à l'école

Monday came around quickly, and before I knew it we were sitting in the communal area at our French school making awkward small talk with a motley collection of other students. Our French assessment was fine - we had a written test and a mildly stressful group oral test, before being dismissed for the day. We then decided to go for a hearty walk to Saint-Germain-des-Prés (18k steps according to my FitBit) via Le Pré au Clercs (one of the many bistrots that Hemingway frequented) for a snack.

Hôtel de Ville.

One funny thing that happened: we were crossing Rue de Rivoli (having just been to look at the exterior of the Hôtel de Ville, a lovely building in itself but also because the (fictional) main character of the French Netflix show 'Plan Coeur' works there) when Patrick was accosted by a nice young English man in his early twenties who asked:  "Are you Pato?" (for those of you who don't know, this is how Patrick is referred to at work), before announcing he'd been watching videos of him the previous evening. Patrick was very polite and made pleasant conversation and then shook hands and we were on our way. It's perhaps the third or fourth time this has happened in my presence and it never fails to astound me, that not only has someone spotted Patrick and recognised him, but has decided to come and say hi. I wonder if it will happen again!

Tourists

Our first proper day of classes went well. To our delight, Patrick and I are in the same class of six people, although I'd say the range of ability is fairly wide. As well as us, there are three Americans and one Australian. It is gruelling though; I can't remember the last time I had to concentrate on one thing for four hours straight! We are both exhausted, although it didn't stop us from going on another walk; this time in Le Marais. We then returned and did our homework for tomorrow and are currently feasting on cheese and cornichons.

Hôtel de Sully

Word of the day
griffer
(to scratch, which came about when Patrick was describing bathing Sushi!)