Join the Accessibility Movement at jaccede.com

On Saturday October 8th Jaccede.com is organising an Accessibility Day in Grenoble to raise awareness for people with limited mobility and promote accessible locations in the city.

Desipite being surrounded by mountains, Grenoble is a highly accessible city, and one of the few to have an innovative official project underway to make three areas of the city completely accessible by 2015.

However, finding an accessible school, university or company, going shopping or travelling around … all of these normally simple activities can easily become a nightmare for people with li­mited mobility. Jaccede.com’s objective is to promote equal opportunities for such people by:

• Making information that will improve the daily lives for people with limited mobility (PLM) readily accessible
• Inspiring people with limited mobility to participate in a mass movement and encourage them to come out of isolation
• Increasing public awareness of accessibility issues and of the French law of February 11, 2005
• Promoting accessible locations
• Creating a movement and civic consciousness promoting accessibility for everyone

Jaccede.com’s Accessibility Days aim to:

• Identify accessible locations and register them on www.jaccede.com to make them available to everyone
• Raise awareness among local businesses, public officials and the public regarding the advantages of accessibility

October 8th Grenoble Accessibility Day:

• Meeting point: La Maison des Associations – 6 Rue Berthe de Boissieux
• 10–11.30am: welcome and training
• 11.30–3pm: collection of information on accessible locations using the Jaccede kit – lunch break
• 3.30–5pm: uploading of info and addresses on www.jaccede.com
• 5pm: feedback on the day and closing drinks (back at Maison des Associations)

Jaccede.com is still scouting for plucky volunteers for the big day, both to roam the streets for accessible locations, and also to help the organizers with the practicalities such as handing out maps, welcoming volunteers etc.

Sign up at www.jaccede.com and join the Accessibility Movement or call 01 43 71 98 10 to find out more. The site is soon going multilingual, and plans to branch out its operations in the UK and abroad.

GGSB Management Consulting students

Students in the MSc Management Consulting program at Grenoble Graduate School of Business need your help. Khom Klanman explains.

The conference Mobile Devices: Is your social life in hand? which was held on February 24, 2011 at Grenoble Graduate School of Business received impressive feedback from stakeholders. The audience gained from the conference practical takeaways on leveraging the use of mobile social networks while being aware of potential impacts and concerns arising from this new technological and social trend. The students of the MSc in Management Consulting program were happy to inform society about the challenges posed by this development.

Presently, the students are working on a new challenging consulting project for a global enterprise in the mining industry. We have divided ourselves into four teams responsible for different functions – namely, client facing, engineering, marketing, and business development.

The client-facing and engineering teams are currently working on that project while the business development team has been working on strengthening and maintaining relationships with potential clients and consulting partners for further collaboration on consulting projects.

Along with the consulting project and business development initiative, the marketing team has been carrying out market research on the consulting industry in Grenoble area. The objective of this exercise is to gain insights into of the local consulting industry and to see where the goals of consultancies and client companies can meet.

To this end, we have formulated a survey, which will serve as a data source for our research. We hope to receive as many replies as possible from the online survey in order to gain a comprehensive view on the consulting business in the Grenoble area.

We would appreciate it if you could help us in this research. To do so, please complete the following online survey, which should take no more than five minutes of your time.

Consulting firms, please Click here

Client companies, please Click here

We will be glad to share the report with you this summer. If you are interested please contact Khom Klanman (Khom.klanman@grenoble-em.com)

The London Pub. Photo: Guillaume Cattiaux

In the second part of her blog Footprints in Grenoble, American student Aleigha Page talks about French mealtime etiquette and her favourite establishments for desserts, coffee and people-watching.

Studying abroad in Grenoble is by far one of the best life choices I have made. I have been able to learn about and live in a new city that prior to the study abroad process, I had never heard of. In my opinion, Grenoble is the perfect size city for study abroad. It is large enough to offer variety, but yet it is small enough so that it is not overwhelming. The centre ville (city center) is where most of the stores, restaurants, cafés, pubs, and nightlife are. I live in the centre ville and therefore I am within walking distance of everything I need: places to shop, cafés, and nightlife.

In French fashion, Grenoble is replete with cafés, offering in and out door sitting. One of my personal goals for studying abroad was to establish a regular café. I shopped around for my café during my early weeks, and I found it. Pain & Cie is my favorite café in Grenoble because it is large and spacious, offering a warm atmosphere. The interior has hardwood floors, stone walls, and an unfinished wooden ceiling. The tables are made of thick wood with metal chairs. The coffee they serve here is organic, and on every table is a glass filled with white and brown sugar cubes. I generally order an espresso but, once a week, I treat myself to a café au lait, which is coffee and steamed milk, and it is served in a bowl here. I throw in a couple of sugar cubes and stir them around the foam. The desserts at Pain & Cie are delicious. I do not know the exact name of my favorite dessert here, but it is a multiple layered chocolate creation. Three of the layers are cake, two are a chocolate mousse, a few thin layers of caramel, and then, the bottom layer is a textured, nutty tasting layer. I have made speculations that it is either a praline mousse, or a hazelnut spread. For chocolate lovers, this cake is a must on your to-do list. Not a big chocolate fan? No worries, because they have cheese cake that is absolutely divine, but I am sure any of their wide selections are equally delicious.

As for nightlife, Grenoble is full of places to find a pint of beer or a glass of wine. One of my favorite pubs is The Subway Bar, which attracts a hip, sporty crowd of French students. The drinks are very inexpensive here – I can get a pint for three euros, and they have a “cocktail of the week” for two euros, which are excellent choices for a student budget. London Pub is another I enjoy because of their atmosphere. It is London-themed, and covered in British memorabilia – Beatles posters, pictures of Big Ben, football tournaments, etc. There is always a huge crowd here, which makes for a fun night. My final favorite place is Tord Bayeaux, literally ‘twisted guts’ or ‘rotgut’. This bar has a wall filled with little barrels of strange wine flavors. My favorite flavor is a green, apple kiwi wine, which tastes like hard candy. They also play fun music here, such as the Lion King song “Hakuna Ma Tata”.

I enjoy promenading around the centre ville, without any particular direction, weaving in and out of stores to see what they have on display. On warm, sunny days, there are always lots of people sitting outside cafés, on benches, or walking around. I think it is very interesting to pick a park bench and people watch. I am continuously fascinated to see what people are wearing, how they wear it, and their interaction with others. One observation I have made is that I see fewer people walking around with a cell phone attached to their ear than I do in the US. Granted, I do see the phones out quite a bit, but not as frequently compared to where I live. There is always a vendor nearby to purchase a gauffre (waffle) or crêpe to munch on while people-watching.

Long before settling on Grenoble for my study abroad destination, I always knew that I wanted to live with a host family, because they can offer aspects of French culture far better than I could pick up living on my own. Dinner time is when I spend the most time with my host parents, and it usually lasts an hour. I have been able to learn French mealtime etiquette, and several traditional dishes. Etiquette is very important to the French – even at the campus cafeteria and an elementary school I visited they use all three eating utensils and eat in three courses. The French typically have wine or water with their dinners, and bread on the side. The hostess serves the wine, and will ask if you would like more. Never ask, and never, ever, touch the wine bottle. For bread, leave it to the side of the plate on the table, and tear off small bits. Do not eat it whole. A salad is served as the first course, or the entrée. Le plat principal (main dish) generally consists of a meat and vegetable, or quiche with my host family. Dessert can range from a cup of pudding to fruit to a homemade dish. I love that the French treat their food so respectfully and make meal time feel special.

My time here in Grenoble is quickly winding down, but the experience has been amazing. I have made friends that I am sure will last a lifetime because there are no other people who will ever 100% understand my stories about studying here other than those with whom I made these memories. Aside from learning French and about France, I have learned quite a bit about myself. Being outside of the bubble that is my life, I have had the time to reflect on what I want out of my life, who matters in my life, and what I want to accomplish. Studying abroad has not only opened my eyes to a new culture, but also to a new aspect of me.

Read part one of Footprints in Grenoble

A detail from the cover of Thora van Male's book, 'Liaisons généreuses'

Grenoble Life talks to Thora van Male, author of Les liaisons généreuses – l’apport de français à la langue anglaise, ahead of a talk she is giving organised by Alliance Grenoble-Oxford on April 7.

Grenoble Life: What is the topic of the talk you have organised with Alliance Grenoble-Oxford?

Thora van Male: I’m going to be talking about my latest book, Liaisons généreuses. It deals with the huge debt that English owes to the French language. We English speakers (I’m from British Columbia, in Canada) are more aware of this than the French are. My impression is that in France, people are so obsessed with the supposed invasion of English into French, that they don’t realize that, a) English would not be much at all without French, and that, b) a lot of the words that are coming from English to French are just returning home, so to speak.

When you see the many many areas where words from French predominate in English, it really makes you think; such subjects as law, religion, cooking, life in society, politics. There are very few areas of life in English whose vocabulary is not affected by – French.

GL: Who should come to the talk?

Thora: Well, I will be speaking in English, which means the talk is aimed at people who are interested in and speak some English. All the AGO people speak French, though, as do I, and the question session after the talk will be bilingual and bicultural, so to speak.

In terms of the content of my talk, it will probably be more of an eye-opener for French people than for the Anglo-Saxophones, as I call us. However, I intend to make the talk interesting and accessible to everyone. And I hope to provide a few chuckles, if not guffaws.

GL: How has the French relationship to the English language changed since you arrived in France?

Thora: Well, you know about the Loi Toubon that was voted in 1994; its objective was to prohibit the use of languages other than French (Read my lips: Eng-lish!) in official French documents, in business, in advertising, etc. This law also established quota rules about how much English-language music could be played on the radio, etc.

Just to put that into perspective, remember that the provincial government of Quebec had voted its Charter of the French language in 1977; this put legislative authority behind the enforcement of French as the language of government and law, as well as that of work, instruction, communication and commerce.

That being said — and people recognize this — English exercises a certain attraction to French speakers in France; dropping an English word here and there is considered to confer a touch of class. Conversely, as you know, the prestige of French exercises a huge influence on English speakers, to this day. Of course, English no longer borrows what I might call “meat and potato” words from French, words that English doesn’t have a name for — this is something I’ll be talking about — but there are still French words coming into English. I found this really noticeable in the latest issue of The Economist’s Intelligent Life. But also in a book of Woody Allen’s witticisms…

GL: As someone who has taught English at the University here in Grenoble and published books for learners of English, what changes have you witnessed in the way the language is taught in the French educational system?

Thora: There has been a continuing move towards getting learners to work with English in a “real world” environment. The conjugation tables and the translations that I grew up with gave way to audio language laboratories, but still with a lot of rote work. The Internet has totally changed that, and the focus is moving more towards experiencing English as it is spoken in environments that are meaningful to each learner. As I see it, that is a general trend.

GL: What needs to be improved?

Thora: Have you got a couple of hours? Judging from my students, I would say that in secondary education they need to hear more authentic English and to be dragged away from translation. They also need real-life experiences with English (Wouldn’t it be nice if English language films were shown on TV with English subtitles …). They also need to shed some inhibitions.

You remember the passage in My Fair Lady when Henry Higgins says “In France, every Frenchman knows his language from A to Z; they never care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly.” Well there is a grain of truth in this. Students just don’t want to pronounce a word unless they can spell it, and once they have the spelling they tend to “spell-pronounce” — you know, pronounce the L in ‘could’, etc. — in fact, pronounce every word as if it were French. The insecurity involved in jumping in and pronouncing a word that they might not know, or might not know the spelling of, just petrifies them!

But I should get off my hobby-horse: I love my job, and am quite willing, year in, year out, to put my heart and soul into teaching English to my students.

GL: Where do you teach?

Thora: Now, I teach only at the Institute of Political Science on the campus. But like so many expats (though I now have dual nationality) I taught English all over the place in Grenoble before I managed to get a post in the French university system.

GL: When did you originally come to Grenoble and why?

Thora: I came in 1970, with a scholarship from the French government. And I just never went back to Canada! I had always loved French … I think it was my mother who got me going when I was a child, when she taught me that silly song about “La plume de ma tante”. Had I stayed in Canada, I would no doubt have become a French teacher.

GL: You are a published expert on French dictionary illustrations.

Thora: Yes, I am, but my expertise is limited to those little ABC primer type compositions that represent several objects whose name starts with a certain letter. Though this is common in children’s’ alphabet books, France is the only country I know of that has them in dictionaries for adults as well. So when you look at the alphabet illustrations in a dictionary dated, say, in the 1850s, you have a sort of snapshot of French culture and society at that time. It is fascinating. To my amazement, this is a field that had never been researched until I got involved in it. It has been a lot of fun. Since there was no existing research on the subject, I really had to start at zero, and create the tools to analyse all these pictures. I even coined a word for them, since French didn’t really have one; and that involved a meeting Alain Rey, the author of the Petit Robert, a very interesting experience. I love the “treasure hunt” side of this work: you’ve got all these pictures, and you have to figure out what they represent. Plus, I’m always on the lookout for some dictionary that I haven’t yet come across.

GL: What sparked off this particular passion?

Thora: Well, I often jokingly answer this question by saying the answer is contained in an alphabetical list of things I love: A as in alphabet, B as in brocante, C as in calligraphy, D as in dictionary, E as in aesthetics, F as in France, G as in Grenoble, H as in hedonism … The dictionaries I work on are up to 150 years old, and their alphabetical illustrations really combine these elements. In fact I love the alphabet so much that one of my recent books is subtitled La Vie secrète de l’alphabet.

GL: You have also curated a touring exhibition about dictionary ornaments. Tell us about that and where we can see it.

Thora: Shortly after I published Art Dico, I was invited by the Lyons printing museum to curate an exhibition there. It was a lot of fun choosing among the many old illustrations, having huge blow-ups made of them, and showing the general public how rich this apparently naïve form of illustration can be. Another fun aspect was rounding up dozens of artefacts, finding the actual objects that appear in the illustrations. I presented two groups of 26 items, one for children and one for adults, and the game for the visitors was simply to find the names of all the objects. Many of these artefacts were things that people just don’t see today. What I loved about that part of the exhibition was that it showed how the world reflects the dictionary, as opposed to how the dictionary reflects the world. But I could go on about that for hours, too …

Chance being what it is, once the exhibition was over in Lyons, I met a man whose surname is almost identical to mine and who is both a calligrapher and an alphabet-exhibition manager. What serendipity! Bernard Vanmalle has now taken the ART DICO exhibition under his wing. It has circulated widely in France (mostly in public libraries and médiathèques). Unfortunately, it was in Grenoble three years ago for several months, so I do not think it will be here again in the near future …

GL: This wasn’t your first exhibition, though. You exhibited photographs of rue Brocherie at the Grenoble Maison de la Culture in 1981.

Thora: That was another really interesting project. I asked all the merchants on the street I live on to stand on their doorstep for a picture, and to tell me about the past history of their shop. Then I produced a set of panels that combined my photographs and some fabulous line drawings done by a man who worked at the Maison de la Culture at the time; I wrote a text about the history of each shop, and calligraphed it onto each panel.

This exhibition doesn’t circulate any more, and I hope that it will at some point join the Musée Dauphinois collection.

GL: Tell us about your charitable work and how our readers can get involved.

Thora: For several years, now, I have been volunteering in a soup kitchen in the centre of the old town. The association provides breakfast every morning, hot lunch twice a week in the winter months, clothing, food hampers and a variety of other services. The people who come are not all homeless, but they are all in fairly distressing situations (this can include being a refugee, having mental health issues, drug or alcohol problems, or just plain poverty). We have between 40 and 100 people every morning.

If your readers want to help us, one thing we are always in need of is men’s shoes. They can be dropped off at 4 bis rue du Vieux Temple, any week day between 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. The association also accepts monetary donations; I myself am very interested in donations in kind, however, and can promise you that any shoes that are given will find a pair of needy feet!

Thora van Male will be talking about her new book at Maison des Langues on campus on Thursday April 7 at 6.30pm. Contact Alliance Grenoble-Oxford for more information.

Wing It Productions logo

Grenoble Life talks to Hélène Perrin-Gouron, Vicki Bernard and Katie Coakley – aka Wing It Productions – a new English theatre group for secondary school pupils in and around Grenoble.

Grenoble Life: Who is Wing It Productions?

Hélène Perrin-Gouron: Three passionate women who have always loved and done some theater; one French having lived in the US, one English, and one Irish.

Vicki Bernard: Sounds like the beginning of a joke…

Katie Coakley: Oh thanks, ladies. I’m the Irish one (‘wanting desperately’ to change the subject)! We’re part of the abc anglais association, which aims at helping people ‘learn, improve or maintain their level of English in the most natural manner’. Our goal is to open this theatre activity to the entire secondary school community in and around Grenoble.

Hélène: That is… for this first year. I have the High School population (15-18/19) in mind too, the college students, etc.

GL: What is the philosophy of the group?

Vicki: Having worked so often with young people, we have really been able to see how much the theatre can bring them in terms of self-confidence, team-work (relying on others), their creativity and imagination.

Katie: The fact that we use English purely as a vehicle means that they improve their English without even realising it.

Hélène: I would add to this that one of the most positive things to come out of the work with young ones is the bonding that they experience. The show becomes bigger than every single one of them, and us.

Katie: Very much so! It also eradicates the age differences.

GL: What ideas do you have for your first productions?

Katie: Although we’re going to keep that secret, we can say that we’re going down the comedy road.

Vicki: Our lips are sealed.

GL: What have some of the major challenges been getting started and how have you overcome them?

Katie: To start with, we had a real dilemma. Do we create our own association or do we become part of an existing one?

Vicki: We were very fortunate to come across abc anglais (through Helen McEwan who worked on the Cité Scolaire Internationale pantomime with us.) They took us under their wing.

After that, our main challenge was sorting out a lot of things all at the same time: reading umpteen scripts to find a story, organizing and advertizing the auditions…

Katie: And making sure that all this gets done behind the scenes without a hitch. That in itself is quite a challenge!

Hélène: I, personally, was happy to have help with all that work that no one ever imagines exits. How to overcome the constant challenges? With ‘your head in the stars and your feet on the ground’ (i.e. persistence, patience, with zest, and more persistence, more patience, etc.)

GL: What kind of people are you looking for and how can they audition?

Katie: Anyone of any nationality between 11 and 15 with a good knowledge of English and an excess of enthusiasm.

Hélène: You can be French, British, American, or whatever; but you must know that the whole activity is going to be run entirely in English.

Vicki: In other words, you can come from Mars …

Hélène: Or Venus …

Vicki: As long as you can get along in English and are prepared to improve through taking part.

Hélène: If you wish to join us for this thrilling adventure, go to www.abcanglais.org, section ‘collège’. All the information you need is there!

GL: Tell us a bit about your theatrical backgrounds

Hélène: I started doing theater at university, in the US. Then I was asked to keep going with the county community theater. I thoroughly enjoyed working eight months solid on the ‘Man of La Mancha’ musical. I was there six days a week and I can’t think of any moment not being sparkling! Then these past few years, I was general director of the C.S.I. panto where every single cast has been my favorite!

‘Out of hours’, I’m a scriptwriter and have worked on long features such as Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, or Pearl Harbor; and if you’re dying for more names, you can go to my LinkedIn profile.

Vicki:  I was involved in acting in a semi-professional theatre in England. I did drama all through school, acting and directing as house and drama captain. I acted during my university days too and put on a couple of plays in the English Department at U.3 in Grenoble. Finally, I was part of the panto direction team at the C.S.I. for two years.

Katie: I’ve done theatre with small children in Ireland. Here in Grenoble, I’ve worked on the C.S.I. panto for two years.

GL: What is the potential of Grenoble in particular for this type of theatre group in terms of audiences and participants?

