April has been a busy month for me. Not only did I have several sets of assessments to mark for my students, I had my last few weeks of class for the semester, I’m still trying to figure out my summer plans PLUS I finally have some people coming to visit me in Mulhouse. First up were my dad and younger sister, followed by my friend Anna who I visited in Rouen and finally my twin sister! However, before sharing the little home that I’ve built in Mulhouse with some special people, let me take you back to a weekend at the end of March when it was time for a little weekend away with another special person.

Nina and I first met in Costa Rica when we were 17. We were there on a language and culture exchange and volunteering trip with an organisation called GVI. We immediately hit it off, along with an American girl (shoutout Amanda, we miss you!), and almost seven years later she is still one of my best friends. She has visited me in Dunblane and I’ve visited her at home in Grantham and many times in London where she is currently studying medicine. Because of her studies, she doesn’t have a lot of time for holidays or trips but we figured out that it’s actually quicker for her to get the Eurostar to Paris than for me to get the train there from Mulhouse! Honestly, it would be rude not to take advantage of that and meet in the middle. We still had to make it a quick trip, arriving around 10am on Saturday morning and leaving at 8pm on Sunday evening, bringing us to just shy of 36 hours in Paris.

It seems to be becoming a habit that I go to Paris and try to fit as much in as possible in as short an amount of time as possible. It’s hardly fair for a city that has so much to show for itself. Last time I was there was for 12 hours which really wasn’t enough. I got caught up in the bustling energy and overwhelming size – and not in a good way. This time I was back for 36 hours on a weekend with glorious weather and it couldn’t have been more different – I got caught up in the magic and romance of Paris, of the city itself, falling in love with it again in the way only Paris can make you. I remember on my first visit to Paris when I was a teenager, being convinced that I would live there one day. However, the more I became interested in languages and French, the less I was actually drawn to Paris, it being such an international metropolis where they are famed for sniffing out foreigners and refusing to speak French to them. Since I moved to France this feeling only seems to have increased. French people outside of Paris don’t seem to be nearly as enamoured by the city as the rest of the world and this rubbed off on me a little. 

However, this weekend was Nina’s first time in Paris and we packed in as many of the must see sights as we could. There are certain things that you just have to do the first time you experience the City of Lights. Between doing more than 26km over two days, getting possibly the first glimpse of summer and translating my way through Paris with ease, I think I found a little bit of the magic again. 

I made my way from Mulhouse to Paris without any major problems, other than dragging myself out of bed at 6.30am. It’s three hours from Mulhouse to Paris and I got in a little before Nina so I made my way from Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord to meet her off the Eurostar. The last time we saw each other was when I made a trip to London with my sisters over my birthday in 2020, just weeks after leaving China because of covid and just weeks before things went into lockdown in the UK as well.

Our first stop was Sacre Cœur in Montmartre, after dropping our bags at our hotel. We were staying in Hôtel Victoria in the 9th arrondissement, le Quartier de l’Opéra, which was only a half an hour walk from Montmartre. It was a nice hotel, not a massive room but clean and not too expensive. There was also luggage storage where we could leave our bags seeing as we arrived before check-in and that we were able to use after checking out the next day so we didn’t have to drag our bags around Paris for the whole day.

Walking through streets towards Sacre Cœur, gradually working our way uphill we got just a glimpse through the buildings of the church high on its perch. Nina was seeing it all with fresh eyes and couldn’t believe the view! We were pretty hungry so we actually didn’t go to the church or the viewpoint at first but straight to the main square to get some food. We sat down at one of the restaurants in the square and decided to split a few dishes. We went for the classic moules-frites (mussels in a white wine sauce with a side of chips) and grenouilles (frog’s legs)! It was between frog’s legs and escargot (snails!), Nina had never had either but I hadn’t had frog’s legs so we went for that. The frog’s legs were actually kind of bland, they genuinely just tasted like chicken and unseasoned chicken at that, and I didn’t really like the mussels plus their service was very slow so not a great culinary start to the weekend. When we had finished eating we took a tour around the artists so that Nina could pick out a small painting as a souvenir and then headed back to see Sacre Cœur.

From Sacre Cœur we wandered down through Montmartre towards Moulin Rouge, ice cream in hand. We found our way down there just to have a quick look and then hopped on the tram to the Arc de Triomphe. I’ve not seen it before and it’s actually pretty impressive. We had a quick photoshoot with the help of some fellow tourists before turning towards the Eiffel Tower. We decided to walk because in this case it was quicker than getting the metro. Walking is also such a great way to see a city and get a feel for it as well. We sat on a grassy bank below the Trocadéro for a while, just taking it all in and giving our poor feet a little break. We walked towards the Eiffel Tower and then along the Seine for a bit before getting the metro back towards the hotel. 

Originally the plan had been to go back to the hotel for a bit of chill time, go out for dinner at one of the restaurants around our hotel and then go back out to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up by night. However, we HIGHLY underestimated just how wiped out we were by all the walking we had done. As soon as we hit the room there was no way we were going out again other than very briefly to find dinner. We wandered around a bit until we settled on a dumpling place just across the road. It was called 东北饺子王 (Dongbei Dumpling King), Dongbei being the northeastern region of China where I lived. We got a set of steamed pork, onion and shrimp dumplings and grilled chicken and cabbage dumplings with a side of mapo tofu and aubergine fritters. We both made a right meal of it by dropping our dumplings into the dipping sauce and splashing it everywhere but they were delicious and reminded me of Dalian!

Back at the hotel it wasn’t long before we were out for the count!

Our plan for day 2 centred around our booking at the Musée d’Orsay at 10.30am followed by wandering down and around the Seine. We walked down towards the river, enjoying the sunshine that we were lucky enough to have for both days there. Sunshine makes everything better and Paris is no different. We passed by the Opéra on the way which was very impressive and then down a very fancy street full of shops that I will never be able to afford to Place Vendôme. Just beyond are the Jardin des Tuileries which we walked through and where we eventually found a kiosk to get some breakfast. The city seemed really empty as we were walking over which I figured was just because it’s a Sunday, and even Paris has a sleepy Sunday morning. We got a coffee each and a croissant for me and a Nutella crepe for Nina and had them next to a fountain in the park. It was another beautiful day and a really idyllic moment where I just appreciated the life that I get to lead. There were people reading, out enjoying the sun, drinking coffee and eating breakfast like us. We sat there for a little bit and then headed just over the river to the Musée d’Orsay. 

The Musée d’Orsay is in an old train station and even the building itself is absolutely beautiful. I got in for free because I’m an EU citizen under 25 (thank you Irish passport!) and we had paid for audio guides as well, seeing as they were only €6. The reason we chose the Musée d’Orsay was because it has a large collection of Van Gogh paintings and Nina loves Van Gogh. The central avenue of the museum is filled with sculptures and then there are rooms off to the side with paintings. I liked the sculptures more than the paintings in this section but it was interesting to see some paintings by names known even to an art amateur like myself. There was an interesting scale model of the area around the Opéra that we had walked through that morning and a cross section of the entire building. It took us about an hour and a half to get through the main avenue and I was getting a little bit of museum fatigue. I was reaching my limit but Nina was having a great time. I suggested we move up to the area that has the impressionists and post-impressionists and I liked the paintings in this area a lot more with its Monets, Renoirs, Pisarros and Manets.

There was so much more we could have seen but at this point lunch was calling! We left the museum and walked along the river a little until we found a riverside brasserie. It was almost definitely a tourist trap but a well placed one with decent food as well! We decided to split two dishes, a buffalo mozzarella and parma ham pizza and a crêpe complète (ham, cheese and fried egg) with some chips.

After lunch we wound our way back and forth across the Seine, starting with the Louvre. Having filled our museum quota for the day we just went to have a look at the pyramid, the building and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel at the edge of the Tuileries. We walked further down the river to Île de la Cité and Sainte-Chapelle. This wasn’t on our original plan but my mum had suggested, or rather demanded, that we go for her. It was somewhere that I hadn’t been before and it’s only a couple of hundred metres away from Notre Dame so we figured we might as well squeeze it in. We were a bit disappointed with the room we first entered and thought that was all there was until we spotted the staircase that leads up to the main chapel. We had seen a picture when looking it up the night before but were still taken aback when we entered the main room. It was absolutely stunning. The walls are almost entirely made from intricate, multi-coloured stained glass and with all the sun today it was glorious, such a hidden treasure. It’s a very popular tourist spot but still doesn’t have the popularity of it’s neighbour Notre Dame, maybe given that it is literally hidden in the courtyard of the Palais de Justice.

