Salut d’une aussie parmi vous…..

In my introduction, I should also have added here que je ne suis la seule personne ici a Ballarat qui ont un grand obsession pour la France…. tout de mes amis de L’alliance Francaise sont comme ca aussi (depuis quelques annees nous avons eu des rdv’s ensemble chaque mardi soir, pour conversation, diner, du vin etc.)
Some of the members of my group (most who are quite a bit older than me) make my passion for France & French music look quite ‘tame’ in some ways compared to theirs…
Par exemple, un de mes amis is obsessed with anything to do with la tour de France, and one of his big dreams is to cycle the south of France next year.
(There’s also a guy who operates an antique shop just outside my town who’s crazy about la Tour de France aussi, et chaque annee pendant the race, he flies the French flag above his shop for several days)

Then in our goup there’s Rick, who always wears a beret (wherever he goes), owns a little red 2CV and 2 other Citroens, and now also owns a holiday house in a village (population 100!) in Bourgogne as well, a house which is as old as European history in Australia (i.e., 200 years old – I think he chose the region to ‘live’ according to his favorite wine!)
When he’s not working madly here to save up to go to France again, and attending our soirees, he’s back in France for 3 weeks at a time, at least 3 times a year (et nous sommes tous jaloux!)
At least now when we go to France, we’ve got a place we can stay, since he rents the house out to other aussie holiday makers when he’s not there.

Another member of our group is a French teacher, nous avons un retired school teacher, a wine grower, a lawyer, an artiste and a furniture craftsman, and a Frenchie PhD mathematician student with a Russian girlfriend who doesn’t particularly want to be with other Frenchies, but likes being with us – nous sommes 14.

Nous jouons la petanque chaque annee dans notre annual petanque tournament which is usually attended by at least 40 people (il y a assez beaucoup de clubs de petanque a Victoria) and we do some other activities like weekend BBQs when there are visiting Frenchies with us.

So, if you ever pass by our way, you can contact us (i.e., via moi) and we’d be happy to invite you to our one of our mardi pizza restaurant soirees (nous sommes toujours heureux d’entendre les vrai accents francais 😀 )

Touristique:
Aussi, c’est possible d’avoir un guide de texte de ma ville (Ballarat) – un voyage de 1 h a pied – en francais, avec un petit histoire des immeubles et l’architecture. Il y a un autre guide francais pour visiter la cite en voiture, et un 3ier guide pour visiter le musee d’or de Ballarat (tres interessant).
Si on plan une visit et on est interesse, – demande au bureau touristique de Ballarat ou les textes sont aussi disponible.

Kate