Hélène, Vicki, and Katie: (with one voice) Massive!

GL: Thanks ladies. Watch this space for updates and news about Wing It Productions.

Alliance Grenoble-Oxford

Grenoble Life talks to David Bailey of Alliance Grenoble-Oxford about the association’s history and events ahead of a debate in English it is hosting on campus, February 16.

Grenoble Life: What is Alliance Grenoble-Oxford?

David Bailey: AGO is the association that takes care of the twinning between Grenoble and Oxford in the UK.

GL: When was it founded and why?

David: Grenoble and Oxford were unofficially twinned in 1988 but the official ‘Friendship Agreement’ was actually signed in Oxford on 27 April 1989 by Alain Carignon, then mayor of Grenoble, and Queenie Whorley, mayor of Oxford. After a couple of short-lived attempts at forming a twinning committee, the AGO was founded in March 1993.

GL: What kinds of events do you organise?

David: There are two aspects to the AGO’s activity. The first is to foster exchanges between the two cities in all spheres (professional, educational, economic, artistic, sporting, social, linguistic, etc.) and to promote personal contacts between their residents. This we do with the support of Grenoble city council’s international relations department.

The second aspect of our activity is to promote Oxford and British culture in general here in Grenoble through an annual programme of events. These include play and poetry readings in English, lectures on a variety of topics, social events and outings, car rallies, debates and an annual Christmas Carols evening.

GL: What other kinds of services do you provide?

David: In the context of the actual twinning, we facilitate contacts between associations and individuals in liaison with the Oxford-Grenoble Association in Oxford, and we organise a trip to Oxford every other year, usually in the late spring. In years when we do not go to Oxford, we host a group from over there here in Grenoble.

We have in the past offered conversation classes and would be willing to do so if there is any demand. We publish a newsletter several times a year.

GL: Tell us a little about the organisers

David: Both the AGO and OGA in Oxford are entirely self-supporting, non-profit organisations run by volunteers. We have a mix of French and British people from a variety of backgrounds and professions on the committee. Our meetings are held once a month, in French.

GL: What events are coming up?

David: Our next event is a debate the traditional Oxford University style, which we are organising in conjunction with several departments of the University of Grenoble. This is the second of its kind and we hope it will become a regular event. We then have a talk in March by Thora van Male from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques on her latest book Liaisons généreuses. And over Easter we shall be welcoming the East Oxford Community Choir, which is twinned with Grenoble’s “Interlude” choir. They will be giving two performances of Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Saint Paul” with an orchestra consisting of musicians from both cities.

GL: How can people get more information and/or get involved?

David: We are always on the lookout for new members, and especially for people to help with the twinning. As our website is temporarily on hold, they should contact me (David Bailey : 04 76 40 31 34 or davidbailey@sfr.fr). Our brochure is usually available at the Maison de l’International, Parvis des Droits de l’Homme, Jardin de Ville, 1 rue Hector Berlioz, 38000 Grenoble.

Mobile Devices: Is your social life in hand? (detail from conference poster)

Students in the MSc Management Consulting program at Grenoble Graduate School of Business invite you to a conference they have organized on the mobile phone industry and social media. Andrea Becke explains.

February the 24th is coming closer and closer. This date might not mean a lot for most of the people here in Grenoble but for the students in the MSc Management Consulting program it means a lot. February 24th will be the date for our first conference on Mobile Devices: Is your social life in hand?

But let’s start from the beginning and introduce ourselves. We are 15 students studying MSc Management Consulting at Grenoble Graduate School of Business. What makes us special is our unique multicultural team. We are 15 students coming from 13 different countries, with an age range from 22 till 38. Working in this group is not always that simple, yet we form a great team whose diversity is what enables us to achieve great potential.

Planning such a conference is quite challenging. First we have a very limited budget; we depend on sponsors and on GGSB to support us with the logistics. Additionally since our conference will be held in English, this limits the potential audience for our event. We hope to go beyond the student and faculty body and wish to include everyone interested in this topic wishing to gain more knowledge about the mobile industry.

With our Professor Pat Brans, who is an expert in this industry, we are organizing a conference on Mobile Devices. The mobile industry is already a part of our everyday life and its influence is becoming increasingly significant. We wonder if people are really aware of what they are using? Do people actually know how far the reach of Social Media actually is? Not to mention the ever-present question arising in this context: is it safe to use? Is our privacy protected? These key issues and more will be discussed in our conference. We hope to address the big dilemmas – and answer some of questions – arising from this new trend.

We have invited experts in the area of mobile technology, social media, ethics and location based services to participate. With short, but precise presentations, those experts will bring the subject closer to everyone and give us the chance to ask specific questions during the round table discussion.

Among the speakers present: Kelly Rigotti, a Marketing and Communications Consultant and an expert in online branding and web 2.0 ergonomics. Kelly will discuss how social networks are becoming mobile social networks. Sharon Crost, an expert in reputation management and online commerce and a Marketing and Social Media Consultant, will bring us closer to a set of guidelines for handling the risks behind social interactions going mobile. Marie-Paule Odini is the Chief Technologist at Hewlett-Packard’s Communications & Media and an expert in the area of online branding, innovation and security programs. At the conference, she will talk specifically about social media used on mobile phones and the technology behind it.

We are all using mobile devices. Isn’t each of us wondering a little about just how much our social life is in our hands? Join us to find out!

The conference and round-table will take place on the 24th of February 2011 from 6 to 8 pm at Grenoble Graduate School of Business. The conference will be followed by a cocktail reception.

We are looking forward to surprising you!

“How much further?” A map to Café Mari

Grenoble Life’s Shonah Kennedy talks to British restaurateur Steffan Edwards about setting up Café Mari, changing dining habits and serving machin anglais to the French.

Clip clopping down to the end of the small Rue d’Alembert on a cold Friday night, on the way to our office Christmas party, I couldn’t help but think “what restaurant could possibly be here?” and more importantly, “how much further?”! But then I saw the beacon of light emanating from Café Mari, which was the pre-arranged venue for the aforementioned event. Then I entered and began to drink in the cosy place, and THEN I commenced eating! What a gastronomical delight this little place has – it just needed to be shared!

Shonah: When did you come to France/ Grenoble?

Steffan Edwards: I arrived in France in 2003 just in time for the heat wave in Aix-en-Provence. I stayed there for almost two years. When my ex-girlfriend fell pregnant for the second time we decided that it would be wiser to be closer to her family (she was born here in Grenoble), so more than five years ago we arrived in Grenoble.

Shonah: What is your history in the food industry?

Steffan: My first job was when I was 14 washing up in a pub on Sundays when they had a carvery. The chef was the stereotypically fat and jovial who loved to cook almost as much as he liked to eat! From him I learnt the most important thing about cooking – you have to love to cook or you will end up hating your job and as a result your food will suffer. While I was still at school I had many summer jobs in London hotels and also an internship at the Hilton in New Orleans. At the age of 18 I knew that I was going to cook professionally.

After dropping out of university – because of foolishly taking a management course rather than a cooking course – I found my first full time job as a commis in a restaurant called Le Petit Max which, while I was there, won the Eros award from the London Evening Standard as one of the top 10 restaurants in London.

After leaving there I chose to change jobs frequently – sometimes as much as four times a year – to try to learn as much as possible about all aspects of cooking. I did stints in high class restaurants – 3 star Michelin – and also in local family restaurants. Each chosen because I thought I would benefit from them. When I thought I could learn more elsewhere I left and started looking for the next challenge.

After six years of working like this I decided to settle down and stick at a job, so I started working for Mark Hix at Le Caprice in central London. I stayed in the company for nearly three years working my way up to sous chef and also working in the two other restaurants in the group – The Ivy and J. Sheekies.

After leaving Le Caprice I was approached by a friend to help him in his new bakery – Flour Power City – to make the pastries, help with the baking and also to sell the produce at the now thriving Borough Market. After one and a half years of baking I was keen to get back into a kitchen, so I worked at the Drapers Arms – a gastro pub in Islington which was voted gastro pub of the year by the Evening Standard in 2003. That was when I arrived in France and to Antoine Cote Cours in Aix-en-Provence.

Leaving Aix in 2005 I took some time off to take care of my new born son and at the same time I started looking for a restaurant to buy.  After being let down two times for the sale of two different restaurants I went back to full time work at Le Flagrant Delice in Grenoble. While working there I heard about the sale of a small café which would become Café Mari where I have now been for more than two years!

Shonah: Since you have been working here have you noticed any changes in trends/ palates/ peoples habits in relation to eating out?

Steffan: Some of the restaurants I have worked in have really suffered because of the recession, however in the café I have not really noticed the change, mainly because my prices are reasonable and people still like to enjoy a good lunch.

There has, however been a change in people’s palates with people starting to think more about their health – looking for the healthy option which is reflected in the menus we now see.

The consumption of alcohol has also dramatically reduced in the seven years since I have lived here. Gone are the days of two hour lunches with lots of wine to help wash down the food!

Shonah: Did you find it difficult to break into the “exclusive” French café market as a foreigner?

Steffan: It has always been a bit difficult to be accepted as a chef in France. There is still the stereotype that the British cannot cook and to convince the French otherwise is not easy. A typical example of this was when I put sticky toffee pudding on the menu. I had to bargain with my clients just for them to try it, but now when the same customers come to the café the first thing they say is: is the “machin anglais” still on the menu? It is my best selling dessert. (note from Shonah – and well worth the try – AMAZING dessert!)

Shonah: What is a “typical” meal at café Mari?

Steffan: There is no typical meal here. The plat du jour changes every day with dishes coming from France, Italy, the UK, India, China and even Thailand. There is a small menu – three starters, three mains and four desserts – which changes seasonally and has its foundations in classic bistro cooking with a slightly modern edge.

Shonah: Why did you open café Mari?

Steffan: I had always wanted to run my own restaurant even from my first time in a kitchen but I wanted something small to start with, which I could run by myself and have relatively small charges. Café Mari fitted the bill perfectly.

Shonah: How can people find you/ contact you?

Steffan: I am at 116 rue d’Alembert, 38000 Grenoble. Telephone: 04.76.96.29.55. Opening hours: Monday to Friday 7.30am to 3.00pm.

I also have a facebook page for the café – Steff Cafemari. I will start updating this more frequently.

Shonah: Can people organise private parties to hold at the café?

Steffan: I cater private parties for 10 to 24 people. Normally I will meet with the host of the party beforehand and we will discuss the style of food they would like, the budget etc. Then I send off some propositions and they choose the menu that they want, at the price they want.

Shonah: Any future plans for the café or expansion?

For the moment I have no concrete plans, but I would love to introduce the French to the idea of gastro pubs. I think the French already like pubs, but I have yet to see a pub serving food here and I am convinced it would work. Watch this space!

Sarah Setton

Grenoble Life talks to Sarah Setton about Feng Shui and Traditional Chinese Medicine ahead of an open evening at Les Sources wellness center in Meylan on Friday November 26.

Grenoble Life: Who are you and what do you do?

Sarah Setton: I’m an American who’s lived in France for the past 20 years. Professionally, I’m a practitioner of Feng Shui (a technique that improves and optimizes the impact of your environment on your quality of life) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), meaning I care for my patients using acupuncture, massage and herbal therapies. Globally, I help places and people heal.

GL: Where do you come from originally and why did you come to France.

Sarah: I’m from the east coast of the United States, I was born in New Jersey, grew up in Delaware and went to university in Virginia.  Most recently, I lived in Philadelphia before moving to France to follow my sweetheart, who was French.

GL: Tell us about Les Sources: what are the different services offered and how did it come into existence?

Sarah: Les Sources is a wellness center in Meylan that I helped create three and a half years ago with a few friends who also practice Chinese Medicine. We imagined a locale where different sorts of practitioners could share their passion for alternative therapies and practice their different techniques. When we undertook the project, there weren’t really any wellness centers in the region, but within six months or so, a few others had sprung up. 

At present we have around 30 practitioners and teachers at the center. There are a few ‘classic’ therapists including an orthoptiste (vision therapist), a kinestherapeute (physical therapist), psychotherapists and two nurses who specialize in wound management. There are also less well-known disciplines like lithotherapy (therapy with stones), reflexology plantaire (foot massage), kinesiology (working with the bodies subtle energies), shiatsu, naturopathy, sophrology and various sorts of well-being massage including Californian, Ayurvedic, and Balinese massage. Not to forget Traditional Chinese Medicine and Feng Shui!

I’m really excited that an esthetician recently joined us from a well know local spa. I think her presence is extremely complementary to the other services and opens up other possibilities for feeling good about oneself and moving toward improved physical and emotional health. 

In addition to the therapists practicing at Les Sources, there are weekly classes in our Great Room on the second floor.  This year the courses include Yoga, Tai Ji and Qi Gong (Have you seen images of lots Chinese all following the same choreography in a park?  That’s what we’re talking about here!), Do-in (auto-massage for relaxation), Ayurvedic massage, and MLC (Method de Liberation des Cuirasses, a very gentle and effective way of un-tying deep, chronic physical/emotional tensions.)

Starting in January, there will be monthly conferences on different health related topics. For instance on January 21st. I’m participating in a roundtable on nutrition and health with a naturopath and a practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine. We’ll be discussing the impact of how we eat from the three different perspectives, and then we’ll be taking questions from the audience.  It should be very interesting, and perhaps useful after the holidays! 

Finally, there are evening and weekend workshops throughout the year. The topics are extremely varied, but to give a few examples, we’ve hosted workshops in Indian and African Dance, Meditation techniques, Yoga, therapeutic singing, astrology, sophrology, Tai Ji and Qi Gong, Tantra, Raising one’s personal energy level….the list goes on!

GL: When and where did you learn about Chinese medecine and Feng Shui?

Sarah: I did all my studies on ‘subjects Chinese’ here in France, at Feng Shui France in Paris, and at the CEDRE in Valance for the TCM. I was fortunate that when I moved to France. Those things I did professionally in the US were no longer open to me, and I had to recreate myself.  At the time it didn’t seem like much of a gift, but in retrospect, I realize how lucky I was! I was obliged to re-examine who I was and in doing so, I realized I wanted to help people in a very hands-on way. 

I ‘fell’ into the Feng Shui when my mother left me a book on the subject. I was intrigued by this technique that claimed to change the quality of ones’ life by ‘rearranging the furniture’ (It’s MUCH more complicated than that, but I didn’t realize that at the time!). After some experimentation, I realized it really worked  (I was amazed!) and I sought out a teacher to help me learn more. I was lucky to find a serious, three year long practitioner training course and I enrolled. 

After getting my practitioner diploma and practicing for a while, I realized the majority of my clients had health problems. With Feng Shui it’s possible to improve a global situation that leads to poor health and other difficulties, but it’s less effective than working directly with the person to improve their well-being. That’s when I decided to become a practitioner of TCM as well. I’ve now been practicing Feng Shui for 15 years now, and Traditional Chinese Medicine for seven. I’m very fortunate to wake up every morning and be excited about what the day holds in store for me!

GL: Tell us about your open evening on November 26th.

Sarah: The practitioners and teachers at Les Sources have organized an ‘Open House’ evening to give people the opportunity to meet everyone, see the center and perhaps learn about unfamiliar therapies. It starts at 17.00 on Friday November 26, and finishes at 21.00. There will even be a few mini-workshops offered in the great room from 18.00 to 20.00 to entice people to try the various techniques offered by the teachers! There will be ample time for people to meet the various practitioners and at the end of the evening there will be an informal moment with refreshments. The event is open to everyone and there is no set starting time, people can come and go as they please.

GL: What do you love about Grenoble?

Sarah: I love the museum of art, walking up to the Bastille, Cabaret Frappe!  Grenoble is a cozy city blessed with an extraordinary environment. It’s a pleasure just to look around when I’m in the tram and discover the lovely details in the buildings or to watch the mountains come alive at any given season as the light and shadows change the scenery.

GL: If there are questions about the Open House evening, how can our readers get more information?

Sarah: They can call me at 06 72 99 52 00. We are creating a website for the Les Sources, but it isn’t yet a reality. In a few month’s time though, if you look up Les Sources à Meylan on the internet, you should be able to read about all our activities!

Where to go? Christa Gimblett points us in the right direction

Grenoble Life ski reporter Christa Gimblett gives the lowdown on budget skiing options in good time for the upcoming season.

If you’ve moved to Grenoble, chances are you’ve done so for the unparalleled skiing opportunities. Come on, admit it. You don’t have to pretend to me. And unless you won the lottery recently, you’re probably making sacrifices for the sake of the white stuff.

Brits tend to think of winter sports as being the preserve of wealthy middle-class Tarquins spending Daddy’s money (and if you only ski the Tarentaise you’d be forgiven for believing it). I’m not about to claim that you can ski on a shoestring, but there are ways of maximizing quality mountain time without breaking the bank.

Understand resort pricing

A day pass bought from the ticket window is sold at the equivalent of what hotels call rack rate. It’s the full top whack price used to calculate all the resort’s discounts. Don’t pay it if you don’t have to. Discounts are routinely available for all kinds of reasons, including (but not limited to) being young/old/a student/disabled/a big family; buying on the web; buying multiple days at once; bringing a huge group … you get the picture. Do your research – even the smallest resort has a website with pricing policies listed for all to see.

Bring your documents with you!

You’d be amazed how many people don’t do this and still expect to get a cheap ticket. You might well be old/young/a student etc etc, but no-one is going to take your word for it. Resorts suffer increasing levels of fraud, and their staff are suspicious and cynical. If you can’t produce your valid student ID, disability certificate, whatever, then you’re going to be out of luck.

Buy online in advance

You know you’re going skiing a week on Sunday. Why waste valuable hill time lining up at the ticket window with the hoi polloi? Most resorts sell online and will post your pass to you. They also offer discounted web-only rates – last season you could ski 2Alpes on a Saturday for over 10€ less than window price just because you bought the pass in the comfort of your own home. Bargain!

Join a club

Student members of the university’s Ecole de Glisse ski at 2Alpes for under 15€ when everyone else is paying nearly 40€. Check out local clubs and see what they offer. As well as financial advantage, you’ll find skiing friends who know the local resorts.

Surf the web

Sites like www.vente-privee.com sometimes offer reduced ski passes; Transisere do a bus-ticket-plus-lift-pass deal, which means cheap skiing with the bonus of being able to have a snooze on the way home; the Pass Cinésnowcard costs 10€ and offers some whopping ski discounts. An evening’s Googling can pay dividends in bargain ski time.

Get a season ticket

If you do enough skiing, a season pass can offer a huge reduction on the full day rate, but you need to do the sums carefully because they’re expensive in the first place. Check what discounts are available on the season ticket – for buying early, or owning an apartment in resort, for example. Consider how many days you’re likely to ski, then work out how much the pass will cost you per day’s skiing, and bear in mind any other discount you’re entitled to. If you’re disabled, for example, you can claim a big reduction on a day pass, so a season ticket has to work that bit harder to be worthwhile.

The other big advantage of a season pass is that you stick to one resort and get to know it well. After a few weekends you’ll begin to know where to find powder stashes a week after the last snowfall, which pistes are boiler plate ice in the mornings, where the decent snow is when everything else has turned to porridge on an April afternoon … etc. This won’t save you any money per se, but it means you will wring the maximum value out of your pass in terms of quality slide time.

Choose when you ski

Hotels and holiday apartments change over on a Saturday. This means that on Saturday mornings everyone is packing, cleaning, stressing about where the car keys are and trying to make the kids go for a wee before they get in the car. Most pertinently, they are not on the slopes. Get yourself out of bed early on a Saturday morning to hit first lifts, and you’ll have the place to yourself until lunchtime even in the big resorts in February. Again, this may not save you money (though there are web discounts for Saturday precisely because it’s quiet) but you certainly get the best value for your cash.