From there we headed back across the river to visit Shakespeare and Company, a bookshop. Nina and I are both big readers, it being one of the things we bonded over when we first met. Nina and I both managed to limit ourselves to three books each which we were very proud of. We really were zig zagging back and forth as we went back on to Île de la Cité to look at Notre Dame straight on (obviously you can’t go right up to it or inside while it is getting repaired after the fire a few years ago). We walked over a bridge to Île Saint-Louis to finish our day with some ice cream from Berthillon, a very famous brand. I tried a couple of new flavours, la 60 which was a mix of vanilla, passion fruit and some kind of seed I think, and also a lemon and basil sorbet. La 60 was delicious but the pineapple basil absolutely blew my mind. It was so refreshing, which was exactly what I wanted. I still think about it every few days even now.

With that, we were almost out of time. We headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and then went our separate ways. It was a packed and fantastic weekend. It was one of those experiences that are thankfully becoming more regular where it feels like we are getting back to normal. Being able to run away to Paris for the weekend is still a big privilege though and I recognise that. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to spend time with a dear friend, especially one I haven’t seen since before the pandemic, and to get back to travelling a little, something I love.

For anyone fond of a day trip to explore new places, Mulhouse is the perfect place. While the city itself might seem lacking in it’s own tourist attractions (although it has more to see than it first lets on), it’s position in Alsace, and particularly near the border with Germany and Switzerland, makes it perfect for hopping over to a nearby town or city, whether in France or not. A few weeks ago I visited Freiburg, the last of what I would consider the main day trips possible from Mulhouse, alongside Basel and Colmar. Strasbourg is, of course, the most likely go-to but I already have a blog about my first visit there. There are of course many more places to be explored, particularly some of the smaller villages or even some places a bit further afield like Dijon or Lyon but I’m sure I will get there at some point.

Basel

The easiest and quickest day trip from Mulhouse will actually take you into Switzerland! Basel is in Switzerland’s north-eastern corner and is the counrty’s third most populous city after Zurich and Geneva. It is known for its museums and is a cultural centre in Europe.

Transport

There are four trains an hour from Mulhouse to Basel, costing as little as €3 for a 30 minute journey or €8.40 for the slightly faster 20 minute journey. And that’s without any discount cards. The national young person’s discount card, la carte avantage jeune, will take the 20 minute journey down to €6.30 and the Grand Est regional young person’s card, la carte primo, makes that ticket just €4.20. Basel SBB train station is located on the edge of the centre of the city, just a 15 minute walk to the old town, the main square and the river. If you want to travel out of the city centre, there is a tram hub right outside the station. A ticket for a single trip will cost you CHF 2.30. A reminder that Switzerland doesn’t use the euro but its own currency, the Swiss franc, although the exchange rate is almost 1:1.

Top Sights

Basel is really known for its abundance of museums. The Kunstmusem was the first collection of art in the world that was publicly accessible in 1666 and is also the largest art museum in Switzerland. The Museum of Contemporary Art was the first public museum of contemporary art in Europe. Overall there are forty museums spread across the city! So far I have only been to one but I plan on visiting more when I can. The best time to take advantage of the abundance of museums is the first Sunday of the month when entrance to many is free! I’ve barely even scratched the surface of Basel’s museums but I’m excited to go back and see more.

The one museum I have visited already is the Fondation Beyeler which is technically just outside Basel in Riehen (fun fact, this is where tennis player Roger Federer grew up!) and is easily accessible by tram from the city centre. I went with my flatmate Andy to see a Georgia O’Keefe exhibition. You may remember that I saw her exhibition when I spent the day in Paris and really enjoyed it. It was great to see more of her pieces and while there were a few that were the same or similar, there were a lot of works that I hadn’t seen before. There were some pieces by other artists in the museum that I loved as well, including ‘Naissance d’une galaxie’ by Max Ernst and ‘Fuga’ by Wassily Kandinsky.

Another fun thing to do in Basel is take one of the reaction ferries across the river. Reaction ferries are boats that use cables and the current of the river to pull itself from one side to the other. It costs a couple of euros, only takes about five minutes and is wholly unnecessary but still fun! It is super peaceful because of the lack of motor sounds in the background. It’s honestly much quicker to just use one of the nearby bridges to cross the river but the novelty factor makes it worth it, at least once.

Food and Drink

You might have heard the rumours that Switzerland is very expensive and I’m here to tell you, they’re true. Because of this, I’ve always tried to limit my eating and drinking while in Basel but there are still ways to enjoy some food and drink in the city without breaking the bank. For example, on exiting the Foundation Beyeler with Andy, we were both starving and in need of some sustenance. We came across a kebab shop where I got a big chicken kebab sandwich and a beer for CHF 12 – a bargain!

Another option is a selection of food trucks that can be found in the main square, called the Marktplatz. You can sample some currywurst or a Swiss hot dog topped with raclette cheese, onions and mustard amongst other things. Marktplatz is also worth a visit to see the Rathaus, the 16th Century city hall.

I have also visited a great little hot chocolate cafe called Xocolatl when I went to Basel to meet Anya who was on my Chinese course in first year. There is a whole menu with different types of hot chocolate, different percentages, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, so many choices! I had one called ‘the Marie Antoinette’ which included a shot of espresso.

Finally, I’ve saved the best for last. My number one go-to spot that I have visited every time I’ve gone to Basel. Mystifry is a specialty vegan doughnut shop, the first of its kind in Switzerland. For any Edinburgh folk reading, imagine Considerit Doughnuts and you’ll get the idea. The flavours change every month as well as having seasonal specials. So far I have sampled the plum pie, cinnamon icing with plum compote and a little swirl of cream, the orange blossom and toasted almond and the blueberry. It has never disappointed and I hope to continue my tradition of visiting every time I’m in the city!

Colmar

Next up in potential day trips is the smaller town of Colmar, just over half the size of Mulhouse. Colmar is known for its beautiful old town and considers itself the capital of Alsatian wine. It literally looks like a postcard and reminded me immediately of the village in Beauty and the Beast! It also happens to be the birthplace of Auguste Bartholdi, better known as the creator of the Statue of Liberty, and Pierre Hermé, celebrated pâtissier known for his macarons.

Transport

To get to Colmar from Mulhouse, it takes between 20 to 35 minutes, depending on the train that you get. There are three or four every hour, costing €9.70 with no discount card. With the carte avantage jeune it is around €7 and with the regional carte primo around €5. Once you arrive in Colmar, everything is pretty walkable. From the station, it takes around 15 minutes to walk to the Petite Venise area.

Top Sights

The number one top sight in Colmar is La Petite Venise, an area of the town around the river Lauch, lined with the iconic half-timbered houses. It is an absolutely gorgeous place. I remember being more and more in awe with every cobblestone street I walked down the first time I visited. A particularly picture perfect spot is the bridge next to the Place des Six Montaignes Noires and a bit further in at the Quai de la Poissonnerie. Next to the Quai de la Poissonerie you will find the marché couvert (the covered market) which is worth a little dander around to see the many stalls filled with Alsatian delights.

Just walking through the streets of Colmar, there is plenty to see. The main cathedral, l’Église Saint-Martin, is a beautiful example of Gothic architecture and the nearby Maison Pfister is considered one of the symbols of Colmar. The Kofïshus (or l’Ancienne Douane), the old custom house, is also a favourite of mine as it has a beautiful and vibrant tiled roof.

Another great spot in Colmar is the Musée Unterlinden. The most visited museum in Alsace is housed in a 13th century convent and an early 20th century public baths building. It hosts an impressive collection of medieval and early renaissance art from the Upper Rhine. The Unterlinden Museum is home to the Isenheim Altarpiece, a set of panels depicting the life of Jesus Christ that were commissioned for l’Église Saint-Martin. The seven surviving panels are on display at the museum. I found the layout a little confusing and personally there’s only so much religious art that I can take. However, I enjoyed the modern part much more although the tapestry of Picasso’s Guernica that I really wanted to see was on loan to Paris. I guess I’ll just have to go back!

Food and Drink

Most of my experiences of eating and drinking in Colmar come from when I visited during the Christmas markets. I’ve said it before but I really liked the markets there, more so than the much bigger and more famous one in Strasbourg. To this day I still think about the Nutella and praline crepe that I ate there.

Freiburg

Last but not least, the German city of Freiburg! My visit here a few weeks ago was my first time in Germany and it made a very strong first impression. Full name Freiburg im Breisgau, the city is apparently the warmest and sunniest city in Germany (I can definitely believe that from what I experienced!) and is the gateway to the Black Forest. It is also known for being an incredibly eco-friendly and sustainable city.

