Episode I

FEUILLES FRANÇAISES EPISODE I ~ June 18, 2009

Greetings everyone! Welcome new subscribers, and welcome back old friends. Three years ago this month I posted my final entry on Paris Papers. I closed: “And so dear friends, until my next blog-worthy adventure I remain your world traveling blogger, ~Monica :o)”. Well, the time has come to blog again. Most of you are aware that I will be spending the school year back in France, this time on the other side of the coin, I will be teaching.

I applied to a program sponsored by the French government through www.frenchculture.org to teach in France. Every year, the government hires 1,500 native English speakers to serve as teaching assistants and language resources in their classrooms. Basically, this is the French alternative to those horrible cassette tapes and CDs found too often in American foreign language classrooms. I was accepted to the program and placed in Bourges, in the Loire Valley. I know very little about the town at this point, the train from Paris does go there, and it is a modest-sized town, if not a small city. Apparently it is the French capital for women’s basketball. And there is a huge Gothic Cathedral, but then again, that described just about every city, town, and village in the entire country. Here is the website (in English): http://www.ville-bourges.fr/english/ I am about an hour and 45 minutes away from Paris by train.

Courtesy of Google Maps

I will be shared by two “collège.” In France, collège means Middle School, students from 11-15 years old. I am working part time. I will be paid a regular student salary, so I will be making about the same in France as I did as a Graduate assistant at the University of Maine.

I am leaving on September 24, at 6:00 PM from Logan Airport in Boston. I have an overnight flight to Dublin, Ireland (I am flying Aer Lingus), arriving at 5:15 AM. I am there until 1:45 PM, so I actually will have a few hours to play around in Dublin, anyone with suggestions, please e-mail me, keep in mind, I don’t drink Guinness. From Dublin, I fly to Paris, arriving at 4:30 PM. From there I will take the train to Bourges, and hopefully have some place to sleep (that detail is being worked on).

More details will follow as they evolve. As soon as I work out a living situation, I will begin taking couch reservations. :o)

Why the change of title? Well, for one thing, I am no longer in Paris. For another, a new adventure deserves a new chapter, so to speak. In French, the word “feuille” means sheet, as in a sheet of paper. So literally translated, this blog is the French Papers (of course the French reverse their nouns and adjectives).

So, here is your one-stop spot for all the tales of my upcoming adventure in France. As I did before, once I arrive, you can expect updates once every two weeks (except when I am traveling) complete with photos.

In the mean time, ciao!

With great anticipation,

~Monica