Don’t follow the herd …..

I know the British think Val d’Isere is the only resort worth talking about, but I’m here to tell you that they are dead wrong. I suppose you could get up at five in the morning to drive the necessary 170km, then pay 50€ to queue for half an hour and then find that the resort’s seasonnaires have tracked all the powder, but why would you? Particularly when, as a Grenoblois, you practically trip over a ski area every time you leave the house. The city is ringed by small to medium sized resorts where 40 minutes drive gets you a day out at half the price of the usines de ski and you can have steak frites and a beer on the mountain without taking out a mortgage. This is where your French friends and colleagues are going every weekend. And what’s more, these resorts are not infested with seasonnaires who think they’re off-piste gods, which seriously ups your chances of getting fresh tracks even if the last snowfall was on Wednesday morning when you were stuck in that meeting. Check out www.skifrance.fr – you’re spolit for choice.

And finally, my apologies …

…. to all of you who snowboard. I know you do. I do it as well. It’s just cumbersome to say ‘ski and/or board’ all the time. Sorry.

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Christa Gimblett left the UK for a seasonal job in Europe in the recession of the early 90s and forgot to go home again, spending nearly 15 years working for UK tour operators up various mountains. Now living in Bourg d’Oisans with no cash, two cats, a man with a broken foot and a car which looks like a frog.

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For all your administrative nightmares: Binders. Photo: nick findley

Grenoble Life editor James Dalrymple had to do a Validation des Acquis Professionnels et Personnels (VAPP) and survived to tell the tale. Here’s what happened and why.

Master your subject

For those wanting to one day take the competitive teaching exams or concours de l’enseignement (CAPES, Agrégation) to become a teacher for the French state system, you may be aware that things have changed. The government have scrapped the institutes (IUFMs) that provided teachers with practical training after these exams to gear them up for life in a classroom. Instead, it is now an obligation to have a Master’s degree in your chosen field before taking the concours, the second year of which orientates wanabee profs in two directions: a master’s in pedagogy (for those teachers taking the CAPES) and a master’s in research (for those wishing to take the agrég).

Setting aside the questionable French wisdom of abandoning practical teacher training for more theory – and thus a greater insistence on what you know as opposed to can you teach? – the shake-up has a number of consequences for anglophones intending to run the gauntlet. Firstly, you will require a master’s degree or equivalent in order to take the exams; secondly, the requirements for entering into these master’s programmes have become much stricter.

Getting a head start

When I arrived in Grenoble I knew several anglophones who had been able to enter directly into the second year of the Etudes Anglophones master’s programme given that they had a Bachelor’s degree in their native country and were seen as having an advantage over French students who had studied English literature to degree level in France. Therefore such people were able to obtain a master’s level (aka, Bac + 5) having completed what amounted to one term of classes evaluated via graded written work and oral presentations, and a dissertation on the research subject of their choice. One of my friends even wrote an article here about it. However, upon applying myself, I was told that a Bachelor’s was not sufficient to enter into Master 2, and my claims to know people who had done this were met with indifference. Something had changed, but no-one would explain what and why, nor was there information online to this explicit effect.

Formalising experience

At 32 years old with a job and a family, I was not able to commit to the full two years of the programme, especially frustrating since I knew people who had – with the same BA-level qualifications – gone directly into Master 2 with minimum fuss. There are two potential administrative procedures for people in my position: a Validation des Etudes and a Validation des Acquis Professionnels et Personnels (VAPP). As I hadn’t done enough additional post-degree study according to the new rules to claim the equivalence of the first year of the master’s, I failed in my efforts to pursue the former (lighter) route. Given I have worked (first in publishing and then in teaching) for around ten years, I had to opt for the VAPP. This also applies if you are over 28 or have interrupted your studies for more than three years (check for me on both counts!).

As far as I know, the VAPP doesn’t exist in anglophone countries but is a necessity in France where qualifications weigh so much more than work experience. It is not enough just to submit a CV. In France your experience has to be formally recognised by a commission and involves the supply of copious justificatifs (i.e. proof), explantory detail of all your acquired skills and knowledge and certified translations of your diplomas and certificates. In effect, the VAPP dossier becomes less of an application than a lengthy project that must be printed and bound six times.

Luckily for me I have a patient wife who was brought up in the French education system and has a black belt in admin. Without the help of such a person, you might as well forget about doing the VAPP. It is not just a question of being able to write French perfectly, but of knowing the specific terminology adopted within France’s idiosyncratic employment culture to explain one’s skills and knowledge. This requires hours of research in itself.  

Beware sworn translators

Worst of all, we had a dispute with a sworn translator, unbelievably British in origin herself, over grade equivalences. If you have a 2:1 Honours degree from a British university, this is the second highest mark you can receive after a First. Thus you would expect this to be translated as Mention Bien, the second highest level in France. Our translator, however, on whom we depended to certify the document as well as translate it, wanted to put Mention Assez Bien, effectively demoting my grade by one level. On this issue she would not budge despite our protestations. In the end we had to settle for her leaving the grade in English, and translating the rest, and hoping that the commission presiding over my dossier could understand the value of a 2:1.

Jumping through hoops

My dossier has been approved, but I can’t shake off the feeling that this was just a hoop thrown up for me to jump through – that the detail of my application was less important than my having tackled the time-consuming obstacle thrown in my path. I imagine that, in undertaking such an arduous task, I have proved to the commission who approve the VAPP that I am genuinely motivated. Wouldn’t a simple interview have sufficed ?

Feel free to use the comments box below to share similar experiences and advice or your own administrative nightmares.

Anyone remember this? Photo: litherland

In August Grenoble Life editor James Dalrymple found himself with time to burn and decided to enrol in French classes at the CUEF. Here’s what he has to say.

Between finishing my job as a teacher in a private institute and beginning life in l’éducation nationale , I found myself the grateful recipient of more than one year’s untaken annual holiday. To get a taste of university life ahead of my new job on campus, and avoid spending all day in my dressing gown, I enrolled in a semi-intensive French class called Passerelle pour l’université française at the CUEF, one of the many rather inelegant departmental acronyms found there.

Centre Universitaire d’Etudes Françaises (CUEF) is part of Stendhal University and offers a variety of courses of different durations and tailored to different levels. According to the website the Passerelle “s’adresse aux étudiants désireux de s’inscrire dans une université française,“ which might lead you to the conclusion that it is less a language class than a series of lectures. In fact it is a fairly varied and pleasant FLE-style course comprising four hours of class time a day for two weeks, focused on improving a facility for formal expression and speaking.

Working on a rich range of materials including articles, video and audio reports, the course enables a broadening of vocab and a tightening of written style that suited me just fine. Longer summer courses exist, but the timing of the Passerelle was better for me. I should also add that this was not a class that prioritised free oral expression, although we had opportunity to debate the themes which arose in the materials (such as: the history of social housing in France, the future of urbanisation, surrogate motherhood).

The course was also a reminder of some of French education’s more idiosyncratic aspects: the insistence on summarizing and reducing articles from the press to their bare essentials, long after students had shown an understanding of the text. Agree with the efficacy of such an activity or not, it is a common exercise in French classrooms and worth familiarising yourself with if you are planning to study here. Personally, as someone who had learnt most of their shaky French à l’orale, I made masses of progress in terms of written structure, vocab and grammar.

The two weeks included access to a multimedia lab which was essentially just a computer room manned by a teacher-technician who could sometimes advise on specific online exercises to meet your needs. Furthermore, the fee included a guided visit to Musée Dauphinois which currently hosts an interesting temporary exhibition on Grenoble-born luminary Jacques de Vaucanson (1709–1782), one of the fathers of early robots: mechanical automatons that owed their design to greater understanding of the human anatomy.

Normally the course is aimed at B1 and B2 students, but I was pleasantly surprised to be told that I was pushing completion of C1 by the end of the course (and I was given a handy certificate to this effect; always useful in France), so there was a bit of a spread of levels in the group. This didn’t seem to matter too much, though, and it was great to be in one of those multi-national (albeit predominantly German) learning contexts where the common language is the one being studied.

If you have had good or bad experiences at the CUEF, please share them with us below. For further information on the CUEF and other French language courses in Grenoble, check this out.

Joseph Schott anticipating life in Grenoble

Joseph Schott has come from the USA, via Japan, to do an MBA at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business. We will be following him ‘From Admission to Graduation’ as he blogs on life and learning in the Capital of the Alps.

Hello, my name is Joseph Schott. I’ll be starting at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business as an MBA student in September. I’m originally from the United States, but I spent the last four years in Japan with the JET Programme. While I was there, I taught English as a foreign language, did some translation and interpretation, and led a small non-profit that performs some support functions for the JET Programme.

While the cities in Japan are beautiful and convenient, the whole country is also full of mountains. It is a great place to be if you like hiking or rock climbing. It was hard to leave! I originally studied social sciences in the US, but working in Japan with people from around the world made me want to get more involved in international business. So after considering the great location of GGSB, (and drooling over pictures of French cheese) I put my interests together and applied at Grenoble.

I’ve been asked to write about my hopes and fears, as well as what I’m doing to prepare for my new life in Grenoble. I’ll start with the juicy bit and go right into my fears. It goes without saying that moving to a new country is a very complicated process, and a lot of the time I’m just glancing at my calendar, hoping that nothing goes wrong. However, my biggest worry about coming to Grenoble is the language. I only just started studying French a few weeks ago, and I’m an absolute beginner.

I’ve been told that Grenoble has a very large and vibrant international community, and from what I’ve seen on this blog, the range of people you can meet is one of the city’s highlights. At the same time, I’m not under any illusion that I’ll be having an easy time without speaking any French! In Japan, I was usually the one helping other people navigate bureaucracy and solve communication problems, but in Grenoble I’ll be back to being a beginner. On the other hand, I’m excited to pick up a third language to use in business and for making new friends. And for that I’m going to need to speak a lot more French!

I’ve found lots of French language resources and language tapes, and I’ve been carrying my beloved Anki around with me everywhere. If you’ve never heard of Anki or other similar tools (they are usually called spaced repetition systems or SRS), I’d definitely recommend checking one out. The idea is that you can store huge amounts of small facts as virtual flashcards, and the program will take care of scheduling which cards you review. So for example, you might eventually have 3,000 vocabulary words, and Anki will bring up about 100 each day. It can make sure that difficult phrases and words are brought back frequently, and things that you’ve already memorized are brought up sparingly. It works from my mobile, and I use it while I’m on the train, waiting in a line, or when a conversation is waning. Best of all it’s open source.

I’ve also been brushing up on my math and finance, and reading some books to get ready to go back to school. I’m currently reading a book on job hunting and just finished an interesting book on Google’s business model and path to success. I’ve also subscribed to a few rss feeds from business blogs. I’ve seen some interesting articles on www.voxeu.org, www.deadlysins.info/wordpress, blogs.hbr.org, as well as many others. Reading these keeps me excited for the intensive studying that will start in September. I also watch many of the presentations from the TED Conference, which are very short, but center on global issues and very inspiring.

However, wrapping up my life in Japan and saying farewell to everyone I’ve met has been the most difficult part of my preparation for Grenoble. Changing location so often, especially between countries, gives you a chance to meet lots of interesting people, and with social networking services like facebook, mixi, and so on, it is easier than ever to stay connected. At the same time though, these applications can make it easy to give yourself the illusion of being connected and ignore the real value of the relationships you’ve made. Before moving my focus to Grenoble, one of my biggest tasks has been to properly say goodbye to all of the amazing people I met in Japan.

As I finish these preparations and the start of classes draws closer and closer, I find myself feeling more and more excited each day. I can’t wait to meet the other members of my class and get started on my new life. I’m also looking forward to checking out the climbing gym near the school, relaxing at one of the cafés around the city, and trying out the hiking in the three surrounding mountain ranges.

I first got involved in climbing in Japan, where it is just starting to really become popular. Actually, people there use some French terms as loan words too, such as gaston (ガストン). I did mostly bouldering, so I’m excited to learn more about top-roping and outside routes, which I’ve heard are more popular in France. The nearby mountains look they’ll be great for hiking, and maybe I can even spot a Dahu!

Essential Questions. Photo: banlon1964

Grenoble Life editor James Dalrymple shares five pearls of wisdom gleaned from teaching English to professionals in the city.

This month presents a watershed moment for me professionally as I end my stint as a teacher-trainer – of mostly professional adults – at a private institute and prepare for my first taste of l’éducation nationale française. Having obtained a post on campus as a lecteur, I will complete the job that has defined my experience in France since my arrival, and take a step into the unknown.

Some might say that the move from formateur to lecteur will be a case of “out of the frying pan and into the fire,” but, as a cathartic act of drawing a line under my experience, I have compiled a list of five pearls of sagesse concerning teaching professional English in France.

1. Everybody speaks English now, right?

Wrong. Even if English has gone global, there will be times when you are confronted with students who have apparently never spoken it before, let alone knowingly seen or heard it. Even in cosmopolitan Grenoble, expect to have to teach some adults who are closer to vrais than faux debutants.

Why should everyone speak English? I have had the unenviable task of trying to teach people who had neither significant professional need to speak the language, nor a lifelong burning passion to begin doing so. At one time I had to manage a contract with a medium-size manufacturer, at which all the shop floor operators were obliged to have English training. For many of these mostly middle aged men (and some women) from the shop floor, whose modest education was a distant memory, the effort spent in learning English vastly outweighed the reward.

No doubt these same men could acquire certain technical skills faster than I ever could, yet English remained alien and abstract despite many hours in contact with it. During my time with these people, I am ashamed to admit that I may have learnt more from them (about industry, about how things are made) than they learnt from me.

Most English teachers in the private sector will probably relate to my feeling that many student-trainees have been permanently damaged by a school approach to language learning that was, for many, didactic and dogmatic rather than communicative or intuitive. It is often difficult to get the French to let go of the idea of grammar as language’s evil twin, and that speaking a language is akin to navigating a minefield of punishable mistakes.

2. « On est nuls en Anglais en France »

Despite what I said in observation one, many French people speak excellent English. Countless times I have met students who, upon eloquently introducing themselves, feel the need to add the little disclaimer that their English is terrible and how embarrassed they are to speak it. Normally I point of out the window at this moment and ask them which country they live in, where they grew up, and why on earth they are not prouder to be able to express themselves in another language, even if only a little.

Maybe it says something about the French attitude to their own language that they would prefer not to speak another if they can’t speak it beautifully. Compared to Britain though, where learning foreign languages has been in serious decline since a law was passed making it no longer mandatory after the age of 14, the French are a nation of linguists.

3. Time = results

Not necessarily. Interest and enthusiasm for the language and the culture remain paramount. Too many people are sent for English training as if sent to learn any other professional skill. I have often been confronted by a belief that time spent in the classroom will automatically be rewarded with improved TOEIC scores, for example. Professional need is no substitute for passion for the subject, and the fact that many adults in France come to training out of obligation rather than choice engenders a passive attitude to learning which is often an obstacle to meaningful progress.

4. I want to speak Business English

Unfortunately for teachers, human resources and training managers – not all known for their broad knowledge of language pedagogy – often insist upon certain thématiques for the ESL classroom. In my opinion there is too much interference from companies who want to impose skills-based English upon their employees. However, you can’t run before you can walk, and it is very frustrating being told to teach students how to participate in a meeting in English, or speak on the telephone, for example, without having mastered the basics.

5. Grenoble needs an International House

Grenoble has an enormous market for English teaching, but no focal point to promote excellence or provide training for its teachers. For us long-term formateurs, we need to do more to share our ideas and improve standards. Hard-working teachers also need to feel that their efforts be rewarded with the possibility of professional development, whereas often the door to such progress seems permanently closed. As far as I know there is currently nowhere to do the CELTA in Grenoble – an internationally recognised English teaching certificate that does not hold nearly as much weight as it should in France – although Marianne Reynaud organises TESOL-affiliated seminars.

Given the size of the English teaching sector in Grenoble, there should be an innovative and internationally-accredited institute like International House where teachers can be trained and learn to train others. Such an institute could act as a catalyst for improving standards and, by bringing teachers together, raising the morale and pride among the ESL workforce.

To the Bastille by bubble

Grenoble Life’s Christina Rebuffet-Broadus shuns the mass exodus for the beaches to check out guided tours of her adopted home town. Here’s what she found out.

The French have flocked south for their yearly dose of Mediterrannean sun, leaving the city streets all but deserted. The smaller shops have pulled down their iron curtains with fermé pour congés annuels hastily taped to the facade before migrating for the summer. Every now and then, you catch a group of tourists (without skis this time) wandering around the city.

Rather than crowd yet another beach and up the chances of getting skin cancer, city-tethered locals and French-challenged tourists may want to explore Grenoble. The Tourism Office operates a few regular English-language tours during the summer. Admit it – getting cozy with the city is way more fun than trying to squeeze onto a beach with half of the French population. Afterward, you can impress friends and family with your expertise in Grenobology.

I’m a big fan of being a tourist in your own city. Don’t take the attractions for granted—get out and do them! Start, for example, with the Tourism Office’s audioguided tour of the city center. If you’ve lived here long enough, you may already know when Cularo’s rampart was built. Maybe you can pinpoint where Napoleon marched into Grenoble on his way to power-center Paris. But you’ve probably never eavesdropped on those events as they happened.

The audioguides go beyond stringing dates, places, and names together like a 1850s history book. In about an hour-and-a-half visit through the city center, the history of Grenoble speaks to you, literally. Listen in as two tourists argue if it’s Place du Trib’ or Place St. André and let the abbot of St. Hugues church tell you what Place Notre Dame used to be.

I thought I had schooled myself well in Grenoble history and still learned a few new things about my adopted hometown. Plus, with all the other tourists walking around, I didn’t stick out so much with my map, headphones, and a remote-control-looking device hanging around my neck. When I opted to listen to some Liszt, I could peacefully contemplate the facade of the hotel where he stayed. 

If you prefer flesh and blood to plastic and LCD screens, the Tourism Office also hosts two regular guided visits in English: the Bastille and the city center. I tried the Bastille tour, just because it includes a ride in the Bubbles (honestly, how many of you still haven’t taken the Bubbles?). Little did I know, the Bastille would storm me although I’ve been regularly climbing its slopes since I’ve lived here.

To begin the tour, I joined Steve, my guide in the Jardin de Ville for a short lesson on Lesdiguières and why he built the first fortifications in the 16th century. You will have to take the tour yourself to find out, but here’s a hint: If he could do it, so could anyone else, which was not good for Grenoble’s security (Hint for the hint: “it” doesn’t mean building the Bastille).

We floated to the top of the site and began by reading Grenoble from above. The roofs below told the history of the city through color. The red roofs represented the oldest parts of Grenoble from the middle ages. Lesdiguières left his mark with blue slate roofs. More recent architectural history was written in black and white. 

The history of Grenoble is written on the rooftops

With a guide, you can visit parts of the Bastille usually closed to the public. We explored the upper blockhouses where soldiers lived and canons once boomed. The vaulted ceilings gave the living quarters the false feeling of an early medieval chapel but the sentinels probably didn’t pray much. They never came under fire. Construction of the Bastille ended in 1845 and Grenoble could feel fully protected from potential Savoyard invasions. Then Savoie became French in 1860 and the Bastille had no one to guard Grenoble from.

As dutiful tourists, Steve and I attacked the dry moat, no man’s land, and we tunneled through Mandrin’s grottoes. All of these parts are open to the public, but with a guide, they become more than a place for a panoramic picnic or holes in the mountainside.

