FRENCH

Menton is a beautiful town in the south of France that has the best of everything: a warm climate year-round, beautiful gardens, excellent French and Italian food, sandy beaches at the foot of the aqua blue Mediterranean sea, and a colourful and historic old town.

A special micro-climate separates Menton from the other villages of the Cote d’Azur dotting the Mediterranean, as it has more sunny days in a year than any other place in France. Smaller than Nice and Monte Carlo but larger than Eze or Villefranche, Menton is a town with a village feel to it.

Historically, Menton was ruled by the Grimaldi family of Monaco starting in the mid-1300s. (The Grimaldi royal family still reigns over the tiny principality of Monaco today. Prince Albert II, the son of the late Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier, is the principal ruler.)

In the mid-1800s, Menton attracted Russian and English aristocrats because of its pleasant climate. They erected extravagant mansions, palaces, and luxury hotels, including many that are still standing today.

Every year at carnival time, Menton holds a Lemon Festival called La Fête du Citron. During this celebration, there are parades of floats with marching bands and costumed entertainers, just like any other carnival parade. But there’s one big difference – all the floats are made of lemons and oranges. It’s an all-natural and refreshing change. However, the real show-stopper is the exhibition of gigantic citrus fruit sculptures. Some of these figures can be up to 10 meters tall and use as much as 15 tons of fruits.

Since we've just talked about Menton and its delicious lemons, I give you my favourite recipe for lemon meringue pie by famous French patissier Pierre Hermé:

https://www.aparisianjourney.com/en/pierre-hermes-tarte-au-citron-recipe/

I just recommend not using as much butter in the lemon curd ( 200g rather than 300g! :-) and adding a pinch of salt to it. 

I also use different proportions for the meringue: 120g caster sugar, 60g egg whites (about 2 large eggs) and 40g water.

Bonjour à tous,

J'espère que vous allez bien.

For the end of Term 4, all Year levels will be doing revisions in French, to consolidate what they learnt this year.

• In Prep, the students are playing oral games to memorise ten farm animals:

• In Years 1 and 2, the students were assessed on French objects that can be found in their classroom and we will now revise clothes vocabulary. Caiden did very well and got 10/10:

• In Years 3 and 3/4, the students submitted their portfolio tasks about the French Revolution. For a couple more weeks, they will finish the topic 'in the classroom'. Congratulations to Scarlett for her beautiful portfolio piece:

• In Years 4/5 and 5/6, the students are now able to write short sentences using the correct conjugations of the verbs. Last week they learnt two new prepositions: 'à côté de' (next to) and 'en face de' (opposite). Congratulations to Lucy who wrote perfect sentences and used these prepostions to describe scenes from a short animation:

Today's French song is 'vole' (fly) by Céline Dion:

She later recorded an English version:

Have a nice week and and I will talk to you again soon.

A bientôt,

Delphine