Meg and Dean in France

​Mon-Fri, February 23-27, 2026 — Villefranche, France Alas, the last of our four weeks at “l’institut” is done! Personally, I could have spent another four weeks here as there’s absolutely no shortage of things to learn or practice. Maybe next year! View of the Institut from the garden It has been a little sad saying goodbye to our classmates and new friends. Meg and I certainly plan to visit folks the next time we’re in Europe! Lunch with Victor (Meg’s teacher), Kei, and Bradley “Seance Practique” in the Grand Salon with Sylvie I think we actually ended up eating out every single night this last week as a result of wanting to spend time with everyone. Monday night, a small group got together at the one restaurant on the main road above town. I wrecklessly went out on a limb and ordered the steak tartar, not realizing it would be premixed with horseradish, which I’m not a big fan of. Penny kindly offered to exchange with me.  Penny, Jan, Claire, Nicole, and Meg Steak TarTar For Tue...

Mon-Sun, February16-22, 2026 -- Villefranche-sur-Mer, France Typical weekday dinner Clearly, we're only managing one blog a week at this point. Hey, we're busy! It is crazy that we only have one week left of school. It's gone by quickly. We're doing ok; it just seems slow. Sometimes I get frustrated by the pace, but of course it doesn't really matter (like most things in life!) We're here primarily  because this has been a dream of Meg's for years. We also didn't necessarily plan it optimally, which also is completely fine. As soon as we're done next week, we'll be with our family and friends (yay!). I'm guessing we'll be using very little French to communicate, however! Typical weekday breakfast Many of the students here have good reason to be learning French. Stephan bought a house in Normandy, which he's renovating as a summer home; Nicole is building a house in the southwest of France with her husband; Christine and Thomas are liv...

Mon-Fri, February 9-15, 2026 -- Villefranch-sur-Mer, France Morning view from the balcony The second week is in the bank! It seems like I should be learning a lot, but I'm not sure I'm feeling that good about the project. On the one hand, I've already been exposed to most of what I'm being taught in my class and therefore the pace seems quite slow.  For example, I might be one of the few in the class that's not particularly stressed out during our labs sessions (with the headphones and microphones.) What we're doing in class doesn't seem super hard, but when I'm actually trying to have a conversation, I can't seem to spit anything out. Oh well. I guess I'm bound to learn something, but the idea that I'll be able to speak with any sort of fluency seems like a complete pipe dream.  Class time Lunch time! Waiting at the coffee machine Meg, on the other hand seems to be sufficiently challenged in her intermediate class. She, perhaps has the oppos...