To understand just how ingenious the Bastille’s layout is, let the guide explain it to you on site. You will literally see how the Bastille functioned as a fort. As Steve pieced the elements together, I understood how well Haxo had planned the Bastille. He probably never even knew he was creating the star of Grenoble. 

Audioguides are available for rent at the Grenoble Tourism Office for 5€. For an extra euro, you can have a second set of headphones so that two people can listen to a single device.

The Bastille visit costs 9.50€ and includes a round trip on the Bubbles.

The city center visit costs 6.50€.

You can sign up for the city center or Bastille visit at the Tourism Office or at their summer information booth at the foot of the Bubbles. The city center visit takes place at 2:30 pm and the Bastille visit starts at 4:30 pm, every day except Sunday.

Thierry Grange

Grenoble Life talked to Thierry Grange, Dean & Director of Grenoble Ecole de Management, about educational reform, shaping the future of Grenoble, and designing and building motorcycles.

Grenoble Life: What is your role at the Grenoble Ecole de Management and what does this involve?

Thierry Grange: My role is to provide human and financial resources to deploy properly our mission which is to contribute to companies’ performance by providing skills and knowledge. It implies structuring academic activity to set goals and to control their execution.

GL: Tell us about your experience in Africa and Asia . How did your time working in developing countries inform your later decision-making and career choices?

Thierry: I was working as a project manager for setting up industrial facilities – steel work, paper mills, and cement plants – in emerging and developing countries. This has given me good experience in human resource management and in creating a capacity to achieve goals.  I developed, in this first part of my professional career, my great interest for entrepreneurship. Probably, this is the reason why I accepted to work right from the start on the Grenoble Ecole de Management ‘project’.

GL: You once founded and ran a motorcycle manufacturer. What are some of the similarities between working in this environment and running a business school?

Thierry: The similarities are in the importance of the production process. A business school is about transforming brains from a student perspective to a professional perspective just as designing and producing motorcycles is a process of transformation – fortunately on a much less sophisticated ‘raw material’.

GL: In your opinion, how must the French higher education system develop to make itself more competitive?

Thierry: The French higher education system is undergoing a major reform which will transform its mission from public service towards contractual learning. This will involve carrying forward the universities’ contribution to the improvement of society and not only to the development of bright students.  

GL: What three professional achievements are you most proud of?

Thierry: I’m most proud to have contributed to the development of a business school that is now recognised as a European player. Another pride is to have had the chance to go to the end of my dream: designing and building motorcycles. Finally, I am very proud to have professionals that have worked with me for years and that still say hello to me every morning – human relations is the greatest achievement for me.

GL: How has the business environment changed in France since you co-founded Grenoble Ecole de Management, and how has the school contributed to this change?

Thierry: The business environment has definitely become more global, more competitive and offers more opportunities. Our school contributes to this evolution by accepting the rules of global competition and by teaching the necessary skills to create value within this new reality.

GL: How has the learning and training environment changed since the school was founded?

Thierry: The learning environment has changed by becoming more pro-active: students have good ideas on what they expect to learn and business schools have better knowledge of the specificities of corporate demand in terms of what professional profiles businesses require.

GL: How is the Grenoble Ecole de Management involved in changing the future of Grenoble ?

Thierry: Grenoble Ecole de Management is a leading institution in the world competition both in training and research and is contributing to the global visibility of the city. Grenoble Ecole de Management is one of the founders of the GIANT project, alongside Grenoble-INP, the CEA, ESRF, ILL and EMBL, that will greet an integrated campus combining industry, research and education in the Western part of the city. 

GL: What do you love about Grenoble ?

Thierry: The culture of proximity that helps anybody meet easily, if one is looking to improve professional achievements. It is a real collaborative spirit that is offered to everybody regardless of origin, position in hierarchy, age etc. You could call it natural diversity.

Judith Bouvard, Dean of Grenoble Graduate School of Business

Grenoble Life talks to Judith Bouvard, Dean of Grenoble Graduate School of Business, about her background, the changing business and training environment in France, and why students should consider coming to Grenoble.

Grenoble Life: Where do you come from originally?

Judith Bouvard: I was born in a small town near Manchester in the North of England. 

GL: Why did you come to Grenoble ?

Judith: When I left Manchester I went to live in Romans in the Drôme, to work in the luxury shoe industry. After a couple of years there I came to live in Grenoble to resume my studies.

GL: What kind of work did you first do on arrival in Grenoble ?

Judith: When I arrived in Grenoble at the same time as I was studying I was working part-time for a UK firm as a marketing consultant helping them to develop the market of protective clothing for building sites and road works. I then started to work in the training and continuing education business by doing some teaching and helping some French companies to set up in-house training courses.

Then I started working at ESC Grenoble – this was the name of the school before we became ‘Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM)’. I was involved with the school right from the day it was founded and I was even a member of the entrance juries for the Grande Ecole program before the building was finished.

I started teaching at the school and little by little I increased my contributions by developing the international relations. Then, in 1995, I created the Master in International Business (MIB), which was the first international program to be offered by GEM. I really felt there was a niche market for such an Master in Management program taught in English in Grenoble.

I gradually introduced more international degree programs taught through the medium of English and continued to develop the portfolio of international programs until GGSB became one of the schools of GEM.     

Parallel to that I continued my studies on the Henley DBA program and also obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Consultancy.

GL: What three professional achievements are you most proud of?

Judith: Developing a whole new international school from nothing and setting up all the programs; putting Grenoble on the map in international rankings, such as those of the prestigious Financial Times. I am also very proud of the careers and success stories of our graduates further to qualifications that I designed.

GL: Apart from the quality of the course programmes on offer at GGSB, why should potential students consider coming to Grenoble?

Judith: They should certainly consider coming for the dynamic nature of the city. It is easy to get by in Grenoble for non-French speakers. There is not a day that goes by without me hearing English on the street. However, most of our students become quite fluent in French rather rapidly as they experience true French culture. Our students are also sure to build a large international network of friends they can rely on in the future due to the fantastic diversity of the student population at GGSB.

GL: You have created partnerships between GGSB and schools around the world, including those in Iran and Saudi Arabia. As a woman, did you face any challenges in this respect?

Judith: The challenge was for me to actually challenge the pre-conceived ideas of what people had warned me about in advance. In those countries, people actually respect you for your intellect, status and qualifications regardless of your gender. Qualifications come above anything else and with more and more women gaining higher education degrees, the challenge for them is lessening. The other challenge was the dress code, but only from a comfort point of view. Wearing a head scarf when it is 40 degrees outside can be quite uncomfortable when you are not used to that!

GL: How has the business environment changed since you arrived in France, and how has GGSB contributed to this change?

Judith: Over the past 30 years, I have seen more international exchanges – both academic and corporate – and better means to conduct these exchanges, thanks to technology. Technology has definitely changed the way people do business. We can now work with different parts of the world without feeling that it is far away. For example I can be talking to a colleague in China or Singapore in the morning and to another colleague in Mexico in the evening. Of course the result is that the working day can be quite long!

At GGSB, we train qualified managers capable of working beyond national borders with a multitude of cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Our graduates are increasingly working in virtual teams spread over different countries. The contact with colleagues all around the world definitely adds a different dimension to business. 

GL: How has the learning and training environment changed?

Judith: We now have access to more information, thanks to the internet. What used to be called a ‘correspondence course’ is now called a ‘distance learning course’; technology has made learning more user-friendly. Furthermore, whereas years ago classes were made of one single nationality, the learning environment has become highly international, offering numerous opportunities for students.

Also the faculty members have become more like facilitators than lecturers. At GGSB gone are the days of long monologues by a lecture standing in front of the students. Now there is far more interaction and exchange between the lecturer and the students. Also I think that business schools have realised that it is important to have a good blend of lecturers with a more academic approach and business professionals who bring their work experience to the classroom.

GL: What is next for you and the school?

Judith: I’m very excited about our new Global Executive MBA that will begin in January 2011. This new course will run in eight different locations: Grenoble – Geneva – Moscow – London – New York – Singapore – New Delhi – Beijing, and is aimed at top managers who will travel to each location for specific courses and country case-studies.

This Global EMBA is the result of all the knowledge I’ve acquired over the years, after observing how companies function and their different needs. I’m also an AMBA auditor, so I’ve got to examine various programs, their pluses and minus.

I’m also preparing the future of GGSB when I will no longer be there to ensure the continuity of GGSB. I’m busy getting the right people in so the school will keep the same prestige and have the possibility of progressing. I’m proud as I see the next generation come in to be trained by GGSB. Often, children of those who I taught come to seek advice and are keen to live the same enriching experience at GGSB as their parents did.

Radio Activity. Photo: Velocity kendall

In the final English Talk Radio before the summer break, guests include Kristine Minski, talking about global currency markets and Bertrand Tappaz, talking about the history of 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble.

Listen to the show: here

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

Listen to ETR in your car! 'Pump up the volume'. Photo: Travich

The June 13 English Talk Radio took place at Grenoble Graduate School of Business. The guests are: Thierry Grange, Dean of Grenoble Ecole de Management; Elizabeth Gorilla, Marketing and Admissions Manager; Michelle Mielly, Marketing Programme Director; graduates Beatriz Diez and Denis Coupe; students Ben Pawson, Jay Anandou and Timothée Bardet; and Pat Brans, writer, consultant and time-management guru.

Listen to the full show: here

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

Photo: BimiB

Felicity Lodge is a Grenoble-based financial planner with The Spectrum IFA Group, offering independent financial planning advice for expatriates in the Alps region. Here is her guide to life insurance in France.  

Benjamin Franklin said, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes“.  

There is not a great deal you can do about either. Taxes have to be paid, although you can make sure that you are not paying more than you need to, and no matter how hard scientists try, death will come sooner or later. 

How long are you going to live for?  

Few people can confidently answer this question and the aim of financial planning is to have the means of providing for yourself and your family whatever happens. Very few people can say that they die at just the right time and the main situations we try to cover are that you die too early, which can leave your family with financial difficulties, or you die too late and run the risk of having to live on a reduced income. 

Both of these situations can be covered using different forms of life insurance. There are many forms of life insurance which can be confusing. The two most commonly used in France are assurance vie (life insurance bond) which is a long-term savings policy, and assurance décès (term life insurance) which provides payment in the case of death. By saving money now in an assurance vie, you can build up a lump sum for expected or unexpected expenses in the future, or to fund your retirement. By taking out assurance décès, you will pay a small monthly sum to the insurance company, who will then pay out a lump sum on the death of the insured. 

Assurance vie 

Many of you will have heard of assurance vie, however, most expats will not realise how widely used and tax-efficient these policies are in France.  It is a form of savings where you put money into the policy, then within the policy a number of different investments are available depending on the particular assurance vie you chose.  Many French people save for their retirement using an assurance vie rather than a personal pension because of its superior flexibility. Since you can take the proceeds at any age and maximum tax efficiency is after only eight years, an assurance vie can also be used to save for any future expenses such as university expenses, weddings, or even for the holiday of a lifetime. 

I have discussed the details of assurance vie in a little more detail in my article Arranging your finances in France – an overview but please feel free to contact me if you want any further information. 

Assurance décès 

Assurance décès (temporaire), which pays a lump sum upon the death of the insured, is a very valuable but much underused insurance. It is invaluable for people with young children, but for a number of reasons most families are under-insured and many families are at risk of financial hardship should the worst happen. For some people the death of a spouse is not something they like to think about, others do not like to pay for something they consider unlikely and sometimes people assume that they will be provided for by the state or by family. What you have to remember is that the monthly payment you make is usually relatively small compared to the benefit you receive should you have to claim and provides a huge peace of mind. 

This type of insurance will already be held by most of you with mortgages to cover all or part of the outstanding loan. You may also have a small amount provided by your employer, but you should bear in mind that this will cease when you stop working for that employer. Even if you already have these insurances, it is not usually enough to maintain your standard of living. 

To work out how much cover you need, you have to work out how much money you need to cover your living expenses (including holidays, future expenses such as education and any extras), and how much income you would have available (I can help you for no charge if you send me an email).  If you do this, remember the extra childcare costs. Many people forget to insure a non-working spouse because she does not have an income. In fact, if you were to have to pay someone to look after your children, clean your house and do your washing, particularly if you work long hours, there are significant costs involved!  Being an expat you would also have to consider whether you would want to return to your own country, which would incur further costs. 

Sometimes it is necessary to compromise between how much insurance you need and how much you can afford. Again, I can help you to find the best balance. 

Overview 

Assurance vie and assurance décès are essential financial planning tools, making sure your family is financially secure whatever happens. 

Assurance vie is a way of saving money for the future. It is very flexible and tax efficient and with the right policy you will have a lifelong structure to manage your investments, enabling you to tailor your portfolio as your circumstances evolve. 

Assurance décès is the one thing you pay for but hope you will never receive any benefit. Thankfully it is rare that you have to claim, but in the event that you do the benefit to your family is immense.

Felicity Lodge, based in Grenoble, is a financial planner with The Spectrum IFA Group. For a free, no-obligation consultation please contact felicity.lodge (at) spectrum-ifa.com.

Le Créarc - international theatre in Grenoble

The May 7 English Talk Radio show features Anne-Laure Dubois and Marco Andrello of Le Créarc – Centre de Création de Recherche et des Cultures - talking about international theatre in Grenoble.

Listen to the show: here

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

URSSAF - another elegant French acronym

Patrick Owen shares his experience starting an English teaching business, becoming an Auto-entrepreneur and dealing with France’s particular administrative complexity and love of acronyms.  

So as I come to the end of my ACCRE, I’ve contacted the URSSAF who told me to contact the APCE.  I also contacted the RSI and the CIPAV but had no response.  Therefore I sent an email to the CNAVPL.  I must, also, remember to send my annual report to the DRTEPF.  If all of this sounds like double Dutch, welcome to my world, since I started my own business.  I knew the French administration loved acronyms having lived in France for eight years, dealing with the CAF, EDF, GDF, etc.  However, when I set up my own company I entered a whole new ball game. 

After working in various language schools I decided to work for myself.  Everyone warned me against it; “It’s really complicated,” and, “The charges are really high,” were just two of the comments I heard.  It is amazing that France has so many small businesses, when you hear all the negative reactions.  In the beginning, I wasn’t sure what type of business to create with various projects in mind.  However, I soon discovered that in France, once you have trained to do one thing changing direction is not easy. Changing careers involves financial and time investments that I did not have.  I therefore decided to set up a language teaching business, since this was what I knew best. 

Now, it might be useful to explain why I had decided to set up my own business.  Many language schools will employ teachers on freelance contracts, as I had discovered during my first year in France.  The problem is that to work for a business school or university, where the better pay rates are, you need a principal employer.  In addition, for a reason that I can only speculate at, few employers are willing to sign the paper agreeing to be your principal employer.  There are two solutions: one is to use a société de portage, the other is to be your own employer.  The société de portage acts as your employer, in the sense that they take care of all the administrative paperwork, of course for this service they take a fee.  My feeling was that the fee charged didn’t really justify the work involved,  I therefore decided to set up for myself. 

I attended an event held by my local Chamber of Commerce, which didn’t turn out to be much help.  I was unable to get answers to my questions and, as I was not setting up a commercial activity, they were not the right people to ask.  In the end, it was internet forums that proved to be the most help.  I typed my questions into Google and sifted through the responses.  It was here that I learnt I would have to see the URSSAF.  They seem to be the organisation that catches the companies who are not commercial or tradesmen.  I also discovered that provided I didn’t earn too much and didn’t employ anyone else, the process was fairly simple. 

I printed a form on the internet and headed for the URSSAF.  I had been told I didn’t need an appointment.  This worried me slightly, as I had experienced the queues at the Social Security and the Prefecture.  I was pleasantly surprised to be received within ten minutes of my arrival by a pleasant and helpful adviser.  She rapidly entered my details and answered my questions, in less than an hour I was in business, literally.  She offered me a free appointment with an accountant and, best of all, showed me I was eligible for a dispensation of social taxes for one year.  I left the URSSAF with a whole different image of the French administration. 

The dispensation for one year is important and a big helping hand.  Normally a company’s charges are fixed for the first and second years.  Then the third year’s charges are calculated on the real income of the second year.  The problem is that, although, the first year’s charges are relatively light, in the second they double and this kills a lot of small businesses.  Now, certain categories of business creators, the unemployed for example, can ask for a first year free of charges.  I qualified because, although I resigned, I had been looking after my kids one day a week and received income support.  This taught me that you have to read everything because there is often an advantageous exception which you may not always be told about. 

While surfing the internet, I also discovered that if I wanted to teach in companies I would need to make a déclaration d’activité with the DRTEFP (Direction Régionale du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Formation Professionnelle).  In France, companies are obliged to pay a tax towards the training of their employees.  This tax is often collected by organisations which manage the training funds.  These organisations will only accept training courses run by companies who have made the declaration.  Many people wrongly refer to it as an agreement, however the DRTEFP are very strict in their literature that it is not an agreement from the state, merely a declaration.  

I discovered that with the right documentation, a curriculum vitae, a casier judiciaire vierge (a document you can order online showing you have never committed a crime), and your first training contract the procedure was straightforward.  It is the contract which can be a little complicated, if you haven’t got a declaration number how can you sign a contract?  I got around this problem by noting that my declaration was being processed, and offering my first client a clause whereby if I didn’t get the number the contract was null and void. 

I treated starting my business rather as a challenge and as time went on it became a puzzle, for which I was never sure I had all the pieces.  To be honest I enjoyed pitting myself against the French administration and proving those who said it would be hard to do wrong.  It must be said that I chose the simplest possible structure and being a teacher, who teaches in companies, I have very few overheads. 

It is worth mentioning in conclusion that a law was passed in 2008 making it even easier for freelance teachers.  The status of Auto-entrepreneur is designed for people who may have multiple employers as well as working for themselves.  The process of setting up is very simple and can even be done online.  The real boost however comes in terms of charges and tax.  The Auto-entrepreneur can choose to declare his turnover each month or trimester.  The social charges and tax are calculated based on what he declares and paid immediately.  This avoids the nasty bills arriving one year after a good year.  It also means that if you have a month with no income you pay nothing.  This regime is much more sensible for someone like me. 

Unfortunately, and here is the downside of my experience, getting information about this new status has been hard.  I have read the law and the Auto-entrepreneur’s handbook.  As a sole trader I can ask to benefit from the same regime, and I have done so which brings us back to the beginning of the article.  The acronyms are all the people I have contacted to ask for help changing my status.  

On the whole my experience has been positive; the principal problem has been people.  Everything one needs to know is on the internet.  When dealing with employees of the various administrations it is a case of pot luck.  The first person I saw was excellent, others have been less so.  I once made the mistake of phoning on the day of a strike, my call was answered after prolonged ringing by a harassed and unhelpful lady.  I blame myself for this one, though, after three years in France I should have known you don’t phone the public service on strike days, I was lucky someone answered.  My advice is to be determined, do your research and treat the experience as fun, and you will be fine. 

Patrick Owen
www.englishcoach38.com
letter-from-france.blogspot.com

A filled blackboard. Photo: Rainer Ebert

In response to criticism of the education system on Grenoble Life and from the Anglophone community in France, Iain Smears mounts a passionate defence of French schooling.

Many people in the Anglophone community in Grenoble will come into contact with the French education system either through their studies or those of their family members. There are aspects about it which seem to draw criticism from a considerable proportion of the English-speaking community.

In this article, I would like to depict how my own experience of doing maternelle, primaire, collège and lycée in Grenoble, then of going to university in the UK, has shown me the many benefits of the education on offer here. In fact, it is precisely some of those aspects of the system which are often criticised which I would argue have been of value to me in my university studies. I will focus on secondary education, or more specifically the Bac Général, as I have only glimpses and second hand experience of French higher education and cannot claim to know much about the other paths in secondary education.

