Biscuits anyone?

[vinteuil]

Thanks, everyone for your nice remarks. It has taken me some 18 months from start to finish - language tests, interviews, long administrative waits, but it has been worth it. To my neighbours, I will always be that 'anglais', but I've been made to feel very much welcomed.

... and we assume you won't have to do Military Service, or M Macron's recent civic service wheeze?

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[cloughie]

Thanks, everyone for your nice remarks. It has taken me some 18 months from start to finish - language tests, interviews, long administrative waits, but it has been worth it. To my neighbours, I will always be that 'anglais', but I've been made to feel very much welcomed.

Another thing appropriate to you - I reported on ‘Today’s the Day’ thread that it is Croissant Day - enjoy yours!

[MickyD]

... and we assume you won't have to do Military Service, or M Macron's recent civic service wheeze?

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I understand that Macron wants everyone to sing the Marseillaise now when receiving citizenship - when I went to get my papers at the local sous préfecture, a rather weary elderly civil servant just shook my hand and apologised for not singing it for me as she was so "fatiguée" by the Mistral! Whether there will be any other sort of ceremony at the town hall for a group of us or not, I don't know. If it just consists of the meeting I had, it was something of an anti-climax. But that's Arles for you!

[ardcarp]

Congratulations! I am SO ENVIOUS of your new French citizenship, Micky D. I have personally spent at least two months of each year in France and have many friends there. Sadly I've never had any sort of fixed abode there...unless you count a boat. As I had an Irish grandfather (and my middle name is his surname...very common in Dublin) I am going to try for an Irish passport in order to remain an EU citizen. The problem is I have no papers of his nor a birth certificate. Any hints, anyone? Even perhaps an Irish biscuit I could munch at interview?

[Padraig]

I understand that Macron wants everyone to sing the Marseillaise now when receiving citizenship - when I went to get my papers at the local sous préfecture, a rather weary elderly civil servant just shook my hand and apologised for not singing it for me as she was so "fatiguée" by the Mistral! Whether there will be any other sort of ceremony at the town hall for a group of us or not, I don't know. If it just consists of the meeting I had, it was something of an anti-climax. But that's Arles for you!

So, sing up Monsieur D. No excuses. And -Congratulations!

It's French Wednesday on another thread, but this is a more auspicious occasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqZ4GQ5ZPME

[MickyD]

Thanks for all your positive messages, folks. I must say that the Club des Jumelages (Twinning Club) of Arles, where I have conducted English classes for the odd 20 years or so, have been really wonderful and are organising a celebratory dinner for me in a few weeks' time. It feels nice to be integrated over here - it was a long struggle to do all the papers, interviews etc, but it has paid off. And I must say, given what is going on at the moment, it has come at just the right time.

[MickyD]

So, sing up Monsieur D. No excuses. And -Congratulations!

It's French Wednesday on another thread, but this is a more auspicious occasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqZ4GQ5ZPME

I've always loved Berlioz's arrangement, and really do think without bias that it is the most stirring of all national anthems.

[ardcarp]

I'm always a bit ambivalent about the text:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laWIjgWDesE

I know one has to see things in the context of their times....but I wonder if these days a more PC version might be more appropriate?

[MickyD]

I'm always a bit ambivalent about the text:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laWIjgWDesE

I know one has to see things in the context of their times....but I wonder if these days a more PC version might be more appropriate?

Agreed...when I saw the words on the copy that was given to me at the ceremony, I thought it could be watered down a bit for we more sensitive 21st century souls!

[HighlandDougie]

Thanks...oh dear, I can't stand them, because I really don't like pâte d'amande! Maybe I shouldn't be owning up to this ingratitude on the day that I just received my carte d'identité and passeport, as a new French citizen!

Many félicitations! Not easy to achieve - I’m somewhere in the process of trying to get a Carte de Séjour (but not hopeful) so very glad that you have managed to satisfy the much more difficult demands of ‘naturalisation’.

[Nick Armstrong]

I just received my carte d'identité and passeport, as a new French citizen!

Félicitations!

Je suis jaloux...

[french frank]

I'm always a bit ambivalent about the text:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laWIjgWDesE

I know one has to see things in the context of their times....but I wonder if these days a more PC version might be more appropriate?

I prefer this 1907 version - a Haydnesque 'Joke' at the end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ea44njRTw

[ardcarp]

I prefer this 1907 version - a Haydnesque 'Joke' at the end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ea44njRTw

That really does take the biscuit.

[MickyD]

Many félicitations! Not easy to achieve - I’m somewhere in the process of trying to get a Carte de Séjour (but not hopeful) so very glad that you have managed to satisfy the much more difficult demands of ‘naturalisation’.

Dougie..I expect you know this, but you need to have lived in France for over 5 years and have level B1 (intermediate) in French before you can even apply for the test of naturalisation. Apparently once over 60, you no longer need to do the language test. I was interested (and delighted) that I got level C1 in comprehension and C2 (Advanced) in oral expression. If your French is not too bad, why not try for the full thing?

[Keraulophone]

... some say that to have their effect, madeleines have to be dipped in tea, ideally a tilleul.

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'The memory is revived, not so much by the sight and beauty of the madeleine’s shape, but rather by the sense of tasting and touching these cakes, with their distinctive sensuality of curves, deep lines and hidden cavities, and their moist warmth when imbibed with soothing, sleep-inducing and almost hypnotic lime-flower tea, which makes [the narrator] reach places of the mind that he had never thought he could experience before. A simple biscuit could not have reminded us of the fact that "though one cannot always remember exactly why one has been happy, there is no forgetting that one was." (Auden).' [Nico and Amy's Literary Kitchen]

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This is making me look forward to tea time. Now, where did I put those madeleine baking tins...?

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