MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

I haven't been to Europe this year and will have to wait until next year to visit now.  There are a number of reasons why, mainly my family related visits to Sydney from my home in Perth,  but also because I have had friends visiting from overseas and interstate and the renovations on my beach house have continued.   While I have kept up with my French language online courses following my visits to the Institut de Français  I have missed the interaction with living as a local in a little French village and testing my language skills particularly during my visits to the weekly markets. But the advantage has been that I have been able to appreciate much of my own country.  My regular trips across my country offer the most fabulous panorama of the landscape.  I have been enchanted by the changing vistas offered as I peer down from a window seat.  I hope you enjoy my transcontinental picture journey. Lea...

It has been six months since I posted to this blog.  For a number of reasons.  Those of you who are regular bloggers probably never get "blog block"; it occurred when my imperative to write, to share life's matters and my thoughts on life's manners seemed so much less important than living the life which has been mine for the last six months. But the "block" has lifted, and after so many very special events, most of which  involved modern and traditional manners in one way or another, this post is a chronicle of the "block" time. It all started in September last year. My son turned 30, the same age I was when he was born.  So many memories resurfaced as we  shared stories of the growing up and maturing of "my baby". Rather than having a large party, his choice was a lunch for family and close friends...a world apart from the fast paced life he had lived for the previous ten years. He is a considerate, worldly and well mannered man ...

l'Institut de Français, Villefranche sur Mer (photo the author) I have been asked many times what is it about France which makes me enjoy it and so want to learn the language and spend time there? Of course the reasons for my interest are varied and have changed over the years.  But I think the enduring fascination actually began with my mother. Josephine loved cooking and collected French cookbooks, from which she would choose recipes, try to find the ingredients, not always easy in the '60s in Australia, and play French records, particularly Françoise Hardy, while she hummed away in the kitchen over her new creations. This song is one which I remember being able to sing all the words,  without having any clue what they meant!  A perfect way to learn French as a child... Françoise Hardy ... "Tous les garcons..." Those early influences certainly inspired me to learn the language and my first lesson was at boarding school, when I was 11, with a tiny...