In which the reader will find disconnected jottings and musings that wouldn’t make much of a post on their own …

Parler français, or speaking in French, sounds good, but in reality there are many things to overcome or readjust to. The French alphabet is the same as English, but many of the names of letters are pronounced differently – my favourite is ygrek, pronounced eeg-rek. It’s the letter ‘y’.

Learning French is a misnomer, although it’s easier to say than ‘learning to hear and understand in French’, which is a lot closer to the truth.

Speaking French is another subject altogether …