Transport

Getting to Freiburg from Mulhouse is a little trickier than Basel or Colmar. There are two main options, via a small town called Müllheim or via Basel. The Basel option takes between 1 hour 10 minutes and 1 hour 50 minutes and costs €35-40. The Müllheim option takes about 55 minutes and costs just under €15. They run at fairly irregular intervals throughout the day, although the Müllheim option runs much less frequently than the Basel option. With the route via Basel taking longer and being more expensive, there doesn’t seem to be much advantage to taking it other than the fact that they are much more frequent. This is important when you know that you only have 10 minutes to change platforms in Müllheim. A bit of a dash ensues because the Mulhouse train gets in at one end of the platform and the only tunnel to traverse the platforms is all the way at the other end, miles away (at least it felt like that). This was fine on the way there but on the way home our train was delayed by ten minutes. We pulled into Müllheim with a minute to spare and raced down the platform just in case there was any chance we could make it. There was not. And that was how we came to be stranded in Müllheim for two hours. Beware!

Top Sights

I had such glorious weather the day I visited that everything looked beautiful. The city looks very similar to a lot of Alsatian towns and cities. While wandering around, we passed some of the main points of attraction, including the Martinstor, an old city gate dating back to the 13th century where women accused of being witches were burnt, and the altes rathaus (the old city hall). We made it the Münsterplatz, the main square where you’ll find the Freiburg Cathedral and the Historic Merchant’s Hall.

A great spot for panoramic views of the city is the Schlossberg, a hill overlooking the old town. It is topped with Schlossberg Tower but there are several lower viewpoints that give equally good views across the city, such as the Kanonenplatz. There is a funicular that makes the top of the hill accessible to all. There was originally a castle on the hill but only the ruins remain now.

Another point of interest in Freiburg are the shallow gutters that run through all the streets, called the Freiburg Bächle. Originally they were used to fight fires and feed livestock but now they keep the city cool on hot days and provide entertainment for children who race small boats down them. Legend says that if you accidentally step in one you will marry a Freiburger!

Food and Drink

My main food and drink recommendation for Freiburg comes from the farmers market that happens in the Münsterplatz everyday except Sunday. There is a great selection of food trucks including a vegan’s dream tofu truck, a more traditional German sausage truck and the one that eventually pulled me in, enticingly loaded fries. There were also all kinds of stalls, fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers, toys, crafts, cheese, meats, liquorice, sweets and more. I even found some caramelised onion chutney, something I’ve been missing from home and haven’t been able to find anywhere in France!

Another excellent spot is the beer garden on Schlossberg hill. Just a couple of hundred metres up the hill but perfectly placed for a light refreshment, you can enjoy a pint of pilsner while taking in the view!

And there we have three easily accessible day trips from Mulhouse! I’ve been to both Basel and Colmar a few times now but would definitely like to go back to Colmar to wander around some more and to Basel to visit some more of the museums. I really loved Freiburg and feel like there’s a lot more to discover there, plus I was able to practice my beginner German and learn a lot more while I was there. Hopefully some of this information will be useful if you ever visit these cities and you can enjoy some of the recommendations as well!

Welcome back to another anniversary post! Blink and you might have missed the past six months, or at least that’s what it feels like to me. Due to the fact that I’ve had a hectic couple of weeks, this post is actually a little overdue. However, it’s that time again when I look back on the past few months of living and working in Mulhouse and take the chance to reflect on some aspects of that experience. First of all, it feels a little special to even be writing this post. I started doing this type of blog when I was in China. I wrote one for my one month and three month anniversaries but I never got to write a six month anniversary one. Unfortunately I had to leave about a month before reaching that milestone so being able to write one about being in France is a good feeling.

So starting off with my achievements over the last three months, I’m feeling happier and more settled than ever in the life that I’ve been building here. That’s a general feeling that accompanies some of the more specific achievements of late, one of contentment with how things are going. It’s been less big, stand out events and more just a slow and steady ticking along in the right direction.

I’m really pleased with where I’ve landed with my social life. I have a lovely circle of friends, a few different groups who sometimes cross over. This is something that has always been important to me, especially during uni. I’m a pretty social person so I like building a network of people that I enjoy spending time with, that can support me and that I in turn can support. I also think there’s nothing better than introducing one group of friends to another and having them immediately hit it off!

I’ve also been feeling very inspired in several areas recently. I’m just coming off a run of lessons that I have really enjoyed and that I feel went very well. You can read about a lesson plan on movies from earlier in the semester here and there is a brief insight into a recent class on minority languages in English speaking countries in my day in the life of a lectrice blog. This semester has also included classes on social media, fast fashion, gender identity and immigration and refugees. I can’t speak for my students but I’ve really enjoyed hearing their thoughts on all these subjects and I hope they’ve enjoyed sharing them as well!

My creative exploits have been bringing me a lot of joy recently as well. One of these is obviously this blog. Personally I feel like I’ve been on a bit of a roll. I’m very proud of my recent posts and am pleased with how they turned out. They just seemed to flow out very easily. I have also recently started bullet journaling, inspired by my friend Àine. It appeals to me in a lot of ways, the most obvious being the organisation aspect. I always have a running to do list in a note in my phone or a notebook where I write down things I have to remember. My bullet journal has combined all of these while also giving me somewhere to be a bit creative, in a different way than through my writing on my blog. In picking a theme for everyone month, there is a bit of drawing involved, designing, using different fonts. If you want to read a little more about bullet journalling, check out Àine’s post on what she’s learnt a year in. It’s probably safe to expect a post from me about bullet journaling at some point but I’ll wait until I’ve got a few more months under my belt.

In terms of adjustments, there have been a few things to get used to. One thing that I found difficult, maybe surprisingly, was grading. At the start of this year, I had to spend some time putting together the grades for all of my students from last semester. Some of it was fairly easy, like their participation grade. Every week when I take the register, I also note down how much each student has participated by giving them a mark out of three. When calculating their overall grade, I was able to use these marks to work out an average participation grade for the semester. This accounted for 50% of the overall semester grade. However, the other grades were much more subjective. 40% came from a presentation that they had given, either individually or in groups depending on the year group, and 10% from some homework tasks. These parts were all down to my own judgement and so I really had to trust my instincts. I found that having this pressure on me to decide how well someone had done over the semester, especially the students that were a borderline pass or fail, really kicked my imposter syndrome into gear. I have no official training when it comes to teaching English. My qualifications come from the fact that I am a native English speaker and that I have some experience in teaching English from when I was in Honduras. When it comes down to deciding something as official as a grade, I really started to question myself. Àine actually wrote a really interesting blog recently where she interviewed me and a few fellow English teachers about imposter syndrome. Despite all this, I’ve been trying to remind myself that I do know what I’m doing. I’m confident in my abilities and I’ve gotten to know my students really well. I know their abilities, their interests and their effort. That in itself qualifies me to give them a grade for a class where the sole aim is to get them talking.

Thankfully there have been a lot of highlights over the last three months. Rouen was obviously great and I’ve just enjoyed all the things I’ve been doing with friends, like going on hikes, celebrating Burn’s Night and Chinese New Year, day trips to Basel, going for drinks and eating good food. Hopefully there’s lots more of that to come.

Another massive highlight was going home! And by home I of course mean Scotland. My original plan was to go back for Christmas but that was foiled by getting covid. Instead the trip was pushed back to mid-February to coincide with a week off work, provided I was able to test negative on lateral flow tests. As the time approached, covid related travel regulations started to loosen after tightening a lot around Christmas. You no longer needed a test before leaving France to go to Scotland and the day after I was due to arrive, the rules changed so that you no longer had to take a Day 2 arrival test. While I was home, things changed again so that I didn’t need any tests before or after going back to France either. (Don’t assume these are still the regulations at whatever time you are reading this, make sure to check!). And so mission accomplished, I made it there and back in one piece!

I won’t go into too much detail about my time at home (for now…!) but it was 10 days spent among family and friends, enjoying my time off, lots of cuddles (from people and pets), trips to London, Edinburgh and Glasgow as well being at home in Dunblane, a delayed Christmas dinner (almost a tradition now) and celebrating turning 24! You’ll just have to wait to find out more. Once was clearly not enough and I actually ended up going back to Scotland ten days after the first trip! To be fair, this long weekend had been planned for a while in order to attend the Edinburgh University Swimming and Water Polo Club alumni weekend. If things had gone to plan it would have been a couple of months since I was last back instead of less than two weeks but that’s just the way things worked out. It was a hectic but very enjoyable weekend that I’m still trying to recover from!