A major concern for some is the long hours of schooling throughout collège and lycée. I did the Bac Scientifique with the OIB (L’option internationale du baccalauréat), and I’m the first to admit that it was demanding. On a few occasions, I’ve been asked by parents with children about to embark on this path if it’s true that I did 50 hours of work a week. Their frowns of anguish are of little surprise to me when I place a finger on my lip, recollect, then declare that it was probably a dozen or so hours more than that.

I do see the sense in many of the objections to long school days and I will readily concede that perhaps the content of lessons from 5-6 pm isn’t what I remember the best – however, little is said of the end result of French schooling: how does it influence one’s experiences in higher education and after that?

I chose to study mathematics in the UK. Bit by bit, I noticed how my fellow students were finding the course more trying than I was – some would find it hard to do their work on time, others found it hard to get out of bed, some needed vast amounts of caffeine or chocolate to feel ready to take on their work. Someone put my thoughts into words by calling it a “great big hangover for having partied for the previous 18 years.”

For my part, I continued at my usual rhythm inherited from Terminale by learning my lectures as well as I could and doing my homework sooner rather than later. I think that strong discipline not only leads to successfully acquiring the material, but also helps to explore the subject to its fullest, satisfy one’s curiosity and therefore enjoy one’s studies.

The extensive testing and harsh grading schemes in French education also attract criticism. Yet I believe that it is instead very beneficial to get substantial practice of long examinations. Being able to focus and to stay sharp under pressure is an important part of exam technique and I am glad I was able to get practice in this before end-of-year exams at university.

As for the unforgiving grading, it made those good grades well deserved – something in which I found satisfaction. I found that for me and other pupils at school, it encouraged a determined attitude towards trying one’s upmost. Compare this to the comments I have heard of several students in the UK about how they were “spoon-fed just to pass exams” and “weren’t proving [their] own ability, but that of [their] teacher”, which has not helped them find self-confidence and belief in their ability. I think that learning that someone can indeed rise up to a challenge is important for him to value and appreciate his work and also helps in face of future challenges.

It is true that some people can find the difficult grading scheme discouraging. But even though grades matter for later progression, it should be remembered that what is learnt matters most. Whether someone gets a B or C on an A-level or roughly equivalently [i] a 10 on the Bac, what they have gained from school will likely be the same. When that person goes onto university, it is what that person has acquired that will be key. I know of some who struggled in a subject throughout lycée, then needed that knowledge to some extent in their later studies, and have told me since that they felt they were at an advantage against others in their group.

However if there is a clear-cut problem with the grading system, it is that it puts at a disadvantage French students who wish to study abroad, e.g. the UK. This is because admissions tutors might not be aware of the discrepancies between the systems and take estimated grades for the Baccalaureate at face value – i.e. they would assume, say, that an A is worth 16 on the Bac. Things are made worse by the fact that high numbers of UK students get the top mark: according to wikipedia [ii], 43.7% of students taking an A-level in Mathematics got an A in 2007. And unlike A-levels, Baccalaureate students cannot retake exams to improve their grades. This can result in disproportionately demanding offers for Baccalaureate pupils.

A final advantage of the French education system, which is not immediately apparent to those still undertaking it, is that it offers flexibility in later choices. Of those who did the Bac Scientifique in my class, some have gone into media relations, politics, languages, nursing… Some feel that the schooling did not suit them, but what they have done enables them to embark on a wide range of paths afterwards.

In conclusion, even though the French secondary education system has its faults, I hope it will not be forgotten that the overall result of the extensive schooling is threefold. First, it is an opening to numerous topics – it showcases vast bodies of knowledge and works to stimulate the pupil’s mind in all forms. Second, it helps to equip its pupils with the attitude, determination, self-confidence and ethos which are important in all walks of life. Third, it aims to keep as many doors open as possible all the way until the end of the Baccalaureate. Combined, I think these three aspects allow the education system to offer what one generally wants: the freedom to choose one’s way through an opening to the world.

Garvin at the Radio Campus studio

The April 25 English Talk Radio show features Garvin: a Franco-Welsh-Scots rock band from Grenoble.  After only a little over a year together and they are already finishing the recording of their first album. A mix of English pop-rock, progressive and folk, they play two songs live in the studio for you!

Listen to the full show: here

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

'Retour à Grenoble'. Photo: Loin des yeux

Without wireless in Grenoble? Don’t want to use an internet café or pay to buy a clé USB from SFR or Orange? Read on for sites of reliable and free internet access at various points throughout the city. 

By Anne S.

Pain et Cie
1 bis, rue de Lafayette
Tram: Sainte-Claire les Halles (B)

Pain et Cie is located very close to Place Notre Dame and is a great brunch/lunch/breakfast place. It’s a casual, relaxed spot with long wooden tables and a nice outdoor terrace as well. They have a bunch of tartines and jus de fruits bio and an incontournable spread of brunch items – it’s usually packed on Sunday mornings with everyone from students to families to young couples. They have a good free wireless network (although one or two times it didn’t work for me) and the big tables are excellent working spaces.

Pros: I’ve seen quite a few people working on computers there and the food is really good and reasonably priced. The restaurant as a whole has a nice atmosphere and the people who work there are also very friendly. Definitely my favorite wifi spot in Grenoble proper (excluding the university).

Cons: Pigeons sometimes fly in and out, which is alarming, but has nothing to do with computers. Also, there are only a few outlets, so bring your computer fully charged. 

Université de Grenoble
Saint Martin d’Hères campus
Tram: Bibliothèques Universitares (B/C)

This was my preferred point of Internet connectivity in Grenoble, as I was a part-time student at the university. The Bibliothèque Universitaire has plenty of tables, plugs, and excellent connectivity, as do a number of other sites on campus. The Fac also offers an opportunity for connection that is not a coffee shop or eating establishment, so it is theoretically one of the few “free” hotspots on this list.

Pros: The majority of campus buildings are wireless, and the Internet is fast and reliable.

Cons: You must be enrolled at the university to gain access to the network, if I’m not mistaken. It’s locked unless you have a login from their registrar. 

French Coffee Shop
3 place Claveyson
Tram: Sainte-Clare les Halles (B) or Maison de Tourisme (A/B)

This coffee shop is actually a chain with a number of locations around France. I got the impression that it is modeled after an American-style coffee shop (think Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee, or Tully’s), with blended ice drinks, smoothies, and muffins. It attracts a relatively young clientele, including a considerable amount of foreign (mostly American) students. The wireless network here was secure (password protected) and very reliable, and there are also a number of outlets to plug a power cord.

Pros: Outlets! Comfortable couches! And if you’re not in the mood for pastries, excellent chocolate muffins!

Cons: Do you really want to spend all your days at a place called French Coffee Shop?

Le 5 (Musée de Grenoble)
5 place de Lavalette
Tram: Musée de Grenoble (B)

Le 5 is the restaurant attached to the Musée but, of course, you can eat there with out paying admission to the museum. I’ve sat in there some afternoons with a coffee or a tea doing work on my computer and it’s a nice, quiet place. 

Pros: Quiet place to get things done, nice tables. At the Musée which is a nice change of pace from the average internet cafe. 

Cons: Like all museum restaurants, prices are a little higher. I also felt a little weird using my computer in the restaurant, but in the afternoon (around 4ish) when things were slow and I was lounging around with an espresso it seemed to be fine. 

Casino Géant
76 avenue Gabriel Péri, Saint Martin d’Hères
Tram: Neyrpic Belledone (C)

I’ve never actually tried this one out but I’ve been told that the shopping center here has free wifi. Where you’d use it in a grocery store is beyond me, but that’s that.

Around town

The ville de Grenoble has launched a public wireless access campaign, which gives users access in a variety of public spaces around the centre ville. Right now these spots include Parc Paul Mistral, Place Grenette, Place Saint-Andre, Place Victor Hugo, le Jardin de Ville, and le Jardin des plantes. The network (wifigrenoble or Ville-de-Grenoble) is somewhat reliable, with varying degrees of connectivity depending on where you are, but last time I checked the wifi in Parc Paul Mistral did not allow access to various media sharing sites such as Facebook, Youtube, Hulu.

Pros: Internet is accessible almost anywhere in the centre ville, including cafes or restaurants near the hotspots. I never lived in centre-ville proper, so I wouldn’t know if it is accessible if you live there, but maybe someone else can answer that question.

Cons: Checking your e-mail in Parc Paul Mistral? Really? It’s kind of awkward. Also, I have never seen anyone using a computer in that park, and when it’s sunny you get that whole problem of not being able to see the screen. You’d also run a higher risk of getting your computer stolen as it’s pretty open public place. More information here.

Also, I was told last spring that the Bibliothèque in centre ville was getting wifi, but am not sure if that has happened yet. Can anyone confirm this?

Speaker Grill. Photo: Chase Houston

The April 11 English Talk Radio show features Trudi Penkler, a psychologist, psychotherapist and ‘Intercultural Consultant’ with her own practice, Active Adaptation Counselling, in downtown Grenoble. The discussion is about third culture kids, particularly teenagers …

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

Listen to the show: here

Radio. Photo: stigwaage

The March 28 English Talk Radio show features guest Kate Daligault of Banque Rhône-Alpes in Grenoble talking about banking in France, and Mary Zaccai interviews Kristine Minski and Vivian Draper about five years doing the show.

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

Listen to the full show: here

Odyssey Intercultural

Michelle Mielly is MSc Marketing Program Director at Grenoble Graduate School of Business. She talks to Grenoble Life about her background, adapting to life in France and Odyssey Intercultural, the training consultancy she founded.

Grenoble Life: What is Odyssey Intercultural and who is it for?

Michelle Mielly: Odyssey Intercultural is a brand I created four years ago in my work as a consultant with Act’Rmc here in Grenoble. Its name reflects the long and multi-faceted journey that one experiences when working and living interculturally.

The training I have developed targets individuals, teams, and organizations wishing to acquire greater intercultural competency. They may be involved in an acculturation/expatriation process, working in a multicultural team environment, experiencing the ins and outs of a corporate merger or international joint venture, or managing any form of diversity in an organization. Any of these common situations requires intercultural competency.

GL: What are some of the dangers of poor intercultural understanding and management?

Michelle: Stated simply, failure is the biggest danger. Failure in business ventures is often attributed to incompatibilities in strategy, business models, operational technicalities, or management styles. However, when one looks at some of the most spectacular failures in international business, the hidden dimension of culture is often the origin.

The examples are multiple: Disney’s implantation strategy in France and in Hong Kong, the Daimler-Chrysler merger, Lucent-Alcatel’s missed mission, Schneider Electric’s difficulties with a number of its foreign subsidiaries, and many more. Some of these examples illustrate that cultural issues create great obstacles, but the good news is that you can overcome them with hard work and the investment of time.

Another danger is missed opportunities. Creating a bad first impression takes a long time to correct, so it’s better to go into international business with an open mind and conscientious preparation. Many opportunities are lost due to individual cultural differences that inhibited the establishment of a long lasting and productive relationship.

When people don’t feel respected, if they perceive a lack of interest on the part of the other, if they lack the fundamental trust at the foundations of the relationship, or if they think they are being stereotyped negatively, they go into defensive mode. Most of the time they actually start behaving in ways that may confirm the other’s stereotypes!

It must be stressed that in speaking of cultural differences in the corporate context, we are often talking about corporate, and not national or regional cultures. There are dozens of examples of mergers or acquisitions between the same national cultures, but the corporate cultures involved were profoundly imprinted and elusive to change.

GL: Odyssey Intercultural specializes in European-North American relations. Could you elaborate on how these relations can be complicated or sensitive and why Grenoble in particular might require such a service?

Michelle: Cultural differences exist between any two cultures: just looking at Western Europe’s dazzling diversity is overwhelming! Statistically speaking along national cultural dimensions, there are much greater differences between France and Denmark for example than there are between France and the US.

So why train people to work better with North Americans (Canadians and US)? Precisely because there is an incorrect perception, due to excessive and sustained commercial and popular culture exposure, that these cultures are familiar, superficial, and that there is not much more to know about them.

Upon closer examination, however, one finds differences of deep and significant import. It is one thing to watch American sitcoms, eat at McDonald’s, study the English language, visit Toronto or the Grand Canyon for two weeks. It is absolutely another to work, communicate, and negotiate with North Americans on a daily basis.

One example: the perception of time. First, is time a disposable resource? What is an acceptable turnaround time in responding to an email (reactivity levels)? What is the best way to organize time allocation for a project, or just for a meeting? How does one divide one’s personal time from professional time and is this necessary? Should people be available during vacation periods? How much vacation is necessary? What are the expected working hours in companies?

Grenoble’s high tech economy provides a stunning example of how globalization has simultaneously simplified and complicated our work environment. And this environment has an impact on our personal lives as well (increased travel, the need to work odd hours to accommodate conf calls internationally, etc.).

Managers now have teams working 24/7 on their global projects, so deep integration through collaborative technology is a reality today. An industrial project, for example, involves teams in multiple time zones with multiple local environments that contrast sharply from one site to another.

While technically we have the means to run long and short term projects across the globe, on a personal individual level, we often simply do not have the intercultural tools at our disposal to sustainably manage the complexity of the different cultural realities that each site and international counterpart presents throughout the project lifetime.

Partnerships in many forms between Grenoble-based organizations and North American organizations are extremely common and new ones are forming constantly. Due to the perceived similarity of our cultures, most of my clients do not see a need for my services at the start of the project, but usually begin to perceive the need once the challenges have begun to appear.

GL: Why and how did you set it up?

Michelle: I set up this activity to be able to develop trainings that had begun to be requested by local companies to whom I had been referred. As in any activity, a couple of companies ‘took a chance’ with me and offered me a first opportunity to develop a training on French-American intercultural communication.

Thanks to their confidence, I was able to get my grounding in this fascinating field and to develop and test my trainings on people directly working in the corporate environment. My work with people on both the French and American sites of these organizations has helped me see the importance of working with people on both sides of the fence.

GL: Tell us a little about your background

Michelle: Ethnographically speaking I fully identify myself as a southerner: born and raised in Texas to parents from Louisiana and Oklahoma. I grew up in a small town outside of Houston, where I spent a great deal of my time riding my horses and learning the value of simplicity and the happiness of being outdoors.

I started learning French when I was about 15 and then switched from the rodeo circuit to the international summer exchange circuit. I worked my way through undergraduate studies, three graduate programs including Pennsylvania State U and Harvard, and in between got some great experience working in the field.

Trained in linguistics, foreign language pedagogy, intercultural studies and anthropology, I’m politically progressive but culturally conservative. I am proud of my roots and the values I received from them and encourage my students and clients to never lose sight of those values, no matter how much adaptation they must do internationally.

GL: You’ve also worked in Africa and Central America, can you tell us a little about this and how it influenced your thinking.

Michelle: In my 20s I spent a lot of my time backpacking—Europe, Latin America, SE Asia, Africa. Studying comparative literature with a focus on contemporary Central American writers led me to Costa Rica where I had an exceptional experience. I wrote for the local English speaking paper in San José, translated the poetry of Ana Istaru, and had the chance to manage an ecotourism outfitter in the Northwestern pacific region of Guanacaste with 14 employees. This experience made it clear to me that development work was for me.

When I went on to study for the Ph.D. at Harvard, I focused on Francophone African civilizations with a focus on modern day cultural producers and how they contribute to economic and cultural development. I got to live and work with the extraordinary artist Werewere Liking in the Ki Yi Village, Ivory Coast.

These experiences involved huge amounts of negotiation, adaptation, and exhausting reappraisals of my priorities. I initiated as a part of my doctoral thesis for example a US tour of seven African artists in the US in 2004 involving 10 universities across the US, from New York all the way to Ohio.

I began to recognize that I had a certain ease in working with very different cultures and in coordinating among diverse partners in complex situations, constantly negotiating for the best compromise for all. I had in fact through these experiences developed my own working philosophy and own tools, but not until my work in intercultural management had I actually started thinking about them in terms of knowledge transmission.

GL: Concerning European-North American relations – as I’m British, where do I fit in? Do your clients ask for intercultural training on British working and cultural habits? How are we often perceived by others (wrongly or rightly)?

Michelle: Well, you and I have a lot in common in terms of cultural heritage. The US could be considered to simply be the most successful colony of the Commonwealth! And yes, I have actually been asked for help in companies working with the British, but I always involve a British colleague or graduate student in order to legitimize my work on that culture, to provide the most authentic training possible.

In terms of perceptions, the French have the perception that the British are not as trustworthy as the Americans. I think both cultures (French and English) perceive the other as ‘perfidious’, as traditionally both sides of the Channel have portrayed the other as capable of treason. Idiomatic expressions such as filer à l’anglais or ‘to take French leave’ illustrate the mistrust. And who can blame either? There is a lot of water under that bridge of collective memory.

Another perception that the French have is that the British have a more complex communication style with more ‘code’ and irony. And that is one that I fully agree with!

GL: What are some of the difficulties you have faced adapting to life in France and how have you overcome them?

Michelle: In terms of my greatest difficulties to adapting to France in particular, I think most of them were due to differing communication styles and my own unrealistic expectations. These created great obstacles for me here, and it took me some time to have close French friends.

I had learned from my southern American upbringing and values, what we call southern gentility, that there are certain things you just cannot do, for example:

It is impolite to confront or challenge others’ ideas in public, particularly if you do not know the person well. It is impolite to say provocative things about another country or civilization in front of the person representing that country. It is not kind to interrupt someone when they are speaking. It is not good manners to correct another person’s accent or pronunciation if they are learning your language. Finally, outside of communication issues, it is extremely rude to jump in front of someone in a line (or a queue as you say in the UK).

I progressively discovered to my astonishment that all of these behaviors were common in France, part of the way people operate here generally. It is perfectly fine to criticize others in order to spark a debate or discussion, to see whether you are capable of holding your own when it comes to rhetorical skills (of which the French have plenty).

It’s part of their philosophical heritage to critique other civilizations and to look upon the outside world as less attractive than France, but they actually want you to convince them otherwise. That’s why they provoke heated discussions which are in no way unfriendly. A sign of a strong relationship between two people here is to be able to argue heatedly and passionately with each other, often in public.

Frequent interruptions in France are normal and common in discussions, formal and informal. Correcting someone’s French is the only way to help that person avoid sounding ridiculous to others, and having someone else correct them later.

Last but not least, if you do not have a strong territorial strategy for defending your place in a queue, people will simply cut in front of you. It was me who needed to adapt my behaviors and expectations to this new environment, to shift from passive to active mode.

GL: Could you give Grenoble Life readers some tips on adapting to life in France?

Michelle: I think the above description could suffice: it’s all about changing your expectations and recognizing your cultural limitations in order to move on. If French people seem strange, rude, or complicated to you, they may be thinking the exact thing of you! You have to be a lot more flexible in another country than you are at home, you have to tolerate a lot more discomfort and sense of displacement.

It can really be frustrating at times and often discouraging. The movement from one place to another, literally translatio, requires a self-reflexive capacity for adapting to the new environment and to those with whom you are in contact. Yet more important than any of this is having a strong dose of empathy. In other words, forcing oneself into the uneasy position of the other, and trying at all times to imagine things from their perspective.

See www.odysseyintercultural.com for more info.

Gratin dauphinois. Photo: Marylise Doctrinal

It’s a no-brainer really. Grenoble Life wants your comments about favourite things to see, do, eat and drink in Grenoble and its surroundings.

