Bienvenue à Lyon
Just a short update from us to say that with 2 weeks to go until we leave the UK for Madagascar, our preparations are going well. The only concern we have
is that our visas will be done in time, as when we arrived at the
Madagascan embassy here in Lyon, we were told we needed letters “of
good character” from the UK police. Cue desperate pleas to Matt's
parents and Devon & Cornwall police to get this done urgently and
prayers were answered as the letters were done in a few days instead
of the expected 40 days! Now we have everything we need but the
Madagascan embassy is now closed until September. It turns out the
only one in the whole of France that is open in August is only an
hour away in St Etienne so we will deliver our applications tomorrow
and collect (hopefully) on Friday with a day to spare! No worries!
Before we left for
France we successfully squeezed all our belongings into Matt's
parents house in readiness for air freighting to Madagascar.
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We are air
freighting 5 Bethan-sized boxes on top of our luggage allowance on
the flight.
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We have been in Lyon
for 3 weeks as we try to improve our French speaking. It has been
much easier to focus on language learning in an environment where
there is no option to speak English and without having anything else
to do. We have got much better at understanding the language and
we've found some people that have been willing to help us improve our
own speaking. We are regularly meeting with a lady called Isabelle,
who lives in Lyon, who would like to improve her English so we are
able to help each other.
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Becki practising her
French with Isabelle, reading Mr Non!
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Talking to strangers
has been difficult as we feel quite self-conscious and aware of our
deficiencies. We have managed to understand and be understood in
conversations we've had at church and around town so that is
positive. The less said about our grammar and use of correct tenses
the better though!
Bethan is charming
people with her “ca va” and “bonjour, mercies, pomme”
whenever she meets a French person. It has proven to be a good
decision to come over here as aside from our French, we have enjoyed
the city, weather, baguettes and patisserie. We are back to Dorset
next Monday and fly out the following Tuesday. We will write another
update in the first few days of being there and a newsletter will
follow shortly after.
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| Cathédrale Saint-Jean |