The past three months have been a bit of a doozy for low points to be honest. Along with the amazing times I’ve had, the last three months have also contained the most difficult moments since I arrived in France. First of all, getting covid was obviously a bit of a kick in the teeth. Fortunately my symptoms weren’t all that bad (thank you vaccines!) – I had a few days of aches and pains, a bit of a cough and just generally feeling rough and then a whole week of the worst boredom OF MY LIFE! The worst bit was really the timing. I had already started to limit my social interactions, anything non-essential, before heading home for the holidays, only to be hit with a positive test result. There were a lot of tears at first and some difficult decisions but in the end it was decided that even though my isolation ended on the 24th December, it would be best for me to stay in France, lest I somehow get stuck in the UK and not be able to get back to my job.

To be honest though, getting covid was not my lowest point. That award goes to the week I got home from Scotland the first time, just a few weeks ago. I got back on Sunday evening and went to work on Monday. Monday is my busiest day of the week and I was exhausted by the end of it. I thought it was just from having travelled the day before and general tiredness that I have after six hours of classes almost entirely back to back. However, by the evening I was running between shivering and sweating, aching all over and just generally feeling awful. I went to bed and pretty much didn’t get out for three days. I missed two days of work and genuinely felt worse than when I had covid. At least I didn’t feel homesick as I usually do when I’m ill. It’s really the only time I can guarantee that I will miss home because when you’re ill, all you want is a hug from your mum! Thankfully, having just been home for 10 days, I was feeling pretty stocked up on hugs! As if being ill wasn’t enough, the day I started feeling better I got hit with crippling period pains so I was still curled up in bed. Sod’s law, eh?

Now on to some much cheerier things! There’s a lot to look forward to over the next few months. I have about two months left before I’m finished with teaching at the end of April. My current plans for the summer are to try and spend a few months in Spain, to give a little TLC to my Spanish, and then a bit of time at home before heading back to Mulhouse. I’m really feeling very lucky to have a European passport at the moment (thank you Irish heritage!). Living in continental Europe has really opened my eyes to all the opportunities that are available to European citizens, ones that it feels like most Brits weren’t taking full advantage of before Brexit and definitely aren’t able to now.

I also have a few visits lined up in the coming weeks as well. I’m meeting my friend Nina in Paris at the end of the month where we are going to spend a jam-packed 36 hours trying to fit in all the sights in honour of her first time visiting the city of lights. The week after, my dad and sister will arrive in Mulhouse. The plan is to spend a few days here, with me as tour guide over the weekend after which I’ll send them out to fend for themselves in Alsace while I’m working. Once I’m finished with classes for the week we are going into Switzerland for some skiing! It’s been 8 years since I last threw myself down a ski slope and I can’t wait to probably be horrible at it! After that, towards the end of April the other sister is coming to see me for a few days. It will be nice to show some people around Mulhouse. I wouldn’t say there’s masses to do here as a tourist but that’s not really what my family is coming to see. They want to see all my favourite spots, my local bakery, the coffee shop where I like to work sometimes, the bar where I’ve spent many a Saturday night and all my regular haunts. They want to be able to picture how I spend my days.

Being six months into living in Mulhouse, I’m feeling very settled. Looking back, I feel like I’ve made good use of my time so far. After having my time in China cut short, It was really important to me to take advantage of all the time and opportunities I had here and not take anything for granted. I’m happy with where I’m at with work, in my social life and personally. I only have a few months left here before the summer but I’m excited about what’s still to come!

Hello and welcome! Thank you for joining me for a day in my life as a lectrice, specifically Tuesday 8th February 2022. I thought this would be the perfect day to show you the behind the scenes of my life. It’s a nice mix of classes, prep and admin time, my second job and some chill time in the evening. I have been working as a lectrice d’anglais at the Université de Haute-Alsace since September 2021 so I’m well into the swing of things by now. If you’re sitting there wondering what a lectrice actually is, you can check out this post from when I arrived that explains that a little bit more before reading this one. I hope you enjoy this behind the scenes look at being a lectrice!

My day starts like many other people’s, with snoozing my alarm at least 3 times. The first one goes off around 7am and I usually actually get out of bed half an hour later. In the words of the great Dolly Parton I ‘tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition’ and make my lunch while I wait for the coffee to cool to an acceptable drinking temperature. I usually make a salad for lunch when I’m at work all day and take it with me. I pretty much always make the same thing because I don’t like to have to think too much in the morning. Breakfast is a similar situation where every morning is fairly similar. It’s usually a couple of little waffles and a banana, sometimes with some Nutella as well. Sometimes I replace the waffles for toast or crepes but most work days it’s the same.

Next, I get dressed. My university doesn’t really have a strict dress code so I can dress quite casually. I know that this can differ depending on the department or university that you work in, some places require more formal attire. However, not for me. I would say that the outfits I wear to work don’t really differ from my normal, everyday outfits. Today I chose some black corduroy dungarees with a long sleeved white top and my Doc Marten boots. Often I just wear jeans paired with a t-shirt, a collared shirt or a sweater and in the warmer weather I wore mid-length skirts or lighter trousers. One day as I was entering my classroom with one of my L2 classes and we were all getting settled, one student asked me if I ever get mistaken for a student! I replied that I haven’t, at least as far as I know, but I do always wonder if today is going to be the day that a staff member is going to tell me off for coming out of the staff toilets or using the staff printers. One of the other students in that class followed up by saying that at the start of our first class, she was looking around the classroom for the teacher and it took her a few minutes to realise it was me! It probably doesn’t help that I’m only a couple of years olders than a lot of them and even younger than a few others!

With my first class at 9am, I leave my apartment at around 8.30am and walk a couple of minutes to the nearest tram stop. It’s barely a 20 minute walk from where I live to the university campus but in the mornings I like to get the tram just to take away any extra stress about getting there on time and avoiding any sweatiness! Two stops takes me to the bottom of campus and one more gets me to the top of the hill and closer to where the FLSH building is.

I start my day with an L2 group, one of my favourite classes (not that I have favourites!). The topic this week was minority languages in English speaking countries. I have freedom over the subjects I teach so what I usually do is choose an overall topic for the week and then differentiate some or all of the activities depending on the year group. I started this week’s lesson with a short workshop on how to say dates properly. I’ve started doing a few of these to work on some issues that I noticed popping up last semester. The week before we looked at how to say large numbers and I have also used tongue twisters to practice certain aspects of pronunciation that they find tricky.

For the main body of the lesson we started by looking at the small homework task I had set at the end of last week. Each student had to pick an English speaking country and then find an indigenous, minority or other widely spoken language in that country that wasn’t English. In small groups, they shared some of their research about the languages and also attempted a few phrases. There were a great variety of choices, from Celtic languages like Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, Cornish and Manx, to several variations of Creole, different Native American and indigenous Canadian languages and others like Maori, Afrikaans and more. It was fascinating to hear everyone share what they had learned and especially when some students were sharing about a language that they actually speak and is important to them.

After sharing the homework, we moved on to some general discussion questions in the same small groups as before. For example, do you think it’s important to keep minority languages alive? Do you think the world of technology is helping or hurting minority languages? Do you think the growth of English as a global language is helping to kill minority languages? This last question in particular led us on nicely to the next activity which was a mini debate with the resolution ‘English should be used as a lingua franca.’ A lingua franca is any language that is adopted as a means of communication between people who do not speak each other’s native languages. I split the class into two groups and assigned one side to argue the affirmative and one to argue the negative. They had 10 minutes to come up with arguments for their sides while also trying to anticipate what the other side would say and come up with rebuttals. The debate itself was very simple, a back and forth between each side until they ran out of arguments or we ran out of time.

This was a class that I really enjoyed teaching throughout the week. There weren’t really any differences between the L2 plan, detailed above, and the L1 plan but L3 had actually done a debate on English as a lingua franca last semester. For them I had a few alternative debate topics that I let them choose from, such as ‘students of foreign origin living in France have the right to study their mother tongue in school’ or ‘economically and politically, it would be better for all minority languages to fall out of use.’ Even though the classes were quite similar across all the year groups, it didn’t get boring (which it sometimes can). The variety of languages in the homework task were so interesting and the debates got a lot of people really fired up which was great to see!

After this first class I had an hour free from teaching so I headed up to the office that I share with a few other members of the English department. I spent the hour answering some emails from students as well as preparing some information on one of my assessments for this semester that I was going to be sharing with my students soon. This particular assessment will have my L2 students choose a Ted Talk from a list I provide them and then make a video summarising the content and sharing their own thoughts and opinions on the subject. I was putting together the list of Ted Talks which was really just an excellent excuse to watch some very interesting videos! I also spent some time trying to figure out Moodle, the online platform that we use at UHA, so that my students would be able to upload this assessment there rather than email it to me.

