French

Year 10 French students had the opportunity to meet Guillaume at the French Providore, a French café in Moorabbin.

This café which is also a Deli offers 500 French products and welcomes 30 to 40% of French customers.

Students have discovered that the croissant is in fact originated from Austria and is called ‘une viennoiserie’, which means from Vienna.So, all croissants, brioches, pains au chocolat are ‘des viennoiseries’ and this is opposed to ‘pâtisseries’ which is about cakes.

They also learnt that a croissant is made over two days, the time to let the dough rest and spread before to put the butter in (at least 25% of it). Guillaume told my class that he works 15 hours per day as Hospitality is a very demanding job.

Students were able to practice their Listening and Speaking skills by interviewing Guillaume in French.

Finally, my students were interested to hear about cultural differences between Australia and France, especially the time we spend at midday for lunch break.

Everyone enjoyed the delicious viennoiseries and the tastings of French jams.

French Designer - Delphine Genin

Year 10 French students have been working on Paris and had the opportunity to interview online Delphine GENIN, a French haute couture designer, based in Melbourne. 

Arriving ten years ago in Australia, Delphine was the first French designer to open an haute couture salon in Melbourne, before Covid. She has now a virtual atelier. 

She was also the first one to teach embroidery online during Covid. Delphine has been trained at the prestigious Ecole Lesage, one of the world’s greatest artistic embroidery houses, in Paris. 

It was interesting to let students explore the less glamorous side of fashion. From statistics, a piece of clothing is worn 7 to 15 times, which is very little. Instead of buying all the time new things, Delphine said that we can accessorise our clothes for different occasions. For example, we can turn a simple T-shirt with a nice lace collar, and it turns glamourous for the night.

Students also learnt that it takes a lot of time (2 to 8 months) to create a haute couture, which is a unique dress.

Finally, Delphine sent a very positive message saying it’s high time to change the stigmatisation on bodies, as we are all different and unique. The most important thing students remembered about this interview was: ‘Follow your passion’.