June was extremely French.
 A trip to Cadbury World is never a bad idea..especially when it's basically on our doorsteps! We spent the week showing Ninon our "British" culture as it were, showing her of course, all the major sights to see in Bloxwich, Birmingham and then a trip to Liverpool!





Possibly the most exhausted I'd ever been after ten days! I think what I had forgot, was that my brain liked to speak either French, or English all in one go, and not both at the same time! It was a really good test of what my year abroad had given me! 

The first weekend in July lead to a camping trip to a free music festival - Godiva and now we are approaching MID July...where has the time gone? So the million dollar question is what am I up to now.

Now there's a question... The research has already began in depth into two difficult, yet rewarding, French papers for Master's applications and for next year. I really didn't want to be working on finals as well as my future applications too much at the same time, so the pressure will hopefully be eased. Scarily it is 12 months this month that I will be graduating next year, so I'm really pushing to read as much French and educate myself as much as possible. The future is French. In between this, its about making up for lost time, seeing family, friends and planning trips up and down the country...no time to stop!


Until next time :D


JR 

xxxxx