This report is short as I was on holiday (again), missing several meetings.

As you know our meetings start with an opportunity for those present to practice their spoken French by recounting their personal news. Of course listening to French spoken in France is different from our listening to each other, but we are fortunate in having one member who is a French speaker since infancy and helps us all to raise our standard.

At the last meeting I attended before my holiday we started reading another Maupassant short story “Le Père” about a man taking a bus to work each day attracted by a young woman on the same bus. They eventually have an outing together, the woman getting the man to promise there will be no physical lovemaking. At the point in the story we got to at this meeting it looked as though the man might break his promise. As always Maupassant seems able to produce a wealth of detail and atmosphere with few words.

At another meeting we read and discussed very varied articles from Paris Match one a report of a naked man attacking and biting a policeman and passers-by, a second about recent films and actors in them, and a third about an elderly lady who had lost her memory and whose identity was difficult to establish.

As previously mentioned please notify our leader Pam, Tel 01621 783453, if you are interested in joining the group.

Brian Caulkett