I have been asked by French Entrée to write a post on what to do and see in Grenoble. Upon tackling this in earnest I found myself baulking at the task. An increasingly poorly written list began with a walk to the Bastille, continuing through the various museums to barely legible mentions of the more attractive squares in the old town. Then, I thought, rather than regurgitating the generic Grenoble itinerary, I thought I would solicit a more idiosyncratic list of Grenoblois pleasures, open to suggestions from YOU. What and where do you like to eat, where do you drink and people-watch? Tell me about your favourite local walks, markets, parks, neighbourhoods.

Here is my idiosyncratic inventory of Grenoble favourites, a by-no-means-comprehensive list of reasons to be cheerful. I’m sorry if this heralds few surprises and all seems a bit generic … please use the comments box for your personal lists below.

• ‘Glacier Gonzales’ (Rue Servan). As good as ice cream gets, in my view.
• Driving along the Voie Sur Berge, with its colourful diaporama of the Quai opposite, reminds me of the climax of The Italian Job, even if my Citroën Saxo is not a Mini Cooper and I’m in the wrong country.
• Cycling the banks of the Isère, with its generous network of lanes.
• The crazy geometric paving stones on the University campus. Far out!
• The crumbling beauty of the St Laurent district.
• Drinking kirs and people watching on Place St André (aka Place du Trib) in the summer.
• Sitting on the sofas at the musée de Grenoble when it’s quiet, which it usually is.
• Tartes and hot chocolate at ‘Tarteline’ (Grande Rue).
• Fromage blanc at the dairy farm at Charmant Som, with bilberry coulis.
• Fondue at ‘A Confesse’ in St Laurent
• Parmigiana at ‘Ciao a Te’ (Rue de la Paix)
• Pizza in general. But if I am to be perfectly honest, my favourite pizzas come from a camionette in Montbonnot rather than one of the many along the Quai or elsewhere in Grenoble itself. However, it is my contention that you can find a good pizza more easily in Grenoble than in the tourist hot-spots in Italy itself.
• The tram. Being on the tram makes me happy, even it doesn’t go anywhere near my home. Watching it glide onto campus or snake through the old town makes me misty-eyed with pride and affection for my adopted home town.
• Bastille Day fireworks at Parc Paul Mistral.
• Being able to watch a football match at the Stade des Alpes and then stroll back into town for a beer. Even if the standard of football from the home side has been appalling this season.
• La Nef and Le Club. Old school cinemas with dependable art house programmes.
• Gratin dauphinois when it is freshly made (i.e., not resurrected after deep-freeze hibernation). To my memory, the best I’ve had in a restaurant was at the ‘Café des Alpes’ on the way up to Le Sappey ski resort.
• La Fête de la Musique. A nationwide event, admittedly, but one that impressed upon me something about the French. In England such an event could not happen without copious amounts of drink and drugs, and thus a heavy police presence – a sentiment echoed in Lucy Wadham’s The Secret Life of France (a book well worth reading by the way).
• The old town. I was surprised when I came to Grenoble how many French people – Grenoblois or not – were dismissive about the city, saying it wasn’t beautiful. It may not have great monuments of individual interest but I like the character of the old town and its attractive squares. You can give me this over the British high street, with its identikit shopping precincts, any day.
• The white-capped Belledonne massif, providing its luminous theatre scenery to the city.

Ok, your turn …

Trudi Penkler

Trudi Penkler is a psychologist, psychotherapist and ‘Intercultural Consultant’ with her own practice, Active Adaptation Counselling, in Grenoble. In the first of a two-part interview, she talks to Grenoble Life about helping foreigners adapt to life in a new culture, going professional in France, and being a Ghostbuster!

Grenoble Life: What is an Intercultural Consultant?

Trudi Penkler: Our professions, education and social interactions are becoming more and more ‘globalised’. We can be based ‘at home’ but work with teams and organisations all over the world. We can also find ourselves living, learning and working in different cultural environments from the ones we’ve spent most of our lives in, sometimes for a short while, sometimes longer. This can mean trying to ‘belong’ in more than one place, or having children who do.

Intercultural consulting aims to provide information, awareness and skills, to help people be more effective in their work, pursue their research or studies comfortably and manage the demands of their daily lives with competence, in unfamiliar cultural contexts.

Active Adaptation Counselling was founded to serve this objective in 1998.  My work is about finding and emphasizing what works well in intercultural or multicultural situations, not what doesn’t. It’s about focusing on commonalities and strengths rather than differences and weaknesses. It’s about building bridges across the ravines that we imagine separate us from each other in terms of communication, understanding and interacting constructively. The experience of relocating across unfamiliar cultures myself provided the opportunity of looking closely into how to deal with diversity and developing expertise in this field, while continuing to practise as the psychologist and psychotherapist I was to begin with. 

Perhaps the best description of what I do was given to me by a young man of twelve who had come to see me, struggling to accept and settle into a new school system that at first seemed most alien to him and who was finally feeling more at ease … “You know what you are?” he said “you’re a ghostbuster.” I decided to keep the title!

GL: Tell us a little about your background

Trudi: Born in South Africa of parents and grandparents who were also born there, I never imagined living anywhere else. During the worst of the Apartheid years however, conditions became increasingly unbearable. It was inconceivable then, that Nelson Mandela would ever become the first president democratically elected by all the people of that country. ‘Broadening our horizons’ and trying to make our lives ‘elsewhere’ as parents of a young family, was a choice we felt constrained to make. Discovering a new culture and language were high on the ‘pro’ list when choosing to come to France. These were indeed to become great advantages, but naively we could not have imagined how hard won they would be!

Before coming to Grenoble, I had studied to work in both nursing and teaching biology, but a natural ability to deal well with crisis situations and to identify and redirect negative thinking and behaviour patterns towards more constructive ones, motivated more specific qualification in psychology, guidance and counselling. Experience in emergency situations with the South African Red Cross and responsibility for adolescent counselling in schools reinforced this choice.

GL: Why did you decide to develop a counselling service focusing on families moving to a new culture?

Trudi: The English speaking community was a lot smaller when I first came to Grenoble in 1986. Was it really more than two decades ago now?! Very little at the time, apart from house-hunting services and French lessons, was being provided by the companies and organisations that were relocating their employees, or students, even political refugees to the area. Interacting with other expatriates, I began to observe that wherever we’d come from, whatever the reasons for us being here, there seemed to be a pattern of common challenges and ways of coping with these – or not. It appeared that while some individuals embraced diversity and change easily, flourishing in a new cultural context and dealing well with situations and experiences very different from what they had known before, others managed less comfortably, sometimes very much less so.

What began as random observation and informal, voluntary help where appropriate, led to an avid interest in intercultural adaptation mechanisms, a need to understand these better and to establish the environment within which to contribute professionally. I spent a number of years reading and researching the thinking and behaviour patterns involved in cross-cultural adaptation, as well as studying the methodologies in cultural awareness training before beginning to work in this field.

GL: What challenges did you face in transferring your professional skills to France and set up your own practice here?

Trudi: Deciding to do something in France is one thing. Identifying the appropriate administrative processes and getting the paperwork right is another! Until I learned that “Non Madame, ce n’est pas possible,” were merely the opening words to further discussion, I would return defeated from the various offices that apply the regulations that govern self employment (trying to register my professional activity) or from the university (trying to obtain recognition of my qualifications).

Often when we’ve come from elsewhere, what we are trying to do in France doesn’t fit into any of the ‘boxes’ on the forms to fill in and much time is wasted in finding an alternative or solution. There is a cultural phenomenon that can work in one’s favour though and this is that unlike in our ‘bottom line’ Anglo Saxon cultures, negotiation can be a possibility, as long as one accepts the status quo to begin with and then looks at ways around obstacles from there.

Beginning almost as a ‘freelance consultant’, then establishing a practice and a small company concurrently, required carefully familiarising oneself with the details of ‘how things work’ officially, especially as in my case there are two distinct categories of services provided – i.e., Consulting in professional contexts as well as psychotherapy and counselling.

Balancing overhead costs and incoming revenue when we first start building up a client base can be daunting. I had the good fortune of sharing offices for financial reasons at first, with four wonderful French therapists, two of whom worked part-time for the government in judicial and social placement cases and also independently as therapists. Their input in terms of ideas, information and support was invaluable.

GL: What services do you offer?

Trudi: Although the services provided by Active Adaptation Counselling are two-fold – i.e., consulting in professional environments and personal counselling or therapy – the premise underlying both, is that active intervention can improve or repair our experience of a situation or event.

Intercultural consulting can involve any of the following: individual, management and team coaching; mediation and facilitation, which can be motivational, goal-directed or problem-solving; cultural awareness training programmes; workshops and lectures or presentations on specific topics or themes; independent screening for potential relocation; expatriation preparation, not only for those coming to France, but also for French expatriates moving elsewhere; preview visit interviews and ‘welcome’ talks; performance review and interview preparation; and repatriation or reintegration preparation for returnees.

Psychotherapy and counselling is provided for adults, adolescents and children, for couples and families. Problems and difficulties are addressed, but also aspirations and self development. What happens to us, as well as how we think and do things, all have an effect on how we personally experience of our lives, our work and our relationships. Psychotherapy and counselling can be useful when we are experiencing stress, emotional difficulties, psychological obstacles to learning, relationship problems, difficulties in adaptation to change, substance dependency, crisis situations, grief, difficulties in coping with physical difficulties or illness, post traumatic incident syndrome or simply when we need tools for going forward positively or improving a process rather than being stuck.

Lastly, my experience in the medical field has made it possible to provide medical interpreting services – i.e. the presence of an interpreter and counsellor during medical visits or hospitalisation.

GL: You work with international companies in the region – why do they approach you?

Trudi: Three main scenarios lead to requests for consulting to companies: Firstly, when intercultural awareness is important for individuals or teams working in multicultural or geographically diverse contexts and coaching, training programmes or workshops are required.

The second is when communication or motivation in multicultural teams needs to be stimulated and again, coaching services or workshops would be useful.

Thirdly, when cultural misunderstandings have led to errors in judgement or paralysis of a situation and external mediation or facilitation would get things moving forward again.

Smooth carrying forward of objectives can be hampered at various levels of management, by miscommunication or simple lack of awareness. This potentially becomes all the more complicated in diverse teams whose cultural filters are not all based in the same values and traditions. When we take the time to identify and focus on commonalities and the strengths to be drawn from diversity rather than differences and weaknesses – the most gridlocked of situations can gain momentum again.

Rarely, help can be required to defuse or get through a crisis situation, either the personal situation of an employee or group becoming critical in the workplace, or an external incident like a business travel accident, or hostage taking, which would require emergency support in handling the situation itself and for the employee’s family if necessary.

GL: What do your therapy sessions typically involve? (i.e., do you work with families, or in one-to-one sessions?)

Trudi: We find it appropriate to take responsibility for our own physical health. My sessions are about taking responsibility for our mental and emotional health too. Every case is different. Although most counselling is individual and face-to-face, couple, family or group counselling is often appropriate and constructive. Telephone counselling is also common for those living further afield and I’ve come to use this more often since consulting regularly by telephone for a company in America supporting French expatriates living there.

When the step of seeking help is taken, it is because something in our lives is not serving us well. As my clients often have to continue functioning effectively and in a ‘foreign’ environment to boot, my aim is always to actively begin the process of movement, from the present situation towards a more positively perceived one. When we look at our responses to others, to what happens to us, even to our own thoughts and fears, we also start reclaiming responsibility for ourselves and our own wellbeing, whatever the situation.

Endless digging about in the past without a clear intention or purpose does not make sense to me. Understanding where a difficulty may have its source is certainly important, but identifying and acting on what can be done about it from there, allows us to start leaving behind the ‘victim status’ we may be stuck in and become central actors in our own life stories again. This is what I help people do, through a structured method, like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I hold up a mirror of what I have gathered from what is expressed. This brings a life situation into perspective or provides a different angle of seeing things, which can affirm and reassure, provoke reaction or even motivate change.

Therapy is always an interactive process. It is not a random one however and requires structure and direction. Although Jungian and existentialist at heart, I draw on both CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and NLP – Neuro-linguistic Programming methods.

It is essential to me that those who work with me, leave every session more fortified and have access to the strategies and tools we’ve explored together, that will help them to be able to cope better, even if only a little each time, with the demands their lives are making on them.

GL: Are there cases where you find you cannot help?

Trudi: There are severe pathologies and difficulties, that I would be neither qualified nor capable of taking on and in these cases I would suggest referral to medical professionals who would be better suited to the problem, accompanying the client all the way if necessary though.

In recent years, more English-speaking medical and paramedical professionals have set up in Grenoble and I have instigated an English Speaking Therapy Forum so that we are in contact with each other, share information and are better able to serve the needs of the community. The WWNG (Working Women’s Network of Grenoble) has also been most important in facilitating the exchange of information so that professionals in the field get to know about each other, what is available and how to find it.

In part II, coming soon, Trudi will be talking about the difficulties familes can face when moving to a new culture and offering some advice on how to manage this adaptation.

Microphone. Photo: hiddedevries

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

The February 24 English Talk Radio show took place at Université Stendhal with Caroline Schlenker and students of the English department acting class.  Listen to the full show: here

Quatre cafés. Photo: designwallah

Gill Baconnier has lived in France for over twenty years – seven of them in Grenoble. A former feature writer for an English regional magazine, her articles about life in France can now be found at her blog French Windows. She has kindly agreed to share this article about French cafés and bars with Grenoble Life.

There is a wonderful cartoon by the French cartoonist, Sempé, which depicts a man standing at one end of a café-lined boulevard with an anxious expression on his face. In the next frame, he has emerged at the far end of the boulevard, having slipped around the backstreets and avoided having to walk past all those people-watchers. Believe me, I know how he feels – it takes great courage. In fact, I recently tripped and fell headlong on the pavement in front of a dozen or so cappuccino-sipping café customers. I do believe they were mildly amused – after all, it’s not every day you see a plump middle-aged English woman perform a perfect flying tackle on a lamppost.

Taverns have been around forever but cafés were opened specifically to sell coffee. The first coffee house was opened in Constantinople in the fifteenth century. When the new drink arrived in France in the seventeenth century it quickly became fashionable and in 1686, the first French coffee house – or café – was opened in Paris. It was called the Procope after its Sicilian owner and soon became a meeting-place for writers, artists and philosophers such as Voltaire, Balzac and Victor Hugo. A second café – La Table Ronde – was opened in Grenoble in 1739. Situated opposite the law courts and the theatre, it has had its fair share of famous clientele: Jean-Jacques Rousseau came here, perhaps after one of his Solitary Walks and so did Choderlos de Laclos, possibly in search of a Liaison Dangereuse. Sarah Bernardt and Fernandel drank here as did Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and a host of other actors and singers.

There is a café for everyone in France. If you are of a philosophical bent – like Sartre, for example, who spent most of his life in the Café de Flore in Paris – then the café-philo is for you. You don’t have to drink much but you do have to be able to spout a load of old rot about the meaning – or not – of life. My daughter went once and came back either drunk or extremely bewildered, I’m not sure – in any case, she was completely incoherent. She thought so…therefore, she was…or something like that.

Then there is the café littéraire where completely sober people stand up and recite poetry or prose and then talk about it over a drink or two. To be honest, I’ve never been to one of these – they remind me too much of Eng Lit lectures at University and when I go to a café, I want a drink and a good laugh – not an in-depth discussion of limping iambics.

The Irish pub has become very fashionable recently. Every French town has a Shannon Pub or a Shamrock Bar. These places are usually furnished with wooden benches and trestle tables while the walls are hung with anything remotely Celtic: Guinness adverts, pictures of Donegal, leprechauns, Aran jumpers etc. For some reason, Saint Patrick’s night is very popular in France and most Irish pubs will be holding events such as céilidhs to the accompaniment of fiddles, flutes and bearded bard. Sometimes they get it wrong, of course, and I personally know of two ‘Irish’ pubs called The Loch Ness and The Queen’s Head. Kilts, Celts – it’s all the same to them…

Another recent phenomenon was the chicha-café. They didn’t last long because of the anti-smoking law which defeated the object somewhat. They had names like ‘Oasis’ and ‘Le bar à Chicha’ and had exotic Arabian nights-type décor. Apparently (the information comes from my daughter, who is – as you may have guessed – a regular café-goer) one would lounge around on silken cushions, drinking mint tea and taking regular puffs of fruit- flavoured tobacco from a hookah pipe. In fact, my daughter’s birthday present to me a few years ago was an evening out in a chicha bar but I was afraid I would cramp her style somewhat – and I wasn’t completely sure I would be able to heave myself up off those cushions at the end of the evening, my knees being what they are. I settled for bath salts instead.

Then of course, there is the café de la gare: the station café. Seedy, moody, depressing plastic-table-topped-Gauloises-smoke-filled meeting places…the stuff obscure French films are made of, quoi … unfortunately, they are rapidly being replaced by cheap and cheerful American fast-food outlets – not half as romantic, I’m afraid, but just as seedy. And of course if you lit up a Gauloise you’d be thrown out.

The French bistrot is just a café with a name of obscure origin. A popular explanation is that it comes from the Russian word for ‘quick’ and originates from the period of the Russian occupation of Paris. However, this is much disputed and the true meaning remains a mystery. Who cares anyway? It’s just a café with a fancy name…

Bars – as far as I can gather – differ from cafés in that they cater for locals who just want a shot of pastis and a read of the newspaper – and perhaps a bet on the horses. The bar-PMU doubles as a betting shop and if you accidentally wander into one of these establishments you will be met with cold stares and frosty silence. There will always be a television in the corner broadcasting a horse race and a burly barman who will pointedly ignore you.

In all these places, you can sit at a table – either inside or out – and expect a waiter to come and serve you. This is the theory. In practice, you sometimes have to do a lot of coughing and finger-raising before you manage to catch his eye. And don’t be fooled: French waiters have phenomenal memories. You can give the most complicated order and they will have no trouble at all remembering it along with three or four other orders from other tables. They will also have no trouble at all remembering whether or not you gave a tip the first time – and treat you accordingly on your next visit. You have been warned…

Some Grenoble cafés you might like to visit:

Cafés-philo :

La Table Ronde (café philo-littéraire), 7 place St André

Le Tonneau de Diogène (café-philo), 6 place Notre Dame

Irish pubs:

The Druid’s Pub, 3 Rue Diodore Rahoult,

O’Callaghan Pub: 2 Place de Bérulle      

And if these are not to your taste, there are plenty more to choose from here.

Looking For Sam, March 10-11, 2010

Caroline Schlenker instructs the acting class for students in the English department at Stendhal. She talks to Grenoble Life about staging plays with her students, teaching English through drama, and this year’s production, Looking For Sam, March 10-11.

Grenoble Life: What is your role in the Stendhal English department theatre workshop?

Caroline Schlenker: I am the instructor of this course. I teach the core acting class as part of the English Licence Degree for second year students, as an alternative class to the conversation module. I teach diction, pronunciation, basic drama techniques, and stage the students’ production each year. The workshop meets every week for two hours (but there are additional rehearsals for the play). 

GL: How often does the department put on a play?

Caroline: Last year, we exceptionally put on two plays (Once Upon A Time In A Screen/Stage Audience, a project between cinema and theatre, in partnership with the cinema le Club in Grenoble; and Macbeth, staged by third year students). This year, however, we will only put on the play Looking For Sam, although the third year students will present a short extract of their own work as a (surprise) opening to the Sam Shepard play. It is a play they have written (!) and staged. 

GL: What kinds of plays and themes do you normally tackle?

Caroline: It varies. We put on Harold Pinter sketches thanks to the chance meeting of Susan Blattes, then head of the English Department, and the actor/director Patrick Seyer at a Pinter play. Their encounter led to the idea of a joint venture on Pinter with the English Department. The project was then to work on Pinter through the specificity and rhythm of his language and the relationship between the characters that this language thus establishes. The students worked on the texts through the drama in the English class I was teaching, and shaped their characters through the staging by the professional director Mr Seyer.