At 11am I had my second class of the day, another L2 class, and then a longer two hour break. I sent some more emails and watched some more Ted Talks as well as doing some research for a conversation workshop I run on Tuesday evenings. In the second half of this break I went to the little staff kitchen to meet my friend and fellow lectrice Àine for lunch. (Àine actually has a post on her own blog, Une Bouchée A Day about a day in her life as a lectrice and masters student at the university that you can read here!) We swapped lesson plans for the week, discussed a few classes that we both teach, talked about our plans for the upcoming holidays and shared bullet journal ideas. Àine has been bullet journaling for about a year now and she convinced me to give it a try towards the end of last year. I started in January and so far it’s going well! I’m sure there will be a blog post about it at some point!

I had two more classes after lunch, one more L2 and an L1 group to finish, back to back. I finished at 4pm and always try to leave as quickly as possible to make it to my other job. I mentioned earlier that I spent a little time preparing for a conversation workshop. This is something that I do at a technology school called Epitech. It’s just for an hour a week as they have their own English teacher, I just come in once a week for this extra conversation time. I let them know in advance what our topic is going to be and then the students can sign up for the limited spaces depending on whether they like the sound of that topic or not. I usually take a topic that I have done with my classes at UHA and adapt it for the constraints of the Epitech session. Instead of having a one hour class with 10-20 students, I do two 30 minute slots with max 6 students. It’s a very different dynamic with it being much smaller groups. The groups are also mostly boys as well, in comparison with the UHA classes which tend to be about 60-70% girls.

It usually takes about 20 minutes to get there which is perfect because I start at 4.30pm, half an hour after finishing my last class at UHA. This week’s plan was to play a game of Twenty Questions. I’ve done this with my other classes before and it worked well. It’s a chance for the students to practise formulating questions. The students that chose to come to the workshop had been asked to choose an English speaking celebrity in advance so that they would be able to answer questions about them. However my first group hadn’t got the memo! Fortunately they were able to think of someone on the spot and we muddled through when there were questions that they weren’t sure about. It worked better with the second group because they had chosen people in advance. We got through their choices pretty quickly so did another round on the spot and I challenged them to choose a woman this time after all of their initial choices were men. Both groups were really nice, mostly people that I’d seen before and have been coming regularly since I started this a few weeks ago but also some new faces.

That was me finished for the day and I headed home via the supermarket. After such a busy day, the evening was very chilled. I hung out with one of my flatmates for a little bit, did my daily Wordles and Duolingo and wrote in my journal a little. With a week of holiday fast approaching and me heading home to Scotland, I also started packing. I spoke to my sister on the phone to arrange some things for her visit in April and then to another friend while I made some dinner. When I say made dinner, I mean I put a frozen tarte flambée into the oven. Usually I enjoy cooking but seeing as I was heading home in two days, my fridge was running a little low. After dinner I had a few chores to do around my room, putting some washing away and sweeping the floor. One of the last things I do in the evening is fill in some parts of my bullet journal and I ended the day by reading in bed for a bit before going to sleep.

And there you have a look inside my day to day life as a lectrice in France! This is a pretty representative example of one of my working days. Let me know if there’s anything else you want to know about being a lectrice!

Time for a little update! I promised I wouldn’t wait three months to do another blog about some of the little bits and pieces I’ve been up to and I haven’t – it’s only been two months! I’ve been posting a little more often in those two months so you’ve heard about some of the bigger things I’ve been up to like visiting my friend in Rouen for a few days, going on some hikes and even a little bit about what’s been happening in my classroom. So now for some things that have slipped through the net up to now.

After spending Christmas in Mulhouse with my flatmate, having not been able to get home after getting covid and only getting out of isolation on the 24th, I was still taking pleasure in the little things. It was lovely to spend Christmas with my flatmate Andy, a Canadian Erasmus student who also couldn’t make the trip back home (it is a little further than Scotland after all). He had plans to visit a friend in Grenoble for New Year so I was on my own. I didn’t mind that at all, I’ve always been quite happy with my own company. I had a week to myself in the flat, culminating in Hogmanay which I spent, funnily enough, blogging while watching Marvel movies and drinking gin and tonics. All in all, I wouldn’t consider it a bad start to the year! The second the clock hit midnight fireworks went off everywhere, not that I could see them! The best ones were hidden behind the apartment building opposite and a tree down the road.

The first few weeks of the year were very relaxed, involving a trip to Ikea, meeting a uni friend in Basel and catching up with friends who had been able to get home for Christmas. I’ve already written about my trip to Rouen which came at the perfect time. With not being able to go back to Scotland for what was supposed to be a whole month and not having gone further than Strasbourg since my trip to Spain and Andorra in October, it’s safe to say I was getting itchy feet. I wanted to go somewhere new and get a bit of time and space away from Mulhouse. A few days in Rouen were just what I needed. I came back feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the new semester. Unfortunately I also came back to the news that my flatmate was positive for covid. I didn’t have to isolate but I did decide to lay low for a while, just going out for work and not much else.

The new term started in mid-January. I have a different timetable this semester but all of the same classes. The way my classes are arranged means that I finish my working week at lunchtime on Wednesdays. It sounds great – and it definitely is! – but there have been things that I’ve learnt even in these first few weeks. Having a four day weekend is perfect for travelling and taking longer weekend trips away but the weekends where that’s not the plan can be very long. The first few weeks of the semester I didn’t have anything in particular planned for the weekends and ended up being a bit miserable. It’s easy to end up working all the time but also not working effectively. You have so much time that there is no pressure to sit down and just get things done so they drag on. I started to make sure I had something planned for one or two of my days off, whether that was just going for a coffee, making dinner with my flatmates, going a day trip to a nearby city or a hike in the mountains. Having these things to look forward to gives my long weekends more structure and makes me more productive when I do sit down to do some work.

I recently wrote about one of my lesson plans from this semester, when we were creating movies in class. I haven’t covered a lot about my job on the blog but I really enjoyed writing that one so I think there’s going to be a few more in the near future. I already have one in the works, a day in the life of a lectrice, so watch out for that coming soon!

At the end of January was Burns Night and I actually managed to spend it with other Scots! I was invited to a Burns Supper hosted by Annabelle, the previous lectrice in my position who is also Scottish. There was one other Scot in attendance, Lynzie, a language assistant in a high school near Mulhouse who is from Alva! For those that don’t know, Alva is only 25 minutes from Dunblane and here we find ourselves both in Mulhouse. What a small world! Her French boyfriend was there as well, alongside my fellow lectrice at UHA, Àine, her boyfriend, and one of Annabelle’s other friends. We did our best to pull together some traditional Scottish food, although unfortunately haggis is hard to come by in Alsace. I did manage to find some Scottish smoked salmon, served with some apricot confit and homemade oatcakes. Annabelle made a delicious leek and tattie soup with cheese scones and we had two desserts! Lynzie made us some silky smooth chocolate mousse and Àine tried her hand at cranachan, a Scottish dessert made of cream, raspberries, oats and whisky! Very successful all around. Even though there was no haggis, we did have a reading (or at least an attempt) of ‘Address to a Haggis’ by Robert Burns from all the non-Scots, while us Scots each chose a favourite Scottish poem that we remembered from our days of being forced to recite them in assemblies in primary school!

Sticking with the theme of dinner parties, I asked (or more accurately, demanded) that my flatmates and neighbours celebrate Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, with me by having a Chinese potluck. I was able to spend Spring Festival in China in 2020 but due to the fact that I was travelling by myself at the time and that it was only a couple of days before I actually left China because of the mounting concern over the coronavirus, I didn’t get a traditional celebration nor did I write about it on the blog. Spring Festival is the largest celebration in Chinese culture and food is, of course, a very important part of that. It is custom to eat dumplings, specifically jiaozi 餃子, and although we didn’t manage to make those ourselves, we still had an amazing spread! There was di san xian (地三鲜), a traditional north-eastern dish of potatoes, aubergines and peppers (one of my favourites from when I was in Dalian), soy braised cauliflower, teriyaki tofu and hoisin chicken and water chestnuts. For dessert we had tang hulu (糖葫芦), candied fruit that is also very popular in northern China and that I saw everywhere in Dalian, with ice cream and brownies because it’s our party and we do what we want! Thanks to everyone that was there for humouring me and also coming dressed in your best red outfits (another tradition that is supposed to bring good luck!).

