Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sorry, sorry, sorry…


Before you all start putting up wanted posters or dragging the nearest stream-bed, I've been busy. Despite the heat I've been working away in the garden and thoroughly enjoying myself. On top of that, for the past week I've been spending every spare minute reading – not blogs or nice light novels, but a beautifully-illustrated and totally fascinating 500-page book on local history in this area of southern Manche, lent to us by friends.

The only trouble is that it’s all in French, and rather demanding French at that, and I only have another week to finish it, before I reluctantly have to hand it back. So if you wonder at my delay in reading and commenting, I will be back, and by then probably trying to comment in French after all the practice I’m getting. À bientôt…..

50 comments:

  1. Good for you! When I do something like that I imagine all the brain cells regenerating!

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    1. Whenever I contemplate the idea of doing something like that, I imagine all my synapses misfiring and my slouched back sliding down a wall while I dribble out of one corner of my mouth. Or even both corners.

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    2. Thanks, Pondside. It's quite hard work, but so interesting that I can read it for hours together, punctuated by frequent recourse to the dictionary for enlightenment on the specialist vocabulary.

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    3. Marion, don't forget it's my area of relative expertise and as rewarding for me in its own way as your music is for you. As someone who never managed to learn an iota of music theory I feel just the same about that specialised language. :-)

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    4. Yes, I guessed I have studied music even longer than you learnt French, starting with piano at 6 years old, then all the way through school up to A level and over a year at music college, however I never found it easy, the theory, always preferring music history and especially interpretation and performance. But you are right, it is a language, music, and through the singing I had to tackle German and Italian as well as the French and Latin I had done to O Level, so it was a very demanding course of study. The English degree I did afterwards was a doddle in comparison, even with the Anglo-Saxcn and Mediaeval English texts we were examined on.

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    5. Exactly. The thought of the technical complexity of music as you have studied and practiced it makes MY brain turn to mush. :-) I feel the same when I watch DD and her two sons making their music.

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  2. What better way to spend your days, than to learn about the region and history of the area that you are in. Cervantes had many stories to tell.
    You willl most decidedly be an expert on the area and will be able to communicate to your neighbours and friends.. they will be impressed.
    until next time.. enjoy the book.
    xxx ):- val

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    1. It's a fascinating area, Val, with so much history, including, of course, World War 2. The authors have done an amazing job of collating so much material and I'm enjoying it immensely. It helps that the weather has broken, so I have something to do when it's raining. :-)

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  3. No excuses needed...I know just how fascinating it is to learn about the history and culture of a place where you live. An elderly friend gave me her collection....but on my last day, buying a book for the journey in a local shop, I saw a whole new generation of stuff has been published and was sorely tempted...but the sheer weight of the books involved made it out of the question.
    The next few groups of friends coming out will, I hope, be able to make a space in their luggage.

    The vocabulary is interesting, isn't it. I had picked up some of it from elderly friends when I first moved to France but there was always more needing explanation.

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    1. When we were lent the book, I expected that I would just browse through it and enjoy the many photos and their captions. I hadn't remotely anticipated how absorbing I would find its accounts of each commune in turn. The area covered is just south of where we are, but we know it well. I just wish the authors would turn their attention to our immediate area and do the same here. :-)

      As for the vocabulary, what with the medieval origins, the political and ecclesiastical history and the descriptions of all the varied rural trades, my head sometimes reels, but I love it.

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  4. Hari Om
    Mon mot, qui est une tâche que vous avez mise vous-même!... okay I confess I had to go to a translator to get that anywhere near correct. Even then I have my doubts. The school-days French is along way off!!

    Have missed you, but completely understand. Hope those yellow orbs continue to shed their light. Hugs, YAM xx

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    1. Yep, that's just what I thought, Yam, but by that time I was hooked. :-) I studied French right through school and for a year at university, but that was a very long time ago and it's taken years of summer visits to get my language skills polished up enough to tackle this. I've several posts lurking at the back of my mind, but first I HAVE to finish the book. It's a good thing the weather has broken temporarily, so that gardening is on hold.... :-)

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  5. Celui-là est un trés grand chose à faire – assez difficile, je croix! Mais aussi trés interessant pour vous. J’attends d’écouter plus des choses que vous avez découvrir dans cette livre.
    (All my own work, I didn't even get the dictionary out - hope it's OK!)