This partnership was so interesting and stimulating in fact it led us to work together again on a project on cinema, Once Upon a time in a Screen/Stage audience, which I directed whilst he did the actor training (in English!). For this project, the idea of working on the different spaces of theatre and cinema was an idea I always wanted to tackle. Cinema has always fascinated me. 

The Macbeth project was an idea of the students, who asked to work on Shakespeare and studied the staging of The Winter’s Tale at the MC2 in Grenoble. This year we are working on Sam Shepard as a way to explore the sound and musicality of American English – a way for us to approach language differently, once again. Working with a musician helped me to have yet another approach to the language, and to the text!

GL: Who chooses the script?

Caroline: Setting aside the Pinter and the Macbeth projects, I choose the script!

GL: How long does it take to prepare and rehearse for one play? Tell us a little about what it involves.

Caroline: We have some basic drama classes between September and December (where we work on literary classics such as Pygmalion or the works of Oscar Wilde, or some other types of classics such as Monty Python and Rowan Atkinson’s stand up comedy drills) in order to practice pronunciation and intonation and learn some basic conversational techniques, such as how to make a point, or how to make the other person react in some way with words. We also learn voice and body integration, and we explore imagination through the English language (the only language spoken in class!).

When working on a text, we learn to think about a character’s goals, tactics, his relationship with the other characters and we write his curriculum vitae. In January, we get our texts for the final production (I write the transitions for our scenes, and our rehearsals start). Each group rehearses about four hours a week (each scene constitutes a group – there are four scenes). So I see them about 10 hours a week (two hours are with the whole class during our actual class time). We perform in March. A lot of commitment and motivation is involved in this process!

GL: Tell us more about this year’s production.

Caroline: It’s an exploration into Sam Shepard’s work. You see, Sam Shepard once told an interviewer: “I preferred a character that was constantly unidentifiable, shifting through the actor, so that the actor could play almost anything, and the audience was never expected to identify with the characters,” With his shifting vision of identity, the way in which he portrayed the characters in his plays, Shepard was giving away a bit of himself.

Our question then was: who is this Sam Shepard, and is he as a writer shying away from revealing his true self? Another component of his character that intrigued us was his love for music, and his failure to become a musician. Through the play Looking For Sam, we decided to make an imaginary investigation into how Sam Shepard wrote his plays. With the collaboration of a local songwriter/ singer Noel Belmondo, we invented the musical (and linguistic) scenery for the text. 

It is our fantasy, through the influences of rhythm and music we found in the language, of how the text came to be. We hope the audience will be driven to the special space created by an artist at work! The play includes excerpts of some of his most famous plays: True West, Curse of the Starving Class, La Turista (which is about, as its name so aptly suggests, Turista!) and Buried Child. The play is free of course and will be performed at 7.30pm on March 10^th and 11^th, 2010, at the Amphidice, the theatre in Stendhal University.

GL: Tell us about some highlights from previous years.

Caroline: All the projects and moments we shared in the drama workshop were equally wonderful thanks to the incredible involvement of the students – it’d be hard for me to pick!

GL: Tell us a little about your background and how you came to be involved with the Stendhal English department theatre workshop?

Caroline: I got hired as a Maître de Langue just as Mr Seyer got hired to work on his project – and it just happened that Ms Blattes, then head of the department, knew I had some background in acting. I accepted to take the workshop, which had been closed since the departure (retirement) of the last professor in charge of the workshop: Mr. Derioz.

GL: How effective are theatre and acting as a way to learn English?

Caroline: It is incredible. The students start off reluctant to speak English and end up speaking English to each other in the corridor – what can I add? Some no longer notice they’re switching between languages by the time we get to the final performance! Their confidence in their ability to speak is what impresses me most. They feel they are able to be actor of their world in another language. It would be too long to explain – why don’t you come to our Colloquium on the subject at the University on March 5th? It’s also at Amphidice!

GL: Tell us about your audience and some of the feedback you’ve had.

Caroline: We’ve had a large audience, ranging from acting professionals to families of the actors, fellow students, Cité Internationale teachers and students, and the English department professors (and other professors from the Drama and Languages departments!) and staff of course. Everyone is impressed with just how much the students get involved in this project, and it is so important for the students to have them there!

GL: How can we get tickets for the play?

Caroline: For any information or for reservations, please contact the service Culture de l’Université Stendhal: Tél: 04 76 82 41 05. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday : 10 am–12 am and 2pm – 4pm/ or by email: caroline.schlenker (at) u-grenoble3.fr

Radio. photo: morberg

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

The February 7 English Talk Radio show took place at The Bookworm Café in St Laurent, Grenoble. Listen to the full show here:

p'tit vélo dans la tete on campus - photo: www.ptitvelo.net

Are you a student or a new arrival and want to know how to live in Grenoble on a budget? Expatriated Brit John Lubbock has learnt the hard way, and has kindly agreed to share his tips and experience with Grenoble Life readers.  

Grenoble is not a bad place to be poor. But, like a tramp with a favourite patch, you have to know your environment; or like a foraging bear, where the best pickings are to be had. You may need to change some of your bad, foreign influenced habits to make the most of your insertion into French culture (beer is expensive apart from Stella, which isn’t one of the best things about French gastronomy, is it?). 

Tourists, as we all know, are naive sponges who deserve to be squeezed dry, so try not to seem like one. People will often poorly attempt to converse with you in English when they realise you are not a native, but insist, “Je suis en France, il faut que je parle en français“, and they won’t despise you as much for usurping their language as the world’s Lingua Franca. It is mostly from lack of better information that tourists agree to pay higher prices, so I intend to give you some information to help you make better spending choices.

Accommodation

If you do not want to spend your first month in France on a sofa or in a hostel, it pays to research accommodation before you arrive. There is an association called OSE Club which you can join for €30 which will find apartments for you in a designated area of the city, if you want to be near to a university. Then there are websites such as www.appartager.com and www.vivastreet.com, which have petites annonces for flats, but these are generally only useful if you pay the €10 fee to see the telephone numbers of the advertisers and call them up directly as they don’t answer messages on the site.

Watch the French film L’Auberge Espagnole before you go to get an exaggerated idea of being interviewed by your future flatmates and the kinds of hilarious European stereotypes you are likely to be cohabiting with. If you are not a student, it is even more important to find a flat quickly, because without a rental agreement, you will not be able to get a French bank account or contract telephone, and will thus be considered a SDF (Sans Domicile Fixe) by the French. This will mean that you are forced to become a baba cool (hippy) and sit in the street with your dogs holding out a frying pan to ask for spare change.  

N.B. If you are staying for less than a year, it is worthwhile getting a contract phone, which will be cheaper than pay as you go, the phone will be nicer, and there’s little they can do about it when you tell them that you’re leaving the country before the contract finishes and close your bank account. But don’t tell anyone I told you.  

If you have never lived in the socialist paradise that is France, you may not be aware of the kinds of social benefits available to people living there. The CAF‘s housing benefit system could pay for some of your rent if you are a student or living on a low wage, although like most bureaucratic systems in France it takes about six weeks to get anywhere with it, and since these forms are all in French, it is more like a test of your reading comprehension which you need to pass to gain entry to French society.  

Learning French

If you are (un)lucky enough to be a political refugee, asking at the Préfecture (a big administrative building which makes you feel like Josef K from Kafka’s The Trial, wondering if you’ll ever be told what you’ve done wrong in order to end up there) or at the Conseil Général can get you free French lessons, which can otherwise be obtained by calling the ADATE organisation. I am not sure if you can get lessons with them without being a refugee, but I am considering telling them that I have been forced to flee from the UK as a result of the impending government takeover by a bunch of Tories with accents so posh and annoying that they constitute a form of social oppression. If you have to go to the Préfecture for any annoying bureaucratic reason, like to obtain a carte de séjour, don’t ask anyone which ‘queue’ you should stand in. The French for queue is pronounced like ‘que’, while saying ‘queue’ sounds like the French word for something rude.  

Transport  

When it comes to transport, if you are poor, the bicycle/vélo will become like your husband or wife, or perhaps the god to whom you pray for benevolence. If it works well, you love it and praise it, and if not you curse it. There are three main places I know of to obtain bikes cheaply. Firstly: on the street. I found three bikes lying in crumpled heaps on pavements in the first month I was here. The problem then is to take them to somewhere you can repair them. So either have a bike repair kit (Decathlon, around €15), or go to the second place to get cheap bikes – Un P’tit Vélo Dans La Tete meaning something like ‘A little bit biked in the head’.

This atelier (workshop) sells bikes that have been repaired for between €15-60, or you can go there to fix your own by paying a €15 abonnement (subscription). It is a good place to practice your French, as there are lots of guys who can help you to fix your bike, and they have a handy board on the wall with a picture of a bike and the French names for every part of it indicated. However, fixing bikes takes time, and if you have a second hand bike, or one you bought at P’tit Velo, it will break down roughly every two weeks. On the plus side, you will get very good at repairing bikes. The third option is Métrovélo, who will give you a generic yellow bike for €75 for six months (plus €50 deposit) and repair it for you if it breaks down.  

Of course, you can always chance a free ride on the tram, but getting caught by the officials will land you with a €65 fine, unless you can pretend to be a totally clueless foreigner. The tram tariff is €24 a month for students, but Grenoble is the flattest city centre in France, and waiting for a tram and slumming it with Joe Public are hidden costs not worth paying in my opinion. That’s why liberté comes before egalité and fraternité: because it’s more important.  

If you want to go further that the city limits, go to www.covoiturage.fr and find someone who is making the same journey as you to go with. It will be far cheaper than any other method of transport, and the people I’ve met doing it have all been nice.  

Food  

Although many people come to France for the food, as an impoverished young person, this will likely be one of the areas in which you sacrifice quality in order to live within your means. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, a man who lives within his means has no imagination; but you will likely be finding your culinary options limited by the exigencies of having little money to spend. Ed is a cheap supermarket, and it happens to bear the name of some of my friends, although since the name Edward doesn’t exist in French, they call it “Ee-de”, which sounds much more corporate and less friendly. It is worth taking a notebook around to the supermarkets to write down prices of items you buy regularly, because while vegetables may be cheaper in Ed, Géant may have cheaper milk, for example. Unfortunately, I have just been informed by my collocataire that Ed is closing down – evidently the world of modern commerce is too cruel for such friendly-named businesses – but Lidl is almost identical in that it has hardly any choice of products and brands you have never heard of, but they are all usually cheaper than the Géant/Casino equivalent.  

Yet if one just bought the budget Casino brand pasta/rice/couscous to eat with with vegetables every day, you might end up wanting to kill yourself. So for the minimum luxury of not cooking the food yourself, you can go to a CROUS canteen, near the gare, or in Domaine Universitaire. These are supposed to be for students, but you can just pay the €2.90 it costs for a meal there in cash without showing any student card as well. You get bread, salad or cheese, a main meal of canteen standard chips/pasta/vegetables/etc. and some meat served with customary indifference and a bad attitude by people who look deeply unhappy about serving ungrateful students who could pay their wages with their tuition fees (those who go to an École supérieure anyway).  

Working  

Of course, if you really want to make things easier on yourself financially, you could get a job. “A job? What’s that?” I hear you cry. “I am a student – they don’t work. Then I wouldn’t have time for all the drinking and Facebook which the energy I consume from crisps and Red Bulls goes into”. Well, you could work part time. If you are a native English speaker, you could get employed by a soutien scolaire company, telling kids what they did wrong with their homework. Believe me, it’s satisfying to be on the other end of this after receiving homework corrected in red-teacher-ballpoint ink for 10 or more years. Don’t be put off if you don’t have a TEFL or CELTA qualification, I didn’t find this a hindrance, though it may help to say you have experience of private teaching even if you haven’t.

If there’s one thing I learned looking for jobs here it’s that it doesn’t pay to be honest: always tell them you are available to work, always tell them you have the experience. It took me a while of offering my services to language companies (Grenoble Life already has a useful list here), universities and other places like the Chamber of Commerce and Rectorat before I was employed, but once you have your foot in the door, you will hear about other teaching  jobs that are advertised within teaching circles.  

The Pôle jeunesse on Avenue Agutte Sembat has a useful wall full of job and accommodation offers. But if you have a degree, they will tell you that they can’t help hoity-toity types like you and that you should go instead to AFIJ who have an office at 29 Avenue Felix Viallet near Cour Jean Jaurès. These guys mostly have offers for internships or well paid jobs, so if you are just looking for a petit boulot, the Pôle jeunesse might be more useful.

You could try working in a bar, but the French can be quite snooty if your linguistic skills aren’t up to scratch. This matters less when applying to one of the studenty bars like London Pub or Sun Valley, but you will invariably have to call a Frenchman ‘boss’ (and thereby lose all the nationalistic self-respect you have built up living in your own great land), and traipse around the campus putting up flyers just for the pleasure of sacrificing most of your evenings for €9 an hour. There are also lots of agencies you can work for who hire waiters and other restauration workers for company or other private functions, but I personally found them somewhat useless, though Adecco is worth a try. Then you can try the listings in Pôle Emploi, which is like the JobCentre in the UK, but with more paperwork.  

Of course one of the reasons why you came to Grenoble is to ski, so if you are a student, join the École de Glisse, and try to obtain some cheap equipment from one of the second hand ski places like Boite aux Skis. There is no way of getting around that skiing is expensive however you do it, but hopefully you will have saved enough money in other areas to afford the silly ski-pass prices. And if you injure yourself, just remember to have your European Health Card handy. Good luck, mes amis.

Dials. Photo: ericcomando89

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

The January 22 English Talk Radio show features Trudi Penkler, psychologist and inter-cultural coach and trainer, talking about teenagers and moving. Listen to the full show here.

Hélène Aubry

Hélène Aubry is a property finder specialised in helping potential home buyers in the purchasing process. She talks to us about her services, the housing market in the Grenoble area, her expat background and how she came to set up her own business.

I have created Adequacium, a property finding company whose main objective is to provide a complete and high-quality service to the real estate client.

The role of a Property Finder is to search your dream home, guide you through the purchasing process, help you with the paperwork and price negotiations, and provide you with all the services you need to settle down.  
Unlike a real estate agency, a Property Finder does not sell anything; we represent the buyer and work towards the client’s goal.

This kind of business has existed for over 15 years in Northern Europe and in the US, but it is still relatively unexplored in France. According to French law, being a Property Finder requires the same accreditations as real estate agents, such as a degree in law and real-estate studies or professional experience, an authorization from the police prefecture, and financial guarantees and insurance. I myself graduated in finance and real estate management from Grenoble University in 2007.

The main advantage of the Property Finding service is that by hiring a Property Finder, you will save time, secure the purchase process, save money in the negotiation, and overall undergo much less pressure. The service is for many different kinds of people, be it someone searching for a family home, a holiday residence, a plot of land, an off-plan investment or even a professional looking for commercial premises. Living far away is not an issue, as someone is working for you in your future home town. Another advantage is that a Property Finder investigates the whole market process for you: real-estate agencies, private owners, notaries, property developers and their own private network.

In order to better explain what I offer to my clients, here is a step-by-step description of the process:

• During a private interview with the client, I get their detailed requirements and wishes: what kind of home are they looking for, where, and what their budget is.
• I search the ads on the internet, in newspapers, and make use of my network, process and tools in order to find the house or apartment that fits as closely as possible the buyers’ requirements.
• I shortlist to a pre-selection, visit the properties and produce a detailed report with photos,  positive and negative points about the property, and send it by email to the client. I also check the property’s area, for items such as shops, schools, communication facilities, etc.
• When the client has selected some of the properties presented to them, I plan and organize the visits.
• Finally, once a decision to buy has been taken, I negotiate the price with the vendor.
• I will then accompany the buyer during the whole process until he signs the deed of sale before the notary.
• I can also provide other services in order to help the customer and his or her family settle down.
• I have been building my website, and you will be able to find more information on it soon, before the end of February I hope.

The reason why I have created such a business is mainly because I had been an expat in California for about five years, and I know how difficult it can be to find a house for your family when you arrive in a new country. You don’t know where the nice, friendly places to live are, the market and price levels, the real estate agencies and their reputations, consumer-protecting laws, the process to purchase or to rent and the rules that may apply. Having a professional and local guide for all these tasks and questions really is a great relief.

I have lived in the Grenoble area for more than 30 years, mainly working as a project manager for a consulting company. From this first professional experience, I had the opportunity to collaborate with multinational companies in the Rhône Alpes region. This allowed me to create a good professional and personal network. I decided to create a new business on my own in 2005, and took classes at Grenoble University in finance and real estate. I graduated in 2007, started a business as a finance advisor in 2008 and then Adequacium in 2009.

The real estate field is not in very good shape compared to the period 2000–2007, but I would say recovery is around the corner. Prices rose too high during the boom (more than 100% for some properties) and the speculation kept going. The market needed to slow down. I do not believe that prices have stabilised yet, as there are still some properties that are overpriced. Vendors have been waiting to sell and buyers are still waiting to see prices go down. However, for those who need to change home, it is possible to find some good opportunities; we have negotiated prices down by 12% in some cases, something which was not possible even one year ago. It is also a good time to buy due to mortgage interest rates being fairly low with a risk of them climbing within a few months. We can say that the situation has been improving, so let’s be positive and start great projects in this year 2010.

Telephone: 06 42 58 09 08

Mixer. Photo: Andrea 'Bau' Pinti

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life. 

The 18 December 2009 English Talk Radio show took place at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business and featured GGSB’s Judith Bouvard, Dean and Director, and Mary Zaccai, International Press Officer. Listen to the show here

Euros. Photo: Zempt

Kate Daligault is a financial advisor at Banque Rhône-Alpes in Grenoble. She talks to Grenoble Life about the banking culture in France, getting financial advice in English, and what new residents need in order to open an account.

Grenoble Life: What is your role at Banque Rhône-Alpes?

Kate: I work with international clients, guiding them through the pitfalls of the French banking system and hopefully making their lives in France easier. I can also help with tax returns and financial planning – even the French find these difficult!

GL: Banque Rhône-Alpes has produced a lot of practical advice about its services in English, why?

Kate: Most of our clients do not speak French or simply feel more comfortable talking about their personal finances in English – the French banks use a lot of technical jargon which can be daunting. We also have part of our website in English, a corporate brochure on Banque Rhône-Alpes, means of payment and different types of accounts in France, and several product brochures as well.

GL: Tell us a little about your background and where you come from.

Kate: My passport is British, but I think I’m what you call one of these third culture people. I was born in the States, and travelled mainly in Europe during my childhood years, due to my father’s career, learning to speak French in Switzerland. I first went to England when I was 12 years old and completed my secondary school and university studies there, and then went to work in The City, London, for Natwest Bank. For my first permanent position, they sent me to France, and I’ve been here ever since.

GL: Why did you come to Grenoble originally?

Kate: Like everyone else – because of my husband’s job! We used to live in the Southwest of France and he was transferred to his company Head Office in Grenoble in 2004, following a promotion.

GL: When did you start working at Banque Rhône-Alpes and what kind of training did you need for the job?

Kate: I’ve been with Banque-Rhône-Alpes for just over a year now, and although I’m a qualified UK Financial Advisor, have a degree in Banking & International Finance, and have been advising expats in France for over 12 years now, I still had to go through the in-house Private Account Officer training! This consisted of four separate weeks of training, spread over three months at the Head Office in Paris. It was difficult to go back to full-day lessons, but very worthwhile.

GL: How can new residents to Grenoble get face to face financial advice in English?

