Dear Friends,
As per Keith`s statement today, we truly feel like hamsters on a hamster wheel spinning like you won’t believe! Yesterday (Mardi), we started classes at 9:30am with some French classes. Our group was divided into 3, with each group being assigned a local French tutor, they take no prisoners. Two hours into the session one of the guys plugged up some courage and politely informed the tutor that we were only exposed to 3 days of French classes back in SA, she was pitching the session on a very high level. She appreciated his comment and proceeded to slow down and used some Anglais to accommodate us. The French classes went on until lunch. The afternoon`s lecture revolved around international marketing, lectured by Monsieur Henri Simonet. This session included the fundamentals of building a brand, CRM, etc. very interesting.
Our classes ended at around 6pm. We then decided to go to one of the local shopping malls to do some grocery shopping, as only lunch is catered for on this programme (breakfast and dinner prepared by ourselves). This shopping experience was quite challenging as everything is in French. Our choices were mainly based on the pictures of packaging. I guess time will tell if we made the correct choices (trial and error). We got back to the hotel at about 10pm. Both of us checked up on our mails and met up at 11pm for a night cap.
This morning the hamster wheel started turning at 8am, catching the first tube to the business school. The day was dived into 2 sessions, French classes in the morning and French and European economics in the afternoon. Monsieur Thierry Coiville`s lecture predominantly focused on the recent recession, role of the European Union, fiscal policies, French education programs etc. The irony is that the whole French population is striking tomorrow, affecting all means of transport. The reason for this strike is governments proposal to change legislation. They are proposing that the official retirement age must be increased from 60 years of age to 62. The total number of people that will be striking is estimated at 6 million. Luckily we will not be affected as we will be going on a day trip to one of the French’s latest nuclear plants, located on the Manchea Sea Coast. This plant was built in 1990 and comprises of the latest nuclear technology by AREVA. To give you an idea, Koeberg delivers 1800 Mega Watts, this plant delivers 2600 MW. The drive is about 2 hours from our hotel by bus, we will be leaving at 7:30am on Jeudi.
It looks like we will be spending our weekend in Paris, visiting the Du Louvre (museum), Avenue Champs Des Elysees, Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tour. We also need to do some washing and Keith kindly offered to sort out this week’s washing (no washing services offered by the hotel). Our plan is to pop over to London next weekend with the Eurostar, if Albertyns visa is sorted out in time.
Trez-vous bien et chat rapidement. Vous manqué beaucoup . Cant attendre un braai (Keep well and chat soon. Can`t wait for a braai).
Albertyn and Keith
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