This weekend saw the celebration of 70 years twinning ( le jumelage) between Bristol Bordeaux and Hanover.
People took part in two games for the occasion: they had to translate some false friends (faux amis) such as:
une journée: a day, not a journey
une librairie: a bookshop, not a library
une marmite: a cooking pot, not Marmite!
For our other game, people were writing their favourite French words on our Paris map:
Zoom in and you will see:
Bof – untranslatable! You will need to shrug at the same time. It’s a dismissive word when things aren’t going well but you won’t elaborate.
Louche – dodgy, shady
La retraite – retirement!
Brouhaha – background noises, mainly people talking
We met lots of people who had gone on the exchange many years ago – a lady said that she had gone in 1958!
It was a great opportunity to meet people from Bordeaux, such as Bordeaux mayor, Alain Juppé, here with our honorary consul Josette Lebrat, Olivier Ramadour, Directeur des relations internationales, Bordeaux métropole, Cécile Delaunay, Alliance Française de Bordeaux Directrice, and Audrey Johnson, Alliance Française de Bristol Directrice.
Some of our team and teachers came to help on our stand celebrating both Alliances:
Cécile Delaunay de l’Alliance Française de Bordeaux et Martine Collett et Audrey Johnson de l’Alliance Française de Bristol
A wonderful evening celebrating what we have in common. Merci!
No need to wait for September to contact us for our lessons to learn French in Bristol and Bath, we can meet you this summer! We still have spaces for our July cooking course as well!