You can learn a language in many ways, as a child at school, as an adult, immersive, online, ‘sur l’oreiller’, and so on. Yesterday my tutor Christine and I tried another way, we went to lunch. In theory there would be new things to talk about, la coutellerie, les serveurs, repas et ce qui fait le repas, and of course le vin. À ne pas oublier le dessert …

Best laid plans and all that, we ended up talking about time and how it is represented, minutes before or minutes after the hour, twelve hour time and twenty-four hour time, and quite a bit of non-French talk, as you do over a Sunday lunch of sea bass and vegetables (and vanilla ice-cream).

And then we went for a swim. The restaurant, La Ferme, is at an hotel on an island in the Rhône, and they have a swimming pool for guests’ use. As diners we were considered guests, it was a hot day and so we swam.

An interesting French lesson indeed …