I’ve also tried out a few new places around Mulhouse in the past few weeks. Girl’s night called for a few cocktails, the perfect chance to visit the newly opened Astronome rooftop bar. January is not the perfect time to have drinks outside so the actual rooftop was closed but the indoor space was very open and modern and the cocktails were great! I sampled their mojitos, one passion fruit and one pineapple, and I can definitely imagine coming back when the sun is shining and the air is a little warmer to enjoy the evening light while sipping away outside on the rooftop. After Astronome we headed to a spot that I’ve been wanting to try for ages, Nomad. Nomad is a restaurant and bar in one of Mulhouse’s more industrial neighbourhoods that is going through a bit of a renaissance. The building is a large, red brick ex-factory building. The inside has a warm, convivial ambience and a rather bohemian vibe. I was with Àine and Lynzie who were at the Burns Supper as well as Charlotte, Àine’s housemate, who is also an English teacher. In addition to being a fellow lectrice, Àine is also a fellow blogger. She writes about her experiences in France, as an English teacher and most importantly, as an avid food lover on Une Bouchée A Day. She took the opportunity of being with a group of other English teachers to interview us about our experiences with imposter syndrome. If you’re interested in reading the result, you can find it here!

Most recently, I went into Basel to visit one of its many museums and art galleries. On the first Sunday of the month, many of Basel’s museums have free entry and considering that Switzerland is not the cheapest place, it would be silly not to take advantage of that! I went with my flatmate Andy who is a design student. He really wanted to go and see a Georgia O’Keefe exhibition at the Foundation Beyler. You might remember that I went to see the same exhibition in Paris in October but many of the pieces in Basel were different. I really enjoyed seeing more of Georgia O’Keefe’s work, as well as some others that were on display, my favourites of which you can see below.

And that is it for now! The year has gotten off to an interesting start and if it’s a sign of what is still to come this year, I’m excited! Coming up soon on the blog there will be the post I mentioned before, showcasing a day in my life as a lectrice, as well as my fast approaching six month anniversary post at the end of February! À bientôt!

Winter might sound like an unusual time to start exploring the great outdoors around Mulhouse. It’s cold, the weather is often unreliable and the best views may be spoiled by a lack of leaves on trees or a drab colour palette. Well, none of that stopped me from spending a few weekends in January trying out some of the hiking trails around Mulhouse.

Mulhouse is actually perfectly situated for outdoor enthusiasts. It is a short journey away from Les Vosges, a mountain range that runs down the western side of Alsace. At the time of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the Vosges actually marked the French border with Germany. Mulhouse is closest to the part of the mountain range known as the Higher Vosges (Hautes Vosges), perhaps confusingly found at the southern end. In this area, the rounded summits of the mountains are known as ballons (meaning balloons in French). This is what gives the highest mountain in the Vosges, Le Grand Ballon, its name. It stands at just over 1430 metres high, making it not just the highest mountain in the Vosges but also the highest point in the Grand Est region of France.

While some of the hikes in the Vosges are only really accessible if you have a car, such as the Grand Ballon, others are very easy to get to by public transport. This is lucky for me as that’s the only way I get around! I’m hoping that at one point I’ll be able to make it out to the Grand Ballon but for now I’m satisfying myself with hikes such as the two below.

La Cascade de Bubalafels

Starting with the easier of the two hikes I’ve done recently, we have La Cascade de Bubalafels. When my friend suggested this one, I thought he was having me on because surely that name can’t be real! It very much is and it brings me so much joy whenever I see it because it’s so strange but fun! The couple of friends that I went on the hike with are both very interested in linguistics so we did try and find out where the word comes from but couldn’t get any information on it’s roots.

Anyway, La Cascade de Bubalafel is a small waterfall in the foothills of the Vosges, just outside the town of Moosch (pronounced Mosh, like mosh pit). Getting to Moosch from Mulhouse was very easy. You take the tram-train from the city centre (or right outside my flat) towards Thann. You have to change trains at the end of the line at Thann-Saint-Jacques station but there are only two platforms so it’s hard to get it wrong. From there it is a handful more stops until you arrive in Moosch. In total it took just over an hour and costs €3-5 if you have certain discount cards or €7 if not.

It’s a sleepy little town that was almost deserted as we walked through it late on a Saturday morning. A path out of town takes you past a few campsites and into the forest where signs start to appear for Bubalafels. Less than a kilometre down the track and you will come to the waterfall itself. In researching for this blog I did actually find more information about the origin of the name Bubalafels. Apparently it means ‘the rock of the babies’ (I still don’t know in what language) and the whole site of the waterfall has a fertility legend attached to it. According to legend, couples would go to the waterfall and hit a rock overlooking the top of the falls with a hazelnut stick. If the baby was ready it would appear and the couple would take it back to the village.

The waterfall itself was very small but it was in a very nice area. There was a viewpoint at the top, a small wooden balcony and just beyond a wide open space surrounded by the forest that is known as the prairie aux abeilles (bee meadow). It is filled with lots of pollen and nectar rich plants which attract a lot of insects. Just beyond the meadow is another point of interest, le sapin pectine. It’s a 46m high, 100 year old tree. It used to have two trunks and was known as the twin tree but one of the trunks snapped in a storm in 1999.

Seeing as the hike to the waterfall was actually pretty short, we decided to keep going up the mountain a bit more. It got a bit steeper than it had been up until that point and we also reached the snow! We carried on until we caught sight of what we think was a hunting party and decided it would probably be smart to head back down the mountain. We stopped at the waterfall again to eat our packed lunches on the wee wooden balcony. It was a very cold day so by the time we’d been out for a few hours, we were cold enough to start heading home.

Overall this was a perfect, easy day hike to do from Mulhouse. It was quite laid back with the option to go further if you wanted to, surrounded by the tranquility of nature. The one critique I would have was that the village of Moosch, our start and end point, was very quiet. It could have something to do with the fact it was a Saturday afternoon (apparently that means nothing will be open) but we couldn’t find anywhere to have a cup of tea to warm up while we waited for our train. Instead we had to sit in the drafty shelter on the platform for 45 minutes… All in all though, a good beginners hike that isn’t too much of a hassle to get to if, like me, you rely on public transport.

Pastetenplatz

Another hike that I’ve done recently started in the village of Thann and involved walking up to a point on the mountain next to it called Pastetenplatz. I would say that this hike was a little more challenging than the previous one, particularly the first twenty minutes, but it’s still very manageable for the casual hiker.

The village of Thann (pronounced like tan) sits at the bottom of the Vosges and has the river Thur running through it. To get to Thann from Mulhouse is pretty much the same as it is to get to Moosch, detailed above, but shorter. You can get the tram-train from any of the stops in Mulhouse and get off at Thann Centre around 50 minutes later, for between €1.70 and €5.

One of the main attractions in Thann are the ruins of Château de l’Engelbourg (the Engelbourg castle) and l’Œil de la Sorcière (the Witch’s Eye) which sit on a small hill overlooking the town. The castle was built in the 13th century by Count Frederic II of Ferrette in order to control the Thur valley. It was a private residence at times as well as a garrison at others. It was badly damaged during the Thirty Years War in the 17th century and the main tower toppled, creating what is now known as the Witch’s Eye, surveying the village below.

There are signs through the centre of Thann that will lead you towards l’Œil. The path up the hill to the ruins is very steep which I was not prepared for! It’s very intense but only takes about twenty minutes to get up to the ruins. It was helped that we were accompanied by a cat that had started following us on the main road and followed us at least half of the way up. The view from the hilltop was incredible. There is a great panoramic aerial view down into the town that lets you see all the beautiful buildings in Thann as well as some neighbouring vineyards, some of the other mountains in the Vosges and across the Upper Rhine Plain. You can climb up into l’Œil but I didn’t fancy the scramble so was designated photographer for my friends who did make the climb.

From the ruins of the Château de l’Engelbourg you can continue up the mountain. Thankfully it’s not as steep as that first twenty minutes up to the ruins. There are steep moments but also flat parts when you wind around the side of the mountain or more gentle inclines. I have to admit that when we arrived at Pastetenplatz, I was a bit disappointed. We had very arbitrarily chosen Pastetenplatz as our goal and turn around point and it turned out to be just a clearing in the forest. However, going back down the path a little there is a small shelter next to an outcropping of rocks and a wotan oak tree. This was the real reward for making it up the mountain as far as we did. We could see back down to Thann, now just a speck in the distance, and we could actually see over as far as Mulhouse. We figured out that it was Mulhouse because you could see the recognisable silhouette of the Eurotower, one of the buildings in the city centre.

Heading back down towards Thann was much easier than the way up. Overall it took us about four hours to go from the centre of Thann, up to the ruins and Pastetenplatz and then back down. We finished with a cold beer in a small restaurant called Au Petit Rangen in Thann, the perfect way to end a day of hard work!

