Au revoir... À bientôt!

Les Photos:

1. A view from the terrace at school where we spent our "pause" each day; 2. Matthew, moi, Karen, Diane and Tim on the terrace; 3. with Karen and Diane at the entrance gate to "Institut de Français"; 4. Diane and Karen at our last school dinner; 5. Vibike, moi and Elizabeth at the same dinner; 6. Our teacher, Aude, pouring champagne on the last day of school (remember they collected all those euros for language infractions??); 7. A view to Saddam Hussein's yacht in the Bay of Villefranche.

An interesting note... For two weeks there was a yacht moored in the Bay of Villefranche. I found out that it had belonged to Saddam Hussein. The yacht became the property of Iraq after Saddam's departure from power, and it was purchased from the state by a Jordanian. He is now selling the yacht, and it was moored here while en vente (for sale).

Is it really possible that I am already writing the last post from Institut de Français? I cannot believe how quickly the time flew. When I arrived at the Institut, I was amazed to find out how little French I really knew; after four weeks I am amazed at what I have learned (and, equally, what I have yet to learn!). They went à bride abattue (full throttle!) that last week. By Wednesday I realized I had had just enough. It was like that moment when you are climbing a mountain, just before you reach the summit and the last stretch suddenly seems insurmountable (Kevin is a witness to my actual mountain climbing experiences and so knows full well what I mean!). Once again, les professeurs balanced the difficulties...an easier session in the chambre de torture, a fun seance pratique (we learned to make Crêpe Suzette with Chef Nathalie), and a great last dinner out at Le Serre with our classmates and teachers. By the last day though, we were all ready to say au revoir to Institut de Français , but not to each other. More difficult than trying to learn a 1500 word vocabulary, more difficult than learning pages of verbs in every possible tense and all the (many) exceptions to all the (many) rules, the most difficult task of the past month was saying goodbye to the good friends I made here. School ended on Friday, and we had one last weekend together. Diane went back to England on Friday; Elizabeth returned to Australia, Vibike to Denmark and Karen to New York on Monday morning. Thank God Kevin arrived on Sunday and was here to hold me up for those final goodbyes to those very special friends. We had dinner together on Sunday night down on the waterfront, and I was so happy that Kevin arrived in time to share that last special meal together. I am optimistic and hopeful that we will see each other again, but like everything in life, it will never be quite the same...you can't go home again. So, it is with deep gratitude in my heart for this amazing experience that I say au revoir and à bientôt, mes amis...