Hoorey! - Crotted Cream

There are quite many English stuff available in France, though slightly expensive (no choice) - Helman's mayo(tiny pot..), English mustard, HP source, Worcestershire source etc. You could also find a few selection of teas here - Twinings, PGs.
Long time ago, the nasty Lipton was the only one available in the continent, but things have changed.

Teas are very much appreciated here in France too - many are perfumed or herbal teas. You can also buy organic ones(They call it 'Bio'). You could also have some red English teas at tea salons.

One of a few things I miss most is this..... The Clotted Cream.
But today I found this pot in the local supermarket! It's a long life one but I am not complaining.

Hoorey! I will definately make some scones.

They also have the pot of Devon Cream too!

YUM YUM!

French course started

In France, I have some privileges to take free language courses - thanks to Mr. President. It's a new law which applied a few years ago, that all long- term residents in the country must have certain level of language skills in writing and speaking - otherwise, the country provides them some free lessons.

It's for foreigners who have French spouses and legal immigrants. There are several processes to take to get this benefit but to simplify - it's provided by the local ANAEM after you apply for a residency permit (Carte de séjour) . They'd give you maximum of 400hours at a nearest education centre depending on your level of the language. The ANAEM is the public service for foreigners who helps them integrate in the country. They have several one-day sessions to teach you the history of France and the civil rights and so on (providing free delicious lunch).

Last January, I took the course for 400 hours and then took the French DILF (the most basic one)exam at the end of the course. You'd get mingled with so many different nationalities, age groups and educational levels (sometimes there were people who couldn't write) there are pros and cons in that particular school I went but all in all, I don't complain - because it's absolutely FREE of charge. If you have to go to the private school - you'd expect to spend quite a fortune.

Now, I started a new course last week, which is done by ANPE (The French equivalence of JobCentre) - it's part of the skill training that will run over 10 weeks. They'd asked you for committment for the course, as they won't let us skiving off. Compared to the previous course by ANAEM, this one is for adults who're looking for work - so the course covers more practical bits as well as very basic stuff that you'd always need to recap which is handy for me.

Hopefully I'd get the most out of it.

Registering the imported car in France

My car has been a quite multi-national like the owner.
I've bought it in the UK about 10 years ago, it has never been any issues.
The car was actually imported from Japan - it's happened to be like that. So she's been driven in Japan before coming to the UK. I love driving, so I took my car as much as I could through England - I love driving without a map.

Now, the car is driven in France - despite they drive the other side of the road. We have installed a new stereo too which makes our trip more fun.

Anyways, we have been trying to get the French number plate, as any insurance company do, they simply won't cover you after 6 months in abroad.
So we've got all the information for registering in France from DRIRE and prepared as much as we could - got the technical check done, put together all the papers they said they needed. We were aware that it would take a bit of time, but this long.... never expected to take 10 months to go through this process.
As we all know, French loves documents - They'd asked you to send all the original documents (the UK car registration certificate etc)- which makes us a bit nervous but luckly they didn't lose them. (Yes, don't forget to take all the papers a photocopy)

If my car was purely from the UK - it wouldn't have been this complicated.
In January, we had to go to UTAC - Paris suburbs for the similar technical check but for the imported car which had costed us a bit of a fortune.

Now we've got everything we need - we had a meeting at the nearest DRIRE with the car for a final check up in person. Seems like all's been sorted - all we have to do is to wait.

Parking Space

Ever since we moved in Cannes, we have been using the public parking nearby because our building doesn't have its own parking space. The parking is only 3 mins walk which is very handy but what's been annoying was that you'd have go to the main office in Forville to buy those 30 days parking card (quite pricy) and they won't sell it during the busy summer seasons unless you are regulars.
We've asked for the annual membership but have been on the waiting list for at least 15 months - there hasn't been any space available.

So since later last year, we've been looking for a private parking space - the private adverts at a local supermarket.
Luckly, we recently found one - only 5 mins walk from our place, it's secure and it's less than HALF the price.

Very luckly indeed....

Sunny!

The spring is definitely coming - the day is getting longer and very warm when the sky is like this.

The road to multi-lingual

The reason why I've started this blog in English, is because I am scared of losing my English, or rather somewhere in my brain, I wonder if some English words I knew have been replaced by similar French words as I learn.....

There are heck of people who speak several languages - and I don't even have enough capacity to store more words in just one new language?
That's not fair!

Believe me, after living in England for 12 years though, surely I am losing my English and it's very quickly. Despite the fact that my husband and I speak in English most of the time and watch BBC or CSI in English. (Although this doesn't help with my French study at all - can't be helped)

The way I speak is getting a bit more aaaaah...f..French...iish?
Nope.
No way near it.

It's been over a year since I started to learn French properly.
These days, when I speak with my husband, I notice quite often that I mix some French words in English context.
When I study French, I'd think things in English - that's easier for me as there are many similarities. But
When I respond - I'd answer 'Oui', instead of 'Yes' - that's a small example.
Instead of saying [I want something little] I'd say [I want something petit] - something like this.

Not realising what language I was using....that's the problem.
Yes, of course, you'd speak something normally - but I should be more careful not to be lazy and stop mixing the two languages.

I'm very curious to know how the brains of the multilingual people works - does anyone have any idea how to sustain what's in the brain and increase the memory capacity?
It's very long way to go.....am getting old.

Bling Bling!

This is what I got from my husband for Xmas.
A big diamond ring in a box - and voila it's a mug!

When a friend of mine from Japan visited me in November, she bought one of these from our next door toyshop. I liked the idea so I mentioned to my husband that she bought one - here it is, he bought one for me! How sweet is that?