Parlez vous Francais?

When I arrived here the sum total of my spoken French was the ability to count up to 20, say please and thank you and …… well that was about it.

So I unpacked my new set of language CD’s and started ………….. rien! I quickly grew bored so I decided to start listening to one of my local radio stations.

Well I can only say that it was set circa The Jimmy Young show in the UK. It had hilarious phone-ins with “Recette du Jour” being the most popular amongst them. Caller after caller suggesting another thing you could do with asparagus or whatever legume happened to be in season. Hmmm, very useful you thought until about the fifth caller. Then you frankly felt like stuffing your asparagus where the sun doesn’t shine.

However, my French was getting better as I became addicted. What exactly was a “Femme au Foyer” – housewife as it turns out. The presenter was also likely to ask every other caller if they were going to “profite du soleil” that day.

Finally, I had to remove this station from my play list when a female caller upon answering the football quiz question correctly, was asked in all seriousness if her husband or another male relative was in the house helping her! When the presenter had ascertained that she did not live with a man he asked if she actually wanted her prize, a pair of sought after match tickets.

Shame as I really enjoyed my “hairbrush” moments when they played the hits of Cloclo, (Claude François). Alexendrie – Alexandra , oh don’t get me started.