FRENCH

Bonjour tout le monde, 

J'espère que vous avez passé de bonnes vacances (I hope you had nice holidays).

We are slowly making our way up the map, along the Eastern part of France and today we are in the region of Bourgogne (Burgundy) - Franche-Comté. 

The entire area formed the heart of the Kingdom, and later Duchy, of Burgundy for 1000 years in the Middle Ages, but was absorbed into the Kingdom of France from the 15th century onwards. In 2016, the two regions of Burgundy and Franche-Comté voluntarily merged to form the present Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, as part of national territorial reform. They were the only two regions to have already bilaterally expressed a wish to merge before the national law was passed, probably due to their strong historical ties.

Burgundy and Franche-Comté have a rich architectural inheritance of remarkable buildings, including castles and major Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals. The vineyards of the region are some of the most prestigious in the world, with the Burgundy wine region including Beaujolais and Chablis. Aside from cities and towns, many of them walled, the countryside is dotted with numerous picturesque villages. The Jura is a low range of wooded mountains with many gorges, caves and rocky peaks, which gave its name to the Jurassic period.

As well as being popular with lovers of nature and old buildings, Burgundy-Franche-Comté delights food and wine connoisseurs. Its authentic and flavoursome gastronomy is a treat for the taste buds, with famous specialties and dishes such as the famous wines of Burgundy, crème de cassis liqueur, Comté and Epoisses cheeses, Morteau sausage, eggs meurette, coq au vin jaune, potée comtoise stew and gingerbread.

Back to school:

• Preps: The Prep students are rehearsing a French song that they will perform at Assembly. They will soon be assessed on the fruit words that they have learnt in class, before starting a new topic in a few weeks. Here is the song:

• Years 1 and 2:
  We are starting a new topic - food.
  Last week, the students had fun playing Bingo:

• Year 3: The students are revising the spelling of numbers 0 to 10 and will be assessed in two weeks:

• Year 4:

We are rehearsing our French song and I am really proud of the class for their amazing effort: most students have practiced singing over the holidays and they will be ready to sing at Assembly once the choreography is in place :-). How exciting! Our new topic for this term is 'clothes':

• Year 4/5:

The students are having lots of fun rehearsing a play about the French Revolution, written and directed by Tiasha, who is doing an amazing job! The main actors have learnt their lines and are regularly practicing together at lunch time. They are doing an excellent work. Next week, they will practice with their costumes on. We will soon be able to film.

• Year 5/6: 

We are continuing with our food topic and introducing new grammar rules to be able to write more elaborate sentences.

Today's song is 'La Seine' (which is the name of the river in Paris). It is sung by 2 very popular French singers : Vanessa Paradis (Johnny Depp's ex-wife) and 'M'.

Year 1 students will start learning this song in class next week and will perform at Assembly later in the Term.

Passez un bon weekend. 

A bientôt,

Delphine