I’m sharing something a bit different today. I don’t usually talk too much about work here, other than a couple of blogs about what my job as a lectrice actually is and what I learnt from last semester. However, I’m just finishing what has been my favourite week of teaching since I arrived here and it has me so excited that I knew I wanted to share about it.

This week I decided I wanted to talk about movies with my classes. I really enjoy having control over my curriculum and the fact that I get to choose topics that I find interesting to talk about in class. It also means I can choose topics that my students are interested in as well. A few weeks ago, I gave out a feedback form to all my classes so I could get an insight into their thoughts about last semester. One of the questions I asked was about what kind of things they would enjoy talking about this semester and one of the most common responses was movies!

At this point, I have a pretty standard format that can serve as my go to or the basis for a lesson on almost any topic. It usually involves some warm up discussion questions, a vocab activity, a comprehension video and some more discussion questions. I also have a set of more interesting formats like speed dating or mini debates and some games and workshops that I can switch in and out to mix things up. However, when it came to this topic I had a stroke of inspiration. At the end of last week I told all my students that they had to pick an English language film that they know quite well to prepare for homework. They would have to be comfortable explaining the plot, the characters, the setting and the genre in English to someone that hasn’t seen their film. In class I split the class into groups and assigned one person each of these components and tasked them with mixing them together to create an entirely new film! So one person’s plot, someone else’s characters and so on.

I was a bit worried about how it would go because it is so different from what I usually do. I suspected it would either go amazingly well or fail dismally but from the very first class that I did it with, it was a hit! I gave the groups 20-30 minutes to work on their movie storylines and then had them present to the rest of the class. Even though I had assigned them all a certain component to use from their film, I didn’t want them to stick to it strictly, rather let their creative juices flow! And the results were amazing. I’m going to share some of my favourites that were created through the week.

WARNING – What is to come may contain some spoilers for the films that were involved so proceed with caution! Some of the films also deal with heavy themes such as mental health and mentions of eating disorders.

First up is Zombie Melody, a creation that combines the characters from All The Bright Things, about teenagers that are struggling with the death of a sibling and depression respectively, the plot of World War Z, where a family tries to escape a zombie apocalypse, and the setting and genre of La La Land, a musical set in Hollywood. This was the product of my first lesson of the week with a group of L3 girls. I loved how diverse the films they had chosen were and they did fantastically at melding them all together. In their film Violet, who is dealing with the loss of her sister, has managed to avoid becoming infected by whatever is turning people into zombies all across Hollywood. However Finch, a boy from Violet’s high school, has not been so lucky. Music was very important to Finch and when he accidentally overhears Violet singing it brings him out of his zombie state. There is no cure but it seems the zombies can be managed through music. I thought the students had touched on an interesting allegory for mental health in the zombies and also in the way that music was used as a treatment. I was also partial to the idea of a large scale ensemble number that involved tap dancing zombies.

The next movie is one of my favourites because it really feels like its own original idea, like it has drawn influence from the original movies that were chosen rather than being a literal mish mash of them all. Ghost stars the characters of The Spirit of Christmas, a retelling of the classic A Christmas Carol, the plot of Freedom Writers, a story that unites students across the boundaries of race through their education, and the setting and genre of John Wick, an action-thriller about a hitman who is forced out of retirement. The world is split into two segregated sides, the humans and the ghosts who are ostracised from general society. Even though it is against the law, some humans have taken it upon themselves to ‘deal with’ ghosts, making them disappear. Our protagonist Ebenezar is a miserable man who finds no joy in his life. He is enticed by the ghosts, the outsiders of society, and one day befriends three ghosts he sees making magic. He is eventually killed by a group of humans for what they see as his betrayal of humanity but comes back as a ghost to fight against them to desegregate society. While the assigned elements of the original films are easy enough to find, they have been woven together in such an inventive way that Ghost feels entirely its own story.

Edward Vengeance is a story that combines the characters of Edward Scissorhands, a humanoid with scissors for hands who is taken in by a kind family, the plot of Faster, about a man seeking revenge on the people who put him in prison, and the setting and genre of 1917, a war film set in northern France in, you guessed it, 1917. Around the outbreak of WWI, Edward Scissorhands is roped into a plan to rob a bank by Kim, the woman he is in love with, and her boyfriend Jim. In the process Kim is killed and Edward is arrested after Jim rats them out to the police. Edward is sent to prison for ten years for a crime that was barely his. On his release he sets out to kill Jim and the police that arrested him as vengeance for Kim’s death. This was the brainchild of a group of L2s and I was surprised by how well they moulded the characters and relationships from Edward Scissorhands to fit with the plot of a wildly different film. I can also really imagine it with the intensity of a film like 1917.

Another fabrication that holds its own is Thin Dreams. It uses the characters and setting of La La Land, about a struggling actress and jazz pianist who fall in love, and the plot and genre of To The Bone, a film about a girl being treated for anorexia. Mia is an aspiring actress in Hollywood suffering from anorexia who is struggling to get any jobs because she is so extremely thin. She is admitted to an in-patient treatment facility and it is here that she meets Sebastian, a ballet dancer who also suffers from anorexia. They fall in love but things aren’t easy for them. After Mia leaves rehab, alone but in recovery, she writes a one woman show about her life and her struggles. While it isn’t very successful, it does catch the eye of a producer who wants to cast her in an upcoming production. The two L3 girls who came up with this went as far as to plan some of the specific songs that would be sung, including one between Mia and her sister before she goes to rehab, trying to make her see that she needs help, one about how toxic Hollywood is and a back and forth between Mia and Sebastian in rehab called ‘Dreams Are For Losers’.

Last up is Crime and Prejudice, a flawless fusion of the characters from Forrest Gump, the story of a kind but slow-witted man as he influences a number of historic events across the latter half of the 20th century, the plot of Gone Girl, a psychological thriller about a man framed for the disappearance of his wife, and the setting and genre of Pride and Prejudice, a romantic drama set in early 1800s England. Lady Jenny and Sir Forrest are married but Sir Forrest’s frequent absence due to him being a cricket champion, a war hero and owning a fishing business among other ventures is putting a strain on their marriage. As it is the 1800s, Lady Jenny cannot divorce her husband so she plans to stage her death on their 5th anniversary. When she disappears, Sir Forrest is distraught and starts running all across England looking for her. Unbeknownst to Sir Forrest, Lady Jenny framed him for her disappearance so her father has the army looking for him. Lady Jenny takes refuge with Lord Bullington I, an old friend who is Sir Forrest’s rival. Lord Bullington has always had feelings for Lady Jenny and wants her to be with him. After she refuses, Lord Bullington turns sinister and will not let Lady Jenny leave. Eventually she is able to free herself by killing him with his own sword. Sir Forrest finds her there, covered in blood. Jenny has a long monologue where she tells Forrest about the pressure he was putting on their marriage which he accepts before kissing her in the rain. He loves her so much that he forgives her for framing him for her disappearance. Lady Jenny is able to convince the army that Sir Forrest wasn’t actually at fault and the blame lies solely with Lord Bullington who conveniently cannot dispute this. They start a family and live happily ever after.

And there we have my top picks! Which one would you most like to watch? We are in talks with Netflix about optioning a number of these titles so keep an eye out for some new releases soon. I was pleasantly surprised by just how invested some of my students got and definitely want to include more creative tasks in future lessons. I also now have a very long list of new films to watch! I hope you enjoyed this insight into what my work involves and if you have, maybe I’ll start sharing a little more about my life as a lectrice.

I’m a couple of weeks into the new semester now and it’s been a busy start! I’ve been meaning to sit down and write this blog for a while and am only just getting round to it now. After unexpectedly spending most of my Christmas holidays in Mulhouse, I felt like I really needed a few days away. I took the chance to go and see my friend Anna in Rouen who is also working as a lectrice. Rouen sits on the River Seine to the west of Paris, about an hour away by train, in the region of Normandy. Rouen was an important city during the Middle Ages and was the city where Joan of Arc was tried and burned alive in the 15th century. I didn’t know any of this, or much else about this city, before I arrived but I saw and learnt a lot while there. 

I had an early start on Monday 10th because my train was at 7.40am. Or it was supposed to be… Who doesn’t want to start their trip with an hour and a half delay in the station? When it eventually left, my train got diverted through Dijon and I finally arrived in Paris for my transfer. After navigating the metro to change from Gare de Lyon to Paris Saint Lazare I literally raced through the station and jumped onto a train to Rouen with a minute to spare, only an hour after my original connection was supposed to be. Delay aside, it was a pretty easy journey. 

