4. Class begins, September 21

Flowers everywhere, note the two-level river channel! Used to control water flow for the old factories here that formerly used water for power in the 18th Century. 

After months of waiting and online studying, we finally started our “Seniors’ French Immersion” course today. The “beginner” class (mine) has nine students, and Lynn’s “advanced” class has twelve. Mostly ladies, with three of us guys as beginners. Many students are from the USA, with others from Canada, Australia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and England. Our first class was spent mostly with introductions, background questions and conversation, with some games on vocabulary and speaking. Everyone seems willing to speak French without embarrassment or concern for mistakes, which suits me fine. I’m apparently the least knowledgeable of my class, so lots of mistakes & gaps in knowledge!

Not many photos of school or students today, as I’m not sure folks are OK with that. I’ll learn in the following days. 

     

We got to eat lunch with the professors, Ileandro and Stephania. They are NICE folks! 


Part of our class on the walking tour with guide Theo


Famous "Pont des Amours", I think we're supposed to kiss under it or something!

Huge steel superstructure supporting exterior of this historical governmental building while the renovation work goes on...note the huge crane above

Finally found Lynn at the Carousel!
After three hours of class, we all went to lunch together, followed by a two hour walking tour of old Annecy (Vielle Ville) with our historical guide. That was an unexpected adventure for me. As we walked near our hotel, I dropped out of the tour to run our “school bags”  to the hotel desk. I intended to catch up to the group,  using our “Location” iPhone feature to track Lynn & the group. Of course it went wrong. The further/faster I walked to catch up, the more Lynn and the tour kept moving away. After chasing the “Location” icon all over my iPhone, I never found them. Got my 2.5 miles walking in for the day, though. 









We celebrated finishing this first school day with a walk to LeGrand Cafe for some sherbet and ice cream. Beautiful scenery along the river canals through the old town. Lucky us, for sure.  Tomorrow: learn & practice some more stuff. 


Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2026 at 6:29 PM

    I am so glad you do this blog because it takes us a long with you and that is so much fun. Gail

    ReplyDelete
  2. Debbie FellSeptember 22, 2026 at 5:29 AM

    Thank you for letting us take a visual trip with you! Sorry you couldn't catch the group!! Just BEAUTIFUL!!

    ReplyDelete

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