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    1. Very good indeed, especially without a dictionary, Helva. Très impressionnant! I've just finished a fascinating section about the government's repeated attempts to regulate home distillation of calvados early last century and the rebellion and civil disobedience of the 'bouilleurs de cru' as they were known. Exciting stuff!

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  6. The history of the area you are in is especially fascinating as you can 'see' where events have taken place. I can't think of a better way of spending a few hours, and as for the dictionary ... sometimes I resort to it to make clear in my mind English! The only way to learn is to check it out:)

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    1. Absolutely, Shirley. I don't know all the villages covered, but nevertheless the accounts of life in the past and the historical events make very absorbing reading. I'm, over halfway through now and the French is getting a bit easier with repetition of the specialist vocabulary.

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  7. I'm so glad to hear from you but I do understand how hard it must be to break away from your very important book! It sounds like you've been immersed in a very dense book, and in French no less! I can tell you that when I was in high school I was so in love the with the book Les Miserables that I attempted to read it in French. That's quite laughable given I'd only had four years of high school French, and at that, probably not high quality instruction. I always laugh when I think of that defeat. :-) Enjoy your book, Perpetua. How great to find something so engrossing.

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    1. I couldn't believe it was more than 10 days since I'd last posted, Debra, which shows you how engrossed I've been. French was one of my university subjects back in the mid-1960s, and I used to be able to read it very fluently, but I'm now rather rusty to say the least, though improving fast with so much practice. It's the specialist vocabulary that's the killer - words I've never seen before and can't possibly guess. So it's out with the small dictionary and if it's not in there the big one. But it's worth it!

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  8. It sounds like a great way to spend your time Perpetua. I'm envious of your ability to do it. I fear I would spend so much time looking things up in the dictionary, that I would lose the flow of things. I hope you continue to enjoy it, I'm sure you will. Jx

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    1. I studied French until the end of my first year at university, Janice, but it's amazing how rusty it was by the time we bought the house. Much improved now and getting better still with so much reading. I try not to use the dictionary when reading the newspaper, but it's essential for some of the vocabulary in this book, so I persevere and think of it as weight-lifting exercise too. :-)

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  9. Enjoy your reading time, Perpetua! It sounds like a great opportunity to find out more about the area of France you are in.

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    1. I really am, thanks, Kristie, as a book like this would never make it across to the UK, so I have to grab the chance while I'm here.

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  10. It has been so hot. I think keeping in the shade and reading is the best use of the day. I have not been able to find a history of my village. The church has some strange grotesques and gargoyles that I would like to know more about.

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    1. Our heatwave has broken for the moment, thank goodness, which makes it much easier to concentrate. :-) Sadly our commune isn't included as we're on the opposite side of the ridge, but life all over this region must have been very much the same, so it's still well worth persevering with the book.

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  11. That's what holidays are all about Perpetua - relaxing and reading. But all in French? - now that sounds hard work. Enjoy it anyway.
    Patricia x

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    1. Our summer stay in France is much too long to be called a holiday, Patricia. Rather we pick our life up and put it down in France for a few months, which means I feel free to do lots of things which aren't at all relaxing, including reading this fascinating book. :-)

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  12. Enjoy the book - look forward to your return.

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    1. Thanks, I'm doing just that, even though my brain hurts at times. :-)

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  13. I can forgive you for being immersed in the book. I love reading too. The fact that you say you borrowed the book and are actually going to return it it truly amazes me ... I never get mine back when I lend mine out! So annoying and now I don't lend. Sue

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    1. As an ex-librarian, I try to be scrupulous about returning books I've borrowed. So rude to do anything else! This one belongs to friends for whom it was a considerable expenditure, so I'm handling it very carefully indeed. :-)

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  14. Sounds like a fascinating book Perpetua. And well done you for persevering with it. I'm afraid my limited school French would make something like this impossible.

    It's that time of year for stepping back a bit from blogging. Too many other things to do. I also seem to be stuck. I can manage to throw out a quick post, but I'm finding it difficult to catch up with everyone else's blogs too.

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    1. I couldn't have read it after just a few years French either, Ayak, but I studied french right up to university and am managing quite well and finding it really enthralling at times.

      I can't plead lack of inspiration this time as I have several ideas for posts, but just not enough time. Once the nights draw in, blogging will pick up again, I'm sure.

