| Twinning and Lunch |
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The twinning visit to Chassieu - May 2005 We arrived at Annecy the day before the visit and stayed in the flat overnight. The following day we went to Chassieu to stay with our friends Marie-Claude and Jean-Paul Pernet. In the afternoon we visited some of the recently re-discovered old wells they have in the town. The Chairman of their twinning association is also involved with the local history group and explained things to us. This was followed by a visit to their new ‘Médiatheque' i.e. library with internet facilities and small theatre and display areas, where their chief librarian acted as our guide. I was asked to translate for both visits, as our normal interpreter (a French lady married to an Englishman) was ill and unable to come to Chassieu. The following day we had to get up (too) early for a visit first to the distillery at Chartreuse, then lunch and a tour around a chateau and its beautiful grounds. The chateau was a museum of the French revolution where we were given an idea of the problems of the time both to which the revolution was a response and which it created subsequently. Unlike our civil war, the French revolution has informed French thinking ever since. On the Friday morning we went to the industrial estate at Chassieu where the regional newspaper ‘Le Progrés' is produced and printed. One of the members of the Chassieu Twinning Association, Jean-Jacques Piolet, was responsible for the complete modernisation of the plant and for an hour and a half he gave us a detailed explanation of the publishing and printing processes ancient and modern used for such newspapers. On arrival that morning, I had been asked to translate. Fortunately, I was given copies of his notes and I had a certain amount of background knowledge - I have two friends who were editors of local papers and my father was a printer. So I was able to explain what it was all about to the English reasonably concisely and with a certain amount of added humour. Even when, some years ago, I began to be able to take part in a limited way in French conversation, I used to try to avoid getting into lengthy conversations with Jean-Jacques, as he spoke so rapidly I found him very difficult to understand. I felt quite triumphant therefore when, at the end, I realised how easy it had all been and how much progress I must have made over the years. In terms of time spent, though, a twinning visit consists mostly of lunch and dinner. This year was no exception and the theme was continued during the farewell dinner on the Saturday evening from 8:00 pm until 2:30 am. On this occasion, Sue Wallace, another of our members (who is funeral director and who speaks French and Russian) did the interpreting of the mayor's rather earnest speech into English, whilst I translated our chairman's speech (complete with obligatory joke) into French. I don't tell jokes, but this one seemed to work. I did though wonder how many grammatical errors Magali (our French teacher) would have pointed out to me. On the way back to Annecy, we stayed overnight on the Sunday with another French friend. This was the night of the referendum result in France. It was interesting to see the politicians squirming as they tried to explain why the French had voted ‘Non'. All the time, our friend was shouting back at the screen that the French hadn't voted against the constitution, but against the very politicians who were looking so uncomfortable. During the next three days, various friends from Chassieu came to Annecy to see us for lunch. Based on this experience, we now know that, left to its own devices, lunch in France lasts, on average, for 5 hours. |