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    Lost and Found in France
    Lost and Found in France
    Lost and Found in France
    Ebook63 pages1 hour

    Lost and Found in France

    By Rita Clements Lee and Brian Lee

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The parallel memoirs of two students separated by the English Channel.
    In a pithy, humorous manner, Rita recounts from her letters, the most vivid experiences of her student days as an assistant at a School in Albi, Southern France. 1969/70.
    Brian, meanwhile, also relates from his letters, his trials and tribulations over the intervening period.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRita Clements Lee
    Release dateJul 29, 2012
    ISBN9781476397184
    Lost and Found in France
    Author

    Rita Clements Lee

    Born in Liverpool, Lancashire. Educated in Yorkshire. Primary School Teacher for 20 years. In Commerce for several years. Interests include watercolour painting, music, walking,reading. French language.

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      Book preview

      Lost and Found in France - Rita Clements Lee

      LOST and FOUND

      in FRANCE

      Rita Clements Lee and

      Brian Lee

      Smashwords Edition

      Published by Rita Clements Lee

      and Brian Lee

      Copyright 2012 Rita

      Clements Lee and Brian Lee

      Cover by

      Rita Clements Lee

      Copyright 2012

      The moral right of the authors has been asserted.

      All rights reserved.

      For

      Mme Gaurel and Mme Cabanes for their kindness and hospitality.

      and

      Mary Wilson, College Principal, for the support and

      understanding she gave to her students.

      Part One

      1969/70 Aged 21

      ALBI

      NOVEMBER

      Everyone’s been so kind here – it’s wonderful – I’m really enjoying it. Last Sunday I went out with Mme G (the Headmistress), her daughter and her husband. It was unbelievable – like a fairytale. The sky was so blue. It was quite warm and the colours were so vivid. The old farm (now a weekend cottage) was on the top of a hill – great big old-fashioned hearth – we collected chestnuts in nearby woods, lit a log fire and sat around roasting and eating them. Down below was the really ancient little village, which we visited – fabulous. Then we went to Cordes, a really medieval village set right on the top of a hill, a stronghold of all kinds of craftsmen – weavers, artists, sculptors.

      I’ve been ‘teaching’ (messing about with the kids) for over a week now. They haven’t got a separate room for me. I’ve got a corner of a great big room. The ‘femmes de service’ (women who help to keep the kids in order) walk in and out at liberty. It’s rather difficult. However, they’ve got a little screen for me now. Anyway, I always tell the kids as they traverse the great big room in single file that we are going to England. I’m going to put a picture of the Queen up tomorrow. God! It’s funny.

      A lot of them run up to me now and say ‘Hello Miss’ (or ‘goodbye Miss’ instead of ‘hello’ miss) but never mind. They seem to be enjoying themselves and so am I although one class is rather difficult. I repeat an English word – ‘cat’ ‘walk’ and they continue chanting it as though they were at a football match, insist on standing up when I say sit down and vice versa. When I tell them to jump the noise is enough to bring the roof down – when they lose interest (after 2 or 3 minutes) they start squirming all over the floor – still…

      Of course I drink wine with my dinner so I return at 2 0 clock - slightly - you know what I can be like when I’m slightly tipsy – so in the afternoon things get even more chaotic!

      I am also going to go – starting tomorrow to an ‘Ecole Normale’ (equivalent of Teacher Training College) – well, to the ‘Ecole Maternelle’ there affiliated to the college. There is another English girl there from the ‘Ecole Primaire’ and a French teacher of English. I go to ‘my’ school 8.30 – 10.00. I cross the town and start teaching at the other school, 10.30 – 11.30. I can get my dinner at the Ecole Normale cheaply with other teachers and assistants. There is another English girl there teaching English in an ‘Ecole Primaire’ as I mentioned before who is engaged to a Frenchman, then a German girl, an Italian girl and a girl from Andorra besides the native French teachers.

      The reception staff seemed very nervous and the all girl college students burst out in spasmodic hysterical giggling in the dining room. I arrive back at my school at 2.00 and continue there until 4.00. Then I go for a walk and go back ‘home.’ I am living in a bungalow with Mlle C, a retired teacher friend of Mme G. Her fiancé was killed in the war and she never married.

      She tells me Mme G was very active in the resistance helping to blow bridges up and such like! I actually do some preparation for the next day’s lessons, read, listen to the radio and watch tele.

      Yesterday it was raining and really ‘Englishyfied’ but today it was beautiful – made my heart sing! Don’t know if I’m getting paid this month though and I’m down to my last franc.

      DECEMBER

      Non-stop excitement today – even saw Father Christmas! Thank you for the slippers – they are lovely and warm – just what I needed actually – Mlle C lent me some because I’m not allowed to tramp around the house in shoes. Every time I look at my feet I’ll think of you. Went to school Saturday 8.30 – 10.00 and then the ‘Maison des Jeunes’ for dinner which is a youth establishment which provides cheap meals. It’s mostly chick-peas and some kind of very chewy meat. I think it’s horsemeat. The other Saturday I couldn’t chew some of it enough to swallow it so had to surreptitiously put it in my handkerchief! It is just opposite the school. I intended to go for a long walk in the countryside. I mean that’s what I wanted to do. A friend’s mother caught sight of me – ‘Come in!’ – spent two hours talking with her, her friend and her sister –

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