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  15. I utterly understand, Perpetua - and you know you don't need to apologise. I'm delighted you're doing what you want to do and enjoying it so much. I do hope you manage to finish the book before your return. I have struggled with a Spanish text for the past 2 and a half years...don't know that I'll ever finish it but I do keep having a go. Good on you for persevering!
    Axxxx

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    1. I'm enjoying it immensely, Annie, even if bits of it need a lot of flicking through the big dictionary for me to understand completely. There is so much fascinating information there and this afternoon, when we drove though a commune I'd just finished reading about, I found myself looking at it with very different eyes. It does help that it's well illustrated. There's no way I'd make it through 500 pages of unadorned text. :-) Good luck with your Spanish text. I'm sure you'll get there one day. Pxx

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    1. D'accord, Annie. Je m'amuse beaucoup. :-)

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  17. Well, Perpetua, no need to apologize to me as it has taken me four days to get to your post and my own posting has been sparse of late. It is what is, I always say, and all will fall in in good time.
    I love reading local history, though I've done it in another language. To happen by a place just found in a book is so exciting to me. Enjoy your time, your read, and your stay - and we'll see you sometime soon.

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    1. I gather you've had visitors, Penny, so you have the best of all excuses for not blogging. Our family visitors arrive at the end of next week, which is why I'm in a rush to get this absorbing book finished, so that I can get the house ready for them. Only another 150 pages to go!

      Today the weather has been beautiful so I've been out tidying up the garden. After supper I'll go to bed early and read in comfort there.....

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  18. I find it takes me about three weeks before I settle into Italian life and language conversation. Time I don't have with our short bursts away. Then there's tuning into the dialect as well and I only read novels in English I have stored away. Enjoy the opportunity you have to sit and read. I'm sure you are being rewarded with fascinating information gleaned from your specialist book.

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    1. I know just what you mean about it taking time to settle back into the language, Linda. I too couldn't do it if we visited little and often, but with out single long visit each summer, my French does improve each time. Normally I read English novels and French newspapers, but the chance to read this book was too good to miss and it's been really worth the effort.

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  19. Great way to brush up on your French! I remember trying to read Proust in French many years ago. I had enough trouble with him in English.

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    1. It is indeed, as it's so interesting that I can spend hours together reading through a section. I'm on the home straight now with less than 100 pages to go! As for Proust, I too found him pretty much impenetrable in French AND English and am much happier with this book of local history.

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  20. I meant to tell you that I once tried to read a Maigret novel in French - I got about half way through it. But I MUCH prefer to read my French copy of 'Le Petit Prince' than an English translation - and I always had much more fun with Asterix en français!!

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    1. I'm guessing that the Maigret novel would be full of idiom and even specialist vocabulary, whereas children's books are such a good way of starting to read another language. I can quite see why you prefer the originals of the two you mention. :-)

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  21. Good for you for taking a break and reading novels. I have to do that at times. I've been so negligent at reading blogs lately. Please forgive me. My hubby just had surgery. I've been playing nursemaid while trying to keep the house going. I hope to get a schedule soon.

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    1. Nothing to forgive, Sally. You and Jim have had far more important things than blogging happening in your life recently. I'm nearly at the end of the long factual book in French and have thoroughly enjoyed it, but it will be nice to relax with an undemanding novel again when I've finished and returned it to our friends.

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  22. I do hope you get to finish your book in time before it needs to be returned Perpetua. The local history of an area with which you are reasonably familiar, does make fascinating reading. But I greatly admire you for reading it in French, archaic words and all :-)

    Looking forward to reading those three or posts you currently have in mind in due course......

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    1. I should just comfortably make it, thanks, Ricky. Our friends are coming to lunch on Tuesday and I only have another 50 or so pages to go. :-) It really has been a pleasure to read, however challenging some of the vocabulary. I've managed to find most words in one or other of our two dictionaries, but a few are just too specialised, so all I can do is guess. It would be fun to know whether I've managed to guess any of them correctly. :-)

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  23. I'm glad you found time to read Blethers, then! Thank you for your comment; I wanted to let you know that though I okayed it to post on the site, I now can't see it or post a follow-up comment myself. Heaven knows what's happening on blogger - and on my computer, which is showing signs of severe malaise...

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    1. Christine, I've checked the Blogger help forums and someone else using dynamic views has just reported the same problem with the comment box disappearing. I gather Google engineers are working on a solution. As far as I know it's a problem which is only happening with the dynamic views format. Hope it gets sorted soon.

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I welcome your comments and will always try to respond to them. Thank you for reading.