After an extended break due to various medical problems, the French Group is now back on track and working hard to improve fluency, We usually meet every three weeks and spend the first half of the session chatting, talking about personal and general news in French, helping each other out if someone gets stuck and using the dictionary .

                       The second part of our session is spent reading a story, taking it in turns to read a few sentences and again helping out if someone has a problem. At the moment we are reading a story called Le Vélo about our hero Nicolas, a young schoolboy, who is desperate to have a bike. His parents tell him that if he comes in the first ten in a maths test they are taking at school, they will buy him one. Fortunately for Nicolas only eleven pupils take part in the test because all the other pupils have the 'flu. One of the boys taking the test is the class dunce so in fact Nicolas's result makes him tenth. He forgets to mention that  to his parents who are thrilled to hear that he was in the first ten and so Nicolas becomes the proud owner of a shiny new bike. However the fun doesn't stop there because his father is anxious to show Nicolas how good he is at cycling and how, in his youth, he had almost been a champion. To Nicolas's dismay his father gets on the bike with disastrous consequences. Then the next door neighbour looks over the hedge to see what's going on and so it continues. However you will be pleased to know there is a happy ending!

                  Barbara