Anna met me at the station and we walked over to her little studio apartment which was only five minutes away. After a quick lunch we headed out to wander around the city a little. Normandy is well known for being very misty and grey and lived up to that but its personality still managed to shine through even if the sun couldn’t. It has a lot of buildings that look similar to those in Alsace, half timbered and brightly coloured, but it also has a lot of Gothic architecture. It’s known as the city of cathedrals and churches because there are so many. You turn every corner and come across another one. The Notre-Dame Cathedral (not the one you’re thinking of) is one of Rouen’s main attractions and actually reminded me a lot of the cathedral in Strasbourg at first. It definitely has a much more Gothic style though. Claude Monet has a famous series of paintings of the cathedral at different times of day, some of which you can see at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. It has three towers, all built in different styles, one of which is called Le Tour de Beurre (The Butter Tower). This is because people who donated to its construction at the end of the 15th century were given special permission to consume butter and dairy during Lent. (Side note – Normandy is apparently well known for its butter as well as cider.)

We walked around more and I started to get the feel of the place. I saw the church Saint Maclou as well as the Gros Horloge, a 14th century astronomical clock tucked away down a cobblestoned shopping street. To me, one of the most endearing aspects of Rouen were all these narrow, cobbled streets that are filled with shops, cafes, restaurants, boutiques and plenty of places to get lost in. I would be quite happy wandering around them for hours. The last spot of note that I saw on this whistlestop tour of the city centre was the Saint Joan of Arc Church. In comparison with Rouen’s multitude of Gothic churches and cathedrals, this church is actually surprisingly modern. It was built in the 80s in the Place de Vieux-Marché, the very spot where it is said that Joan of Arc was burned alive. The curve of the roof is even supposed to evoke the flames of the pyre. 

My second day in Rouen was actually Anna’s birthday and we were treated to a rare day of blue skies and sunshine. I was happy to have the chance to see it in the sunshine after it had lived up to its misty reputation the day before. We started our day with brunch at this very cute cafe and then went on a stroll along the river.

The plan for the evening was to celebrate Anna’s birthday with a few of her friends and have raclette for dinner! You might know raclette as the dish where half of a wheel of cheese is heated until it starts to melt, at which point the cheese is scraped off and onto the common sides of potatoes, gherkins, pickled onions and an assortment of dried meat. However, there are also raclette grills that are much easier to use at home. They consist of a round grill surface with a space underneath to put little trays with individual slices of raclette cheese. This is the set up we had, with some potatoes, saucisse, grilled courgette and a wee side salad as accompaniments.

The latter half of the evening was consumed by the French version of Cards Against Humanity (even more extreme than the English version which if you’ve ever played, you know is saying something!) and then a trip to an Irish pub called Kallaghan’s. I was surprised to find Tennents available! It wasn’t the draft beer but a bottled, whisky oak aged version which I wasn’t a big fan of but it was still a novelty to see it.

On my last full day, Anna had to invigilate an exam in the morning so I met her at the university after she had finished. It was interesting comparing my role as a lectrice with what Anna does. Technically we have the same job but whereas I only teach Oral English classes, Anna teaches more of a variety of classes, including comprehension and translation. There’s also at least 5 lecteurs and lectrices in her department compared to just me at UHA! The University of Rouen is actually just outside of the city, at the top of a hill. If it hadn’t been misty again we would have had some great views of the city as we walked back into town.

Something I enjoyed a lot about Rouen was its bookshops (which will suprise no one who knows me). Over the course of my few days in Rouen I picked up several new books. There were a lot more bookshops than in Mulhouse and they all had significantly bigger English language sections as well as there being a specific English language bookshop. I have been working through the books that I managed to fit in my suitcase when I first moved over here plus a few that I’ve picked up in the interim but I was happy to be able to replenish my stock. Call them Christmas presents to myself!

Overall, it was a lovely few days. It only really sank in as I was heading back to Mulhouse (thankfully without a delay in sight) but I think I really needed those few days away. The end of the year had a lot of ups and downs and while I really enjoyed my Christmas spent in Mulhouse, not going home meant that I hadn’t left Mulhouse for more than a day trip since I went to Spain and Andorra at the end of October. I hadn’t had as much of a reset as the Christmas holidays and the start of the new year usually bring. Even just the few days away to the other side of France did a lot to clear my head and refresh my energy and I came back ready to start the new semester with more enthusiasm!

Je suis revenue pour partie deux! I’m back with part two of breaking down French stereotypes. I got so many submissions when I asked my friends and family last time that I knew I had to do a second round. Do you agree or disagree with these? And if you have any more stereotypes in mind, let me know and maybe we’ll see a part three!

French people are always rude.

I’m starting with a stereotype that is particularly pervasive. There is this idea that French people, and in particular Parisians, can be rude or snobby or are always complaining. I haven’t found this to be the case at all. In general the French aren’t overly expressive or effervescent as it can come across to them as being insincere. The North and the South are known to be a little more friendly and from my experience at least, I can say the same about people in Alsace. I’ll also add that basic manners are very important. If you approach a waiter or cashier with a hello or a good afternoon instead of diving straight in you’ll be treated with more kindness. I also really like that everyone says hello when you pass by on the street or when you come into a shop or a cafe, regardless of whether you know them or not.

The favoured eau de parfum is… smelly.

I can’t say that I’ve heard of this stereotype before but it came up in my preparation. In reality, about 60% of French people shower every day apparently. This might sound low to you, or maybe not, but it’s actually the English that are the dirtiest Europeans with only 20% showering on a daily basis! I honestly don’t know where this stereotype has come from (maybe it’s related to their love of smelly cheese?) but I’m here to deny it.

Tensions across the channel are high.

Next up is that the French are less than fond of the British. On an individual scale there are no hard feelings but on a macro scale, the French are almost as anti-Brexit as (at least) 48% of the UK. If I had a vote for each of the jibes I’ve heard about Brexit since I got here then we would still be in the EU. Saying that, the French seem to be very aware of the fact that Scotland did not vote for Brexit. I’ve been told a number of times that they’re just waiting for us to make a break for it and rejoin them. On verra…

Hey hey! Ho ho! Strikes are all the French people know!

France has a long history of strikes and protests and is seen by many as the world champion when it comes to industrial action. It’s part of the reason that France has such good workers protection and has been the seat of cultural upheaval over the years. There have been regular protests since I’ve been here. Every Saturday there is strike action that disrupts the transport network in Mulhouse and spreads through centre ville. As far as I know they are against the passe sanitaire, the vaccine passport that has been in effect since the summer. While I can’t say that I totally agree with their cause, I admire how respected the right to protest is and how ingrained it is in the French culture. I also happened across a climate justice march in Strasbourg in October and there have been large scale protests against violence against women and recent social policy reforms across France since I arrived.

Oh la la and sacre bleu are things that you will actually hear said.

One submission for stereotypical things that French people say was actually hon hon hon. I have nothing to say about that one but there are some actual phrases that they are well known for saying. Oh la la is one that I have actually heard fairly regularly but I can’t say that sacre bleu is as common as you might think. However, when it comes to noises of agreement, disagreement, pleasure, displeasure, disgust and more the French have it down to a science. A nonchalant shrug and a ‘bah oui’ tossed over your shoulder goes a long way.

Menus are full of snails and frogs legs.

Besides wine and cheese, which I have already covered in Part One, frogs legs and snails are the most stereotypical of all French cuisine. I haven’t seen frogs legs a single time since I moved here and still have never tried them and I’ve only seen snails once since I got here, at the Christmas markets. I will say that I have seen foie gras a lot around here. I had never tried it before until I was out for a meal with some colleagues after helping with a James Joyce conference and it was served as part of the starter. Foie gras is a very controversial dish as it is made from the liver of ducks and geese that have been force fed (in France they legally have to be force fed to count as foie gras). I did like it but it’s not something that I would reach for on my own.

French people are lazy.

I wouldn’t say the French are lazy at all but their attitude towards work is definitely very different. A lot of it seems to come from the fact that they don’t live to work, preferring instead to prioritise their life outside of work as much as possible. Work is not their be all and end all. To give an example, I didn’t receive a single email over the Christmas holidays (I was guilty of sending one, but just one!). They take work life balance very seriously, whether that’s holidays or lunch breaks. However, saying all that, one of the first things I was warned about when it comes to French students is that they’re very good at doing just enough work to get them a passing grade. Work smarter not harder I guess?

You won’t catch them without a cigarette.

Picture this – a stick thin woman dressed all in black floating through the streets of Paris, cigarette in hand. It’s another go to image of the French I think, second only to the man in the striped t-shirt with a baguette under his arm. It is true – France has one of the highest rates of smoking in the EU at 25%. What surprises me the most is the number of young people that smoke. It’s very common to see groups of young people outside schools or walking through town with a cigarette in hand.