Babyhood

After our wonderful Christmas in New Zealand, it was rather hard coming back to France. January and February were cold, busy, and the daily grind (of rush to school-work-dinner-jog-shower-sleep and start again) seemed so monotonous that I was sadly lacking in inspiration for writing letters. However, I do remember a few events that spiced up the dreary winter:

I took the children to see the French film Astérix & Cleopatra and it was brilliantly funny! There were plenty of jokes for children and adults, and it brought back many special memories for me. In fact, whenever French people ask me why I wanted to learn French and live in their country, I explain that my Dad bought the book of Astérix & Cleopatra when I was just nine or ten years old, but it was in French and of course I could understand very little of it. However, I loved ‘reading’ the pictures and trying to guess the meaning of the words. It so intrigued me that I couldn’t wait to get to secondary school and start studying French for real.

In the film the costumes and sets were so true to the book that I knew off by heart, I felt like I was in the story too! The movie script took some liberties with the original, and included some very funny contemporary jokes about trade unions and mobile phones. Kevin and Pauline just loved the physical gags and the talking siamese cat!