Kate: The best way is to contact me on 04 38 02 38 81 or kate.daligault (at) banque-rhone-alpes.fr and arrange for an appointment. Our branch is right next to Chavant cinema, in the centre of town.

GL: How has the banking culture in France changed since you arrived in the country?

Kate: The main difference has been the introduction of online banking and call centres. Although these provide greater ease of access for clients, they tend to dehumanise banks and make clients feel anonymous. I feel that one of Banque Rhône-Alpes’ great strengths is to move away from this commercial banking model and retain personal contact with clients – I know all my clients by name and see them at least once a year.

GL: How does the banking culture differ from that in your native country?

Kate: Ever wonder why you have debit interest to pay, but your account was never overdrawn? This is due to the French value-dating system, which means that for a cheque for 1,000 € deposited on day one, the funds are not available until day three. Therefore if you write a cheque before that date, you may be overdrawn in value terms.

The other big difference is the legal status of cheques in France. Writing a cheque without having sufficient funds or a pre-arranged overdraft is a misdemeanour, as is bouncing a cheque. This results in being blacklisted by the Banque de France for five years and will affect your credit rating. You will not be able to obtain credit until you have cleared your previous liabilities.

GL: What advice would you give new residents looking to set up an account in France?

Kate: The main difficulty when you first arrive in France is that you cannot open a bank account because you don’t have a fixed address yet, but estate agents will not let you sign a rental agreement if you cannot provide details of a French bank account … it’s Catch 22. At Banque Rhone-Alpes, we have over 20 years’ experience in dealing with new arrivals, and all you need to provide is:

• a valid passport or national identity card if you are from within the EU
• proof of employment / studies in France
• a valid address

Radio On. Photo: Flavijus

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and also live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and streaming here on Grenoble Life.

English Talk Radio November 27 podcast

Guests on 27 November 2009 English Talk Radio:
Mandy Besson talks about “Peter Pan – a pantomime”, January 20–23 2010 at Cité Scolaire Internationale (information & ticket purchase : gregg.west@ac-grenoble.fr )
James Dalrymple talks about the English language web site Grenoble Life
ETR Presenters Kristine Minski, Mary Zaccai and Vivian Draper, sound engineer Bertrand Tappaz

'my guitar'. Photo: Chewy Chua

Gregg West is an American history and geography teacher at Cité Scolaire Internationale. He also handles the school pantomime, organic gardening club, interpersonal communication classes, and music club, which he has written about here for Grenoble Life.

by Gregg West

About ten years ago, I had a student in ninth grade (3ème) who had stopped working at school. As I listened to her, I discovered a deeper cause.

“My parents have a wonderful house and a swimming pool, but they work 60 hours a week and I never see them. And school is beginning to resemble that for me. I can’t be bothered. I don’t care about these things.  I don’t want to grow up and be like that!”

“Well you don’t have to if you make different choices. You know, one can live with a lot less.  Happiness isn’t about wealth though many confuse them.  But I can see you feel discouraged.  What really interests you in life?”

“I’d love to learn to play the guitar,” she replied “’cause I love music. But the school day’s so long and I live so far away that there’s no possibility. And anyway, everybody says you can’t make a living at that.”

“Well, life isn’t just about money, is it?  You can do music on the side and still learn a profession.  What if I taught you a bit here at school when you have an hour between classes, would that interest you?”

Her face was transformed, “Oh, Mr. West! I’d love that!” So we organized a little guitar class. And this girl began studying again, her motivation back, started a rock group, and finally got her Bac and went on to university.

Soon, the rumour got around and the demand for guitar lessons became a problem because there was no place in the school where we could do this without bothering classes.

But creative, manual and self-run, co-operative enterprises are a sorely missing aspect of education in France. Children need these to round out their personalities, to develop a sense of self-esteem and responsibility, a sense of meaningful activity that they choose for a change that is not imposed, and, of course, to have fun!

So when the new International High School was created in 2001, I immediately identified a place where we could set up a club. At first I lent my own equipment and we built a drum set out of wood and plastic paint cans until concerts brought in enough money to purchase equipment: guitars, a bass, a synthesizer, amplifiers, drums, microphones, cables, and a digital studio. I encouraged all those who knew how to play to teach others and little by little the club grew. The Foyer Socio-Educatif in the Collège and the Maison des Lycéens in the High School also gave us some help buying equipment.

The club now has about 100 members, and 10 supervisors chosen from among the students involved run the club, keeping a check on how members put things away, notifying me of problems, and organizing three or four concerts a year, including one with pay entry to help finance equipment repair and purchase. There are groups that rehearse there an average of about 12 hours each week, free tutorials by experienced members to teach others to sing or play an instrument, and we have even put out two multilingual albums, one in 2006 about AIDS (Sept langues contre le SIDA) with 17 songs which sold about 160 copies and led to a 1000€ contribution by the club to an anti-AIDS association and a more recent album Etat Planète (Et Ta Planète/Et Tape-là-nette) which has sold about 70 copies so far, allowing us to finance an organic gardening club.

The club is only open to our own students for obvious reasons of security and competition for the time slots, but if others want to know how we did it, they can contact me at: gregg.west (at) ac-grenoble.fr

On Air. Photo: Curtis Kennington

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8  Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests.  We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice - hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and also live on www.campusgrenoble.org – plus podcast here.

Guests on 13 November 2009 English Talk Radio:
Ariane Zenker of The Cake Shop (fancy cakes & accessories).
Amélia Feuer is a young opera singer from New York who is now living in Grenoble.
ETR Presenters Christina Menéz, Mary Zaccai and Vivian Draper, sound engineer Bertrand Tappaz
Listen to the Podcast
etr@campusgrenoble.org

*******************************************************************************************************

English Talk Radio l’émission en anglais pour les expatriés et les amoureux de la culture anglo-saxonne.
Vivian Draper l’animatrice / rédactrice reçoit :
Ariane Zenker du magasin The Cake Shop (fancy cakes & accessories).
Christina Menez à propos de l’éducation en Chine.
Amélia Feuer jeune chanteuse d’opéra new yorkaise qui vit désormait à Grenoble.
Diffusion les dimanche à 12H30 et mercredis à 19h sur Radio Campus Grenoble.
90.8 et en direct sur www.campusgrenoble.org + Podcast
etr@campusgrenoble.org

Struggling to find accomodation? photo: michaeluyttersp

Shonah Kennedy shares her experience about relocating to Grenoble, and interviews Isabelle and Julie of LC Mobility, the agency that helped her find accommodation and deal with the trickier aspects of setting up life in a French city.

When my fiancé and I found out we were coming to live in Grenoble, for an extended period of time, we were very excited and started to plan immediately. We thought we had plenty of time to find accommodation, look for a language school, open a bank account, find an Internet plan, and all the really “fun” aspects of moving to a new city in a foreign country (the “romantic notion” of living in a foreign country comes after the organisation!).

Now, we were not totally inexperienced with this process, as we had been living in Paris for over a year. However, there are certain aspects that are always daunting, such as: finding a quality place to live, having enough French to understand your rights, insurance, internet connection with everything you need in the plan and … the list is not exhaustive!

We started to get a little concerned, when a month out we still had no place to live!  Then, salvation!

Out of the blue, we received an email from a company called LC mobility who assist foreign researchers (which is the category my fiancé falls under) and students to settle in Grenoble. Julie asked for specific details from us and within a week we had a place to live!  Below I interview Isabelle and Julie who are LC Mobility in Grenoble.

Shonah Kennedy: How did you start LC mobility?

Isabelle and Julie (LC Mobility): When Julie was doing her bachelor’s degree, she did an internship in Montreal and benefited from the services of a company that helped her to find her internship, find accommodation, welcome her at the airport and help her with social security in Canada.

Considering the market in Grenoble for accommodation and the fact that French people don’t speak English very well, especially in administration (such as the Prefecture), we thought that foreign students might need some help from French people to settle in Grenoble. So, at first we created an offer for students only, and then we realised that even researchers could use this help …

Shonah: When did you start LC mobility?

LC Mobility We started LC Mobility in February 2008, during our last year of our studies (Masters level).

Shonah: Why did you start LC mobility?

LC Mobility: We started LC Mobility because we did our studies in Management, and specialised in entrepreneurship. So, at first we just wanted to create a company together, for the challenge and the independence. We chose to create this company because it matched a need, and it was something that we can do and would like to do (because we know how helpful these kinds of services can be when you have just arrived in a new country!).

Shonah: Who is LC mobility?

LC Mobility: We are two girls: Isabelle and Julie. We both received our masters degrees at IAE Grenoble, in entrepreneurship (where we met).

We have very different tempers, so we work very well together, we are complementary!

Shonah: Who are your main target clientele?

LC Mobility Our target clientele are students, PhD students, and more and more researchers. We also help French people to settle in, when they come from a distant city (such as Bordeaux or Lille).

Shonah: What do you do?

LC Mobility: We help people to settle in Grenoble and Lyon in three steps:

1. Find their accommodation (most of the time before their arrival)
2. We welcome them at the station and accompany them to their accommodation
3. We realise for (or with) them all procedures to settle in. Such as: opening a bank account, getting a residence permit, getting Internet access, cell phones, insurance etc.

Shonah: Are there any plans for expansion?

LC Mobility: We are developing the company in Lyon. We have already welcomed a few people there, so in November Julie will move to Lyon and be there permanently!

Shonah: Are there fees for your services?

LC Mobility: Yes, there are fees that are available to view on our website.  We also offer services in packages.

For more information, or to talk to these friendly approachable girls you can find all their contact details on the contact portal at Contact LC Mobility – Isabelle and Julie.

Marianne Raynaud

Marianne Raynaud worked for twenty-four years at Grenoble Institute of Technology
(INPG). She has conducted TESOL workshops in France (Paris), Spain (Madrid and Seville) and the USA (Seattle). Now, she is offering workshops here in Grenoble. Grenoble Life wanted to know more.

When I was close to retirement, my young colleagues kept saying, “Marianne, you must find a way to tell other teachers about our course.” While working with me they had seen how fast our students progressed. Moreover, we received numerous letters and e-mails from former students thanking us for teaching them how to give presentations, introduce speakers, debate on topical issues, and of course be successful in job interviews where competence in English is required. They often reported on the high scores they had obtained at international exams: TOEIC, TOEFL, and Cambridge.

The year was 2003, and we were experimenting with new tools offered by the computer and Internet revolution. We were already correcting student work through email and communicating with students via our school’s intranet. So that is when I had the idea of taking the two-year CPPG (the first cycle of engineering studies) English course and putting all the material we had developed ourselves onto a DVD. This new data format enabled me to combine text, image, PowerPoint, audio and video and to make use of hyperlinks to connect explanations about techniques and exercises directly with the files we used. I also intended to make good use of the work our students produced: essays, CVs, letters, stories, TV ads and even 10 min films they wrote, directed and produced themselves. In all there are over 1,500 different files on the DVD (2.2 Go).

Now this digital book is available on my website QualityTime-ESL.com and is being used by teachers on four continents and even in China. I often communicate with these teachers and continue to write materials according to needs that are articulated. One example is the series of podcasts I have produced called Better Speaking Skills (found on iTunes). The first two are available free of charge on my website. Just look for QualityTime-ESL Podcasts (oral interactive drills) and Your English (oral vocabulary-building exercises).

Bringing teachers together to work towards a common goal is my next mission. I believe teamwork is so essential and beneficial. I am now starting a series of practical workshops in the Alps. I hope teachers will join me – and the speakers I invite – for some lively and productive collaboration. The aim is: making the life of an ESL/EFL teacher easier and more enjoyable – with great progress for our students:

Thursday, October 15th, 2009, 2 pm to 5 pm
“Student Presentations—Making Them Beneficial and Worthwhile for Everyone!” with Marianne Raynaud, Coordinator, TESOL France, Grenoble
Room B10, ENSE3 – CPPG, 961, Rue de la Houille Blanche BP 46 – 38402 Saint Martin d’Hères
Free even for non-members this year
To register or if you have any questions, write to me through my website

Thursday, October 29th, 2009 2 pm to 5 pm
(We realize it is during the holiday week, but this is our unique opportunity to work with an outstanding colleague from Paris)
Swapshop: “Using Film and Song in the Classroom“ with Sophie Pietrucci
216 rue Victor Hugo, 38920 Crolles
Free even for non-members this year
To register or if you have any questions, write to me through my website

I am also willing to organize workshops at different lycées or universities. This is an opportunity for you to have an event with colleagues at your own place of work.

There will be future workshops on:
- preparing customized booklets (workbooks),
- increasing individual student speaking time
- evaluation (written work, oral skills and participation)

And here is the program for the TESOL France Colloquium on Nov. 6th and 7th in Paris – with well-known speakers from many different countries.

Marianne Raynaud worked for twenty-four years at Grenoble Institute of Technology
(INPG), setting up English programs at ENSERG (today part of Phelma), EFPG and CPPG. She recently published QualityTime-ESL: The Digital Resource Book and runs the website QualityTime-ESL.com. She has conducted TESOL workshops in France (Paris), Spain (Madrid and Seville) and the USA (Seattle).

Bernard Denis

Bernard Denis is a doctor and cardiologist, and was Head of the department of cardiology at the Hôpital A. Michallon in Grenoble. Now retired, he enjoys writing short stories in English. Grenoble Life invited him to submit this one, Travel around the world.

Travel around the world

by Bernard Denis

Twenty years ago, I had to stay at home during the summer vacation. I don’t remember why, but I took this opportunity to put my house in order, especially the library.

During this task I found many books I had never read, or others I had read many times, and it appeared that it was not easy to sort them all out. How long would this work take? Probably my whole vacation and it was so boring.

Never mind, I had many other interesting things to do. For example, to put in order my large amount of postcards that were stocked in a case. It was a way to travel without going out of my library.

During my professional life I had had – as Cardiologist, Head of Department at the Hôpital Albert Michallon in Grenoble – the opportunity to visit many countries around the world. And every time I was abroad I bought postcards in view to send these to my family, but also to my team. Then it appeared that in this large collection I found many brand new postcards and which were of course from many foreign countries.

Why not send these unused postcards to the secretaries and nurses of my department as though I was travelling around the world? It was a credible trip. But how could I do that?

I chose postcards from England, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Central Europe. With this range, the countries could be successive stages of an imaginary trip around the world.

I wrote on each postcard a kind of day-to-day journal; it was for me a very amusing and exciting exercise to invent many situations and events, to describe cities and landscapes, inhabitants and so on …

After that it was mandatory to put the right stamp (from each country) on the envelopes which contained the postcards.

How could I find these? The only solution was to buy stamps in a shop where stamps are sold for collectors. So I went to the shop and I told the sales woman about my project. Immediately she was very interested … “What a marvellous idea!” she said, and she found all the stamps I needed.

I stuck the stamps on the envelopes but after that I had to mimic the postmark of every country.

Imagine for Japan: I had to imitate the ideograms! For me it was a very exciting game, and my drawings were perfectly achieved. I was really pleased with myself!

And now how to send these letters?

It was impossible to put these letters either in an ordinary mailbox or take them to a post office. Fortunately in the hospital there is an internal post service. It was exactly that I needed. But was not it too risky for me to go to the Hôpital Michallon?  If I met somebody from my department, the joke would have been spoilt.

The only solution was to send the letters from the Hôpital Sud in Echiroles. So, every two days I posted a letter, in the mailbox dedicated to internal mail, and after twelve days the trip was finished: Grenoble, London, Quebec, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Budapest, Paris, Grenoble.

When I came back from my vacation, I won’t tell you the welcome which awaited me. Everybody believed I was really coming back from an around-the-world trip!

All the postcards were pinned on a large map of the world, hung up on the wall of the secretary’s office. And I had to answer a lot of questions.

Nevertheless, a secretary of the team was suspicious and said, “it seems you were in a hurry; it’s not like you!” Another said that it was a pity to travel so fast; and to spend so much money for that.

Eventually the conclusion of my team was I had met an air hostess and run after her from plane to plane, apparently without any success.

Thanks to this joke it was a good opportunity to gather my team in a warm and friendly atmosphere and drink a glass of champagne.

Even now some people believe that I really travelled around the world. It was a nice dream. For two weeks, I had opened a window on new landscapes, far beyond the hospital and the dull everyday life.

Bernard Denis was born on August 25^th 1934. He is a doctor and cardiologist but has been retired for nine years. He was Head of the department of cardiology, at the Hôpital A. Michallon, Grenoble, and Professor of cardiology at the University (Faculté de Médecine). He specialises in Echocardiography and organised (with great success) seven congresses dedicated to this technique.

Bernard is also the author of a book Semiologie et pathologie Cardiovasculaires. The last edition of this book (1996) is used by students from many French-speaking countries.

His hobbies are music (piano), sport (cycling, skiing and walking) and reading English books.

Elizabeth Stone Matho

Elizabeth Stone Matho is an American psychotherapist and art therapist, psychoanalytically trained, with a private practice in Grenoble. She has written on the use of art and creativity as therapy for children and sufferers of medical illness and trauma. Grenoble Life wanted to learn more …

Grenoble Life: You have had a private practice in Grenoble since 2003. Was it difficult to establish yourself professionally in France having started your career in the US?

Elizabeth Stone Matho: Yes, what was difficult for me was that I was unknown professionally here, since my psychotherapy training was in the US, so I began my practice without a professional réseau. That is, I began without knowing a network of colleagues to provide referrals to my practice. Fortunately, the Working Women’s Networking Group (WWNG) was born at the same time as I opened my practice. Meetings were held in my office, so women got to know me and began to call upon me for professional help, or help for their children, when they needed it.

I was also known in Open House, a Grenoble-based association dedicated to the needs and interests of the English speaking community, primarily expatriates. At the same time, a French association, AGARO (Association Grenobloise d’Aide à la Recherche en Oncologie), was looking to hire an art therapist for several hours a week to work with adult cancer patients at the CHU Grenoble. All this helped me to start my practice in psychotherapy and in art therapy. Then it grew gradually by word of mouth.

GL: Can you tell me what sort of population you would work with?

ESM: I work with both adults and children, in individual psychotherapy or couples’ therapy for a wide range of difficulties. Most adults I see come for psychotherapy, but some do seek art therapy. Children are usually seen in art therapy or play therapy and adolescents are seen in either psychotherapy or art therapy, depending upon their preference.

The kinds of difficulties that people come to see me for include: anxiety and depression, life crises including divorce, illness and loss, self-destructive patterns, stress, trauma, career decisions, adaptation to life in a new country, parenting consultation, creative blocks, eating disorders, parenting issues, chronic feelings of emptiness or loneliness and life-disrupting symptoms associated with physical or sexual abuse.

GL: Are there any differences concerning public and medical attitudes towards psychotherapy and psychoanalysis between France and the US?

ESM: Yes, I think that the need to seek psychotherapy has gradually become a normal part of the self-discovery process in the US and other countries, whereas in France, many people still attach a certain stigma to the idea of being in therapy. With greater acceptance of life’s difficulties as part of the normal process of living comes the understanding that, with the proper help, improvement can be envisioned.

According to my understanding, psychotherapy practiced by non-medical professionals is not well accepted by the French medical establishment. While this was also the case in the US some years back, the field of practicing non-medical psychotherapists has grown enormously and I think that now we are far beyond that perspective. To give you an example, formerly psychoanalytic institutes restricted candidates exclusively to psychiatrists (medically trained), and then they let in some PhD psychologists. That has since changed, permitting other qualified clinicians to obtain excellent training and further their competencies.

GL: Is your practice bilingual?

ESM: Yes, I do have a bilingual practice. I might add that it’s always an honor for me when French people choose to come to therapy with me, as so often people seek treatment with someone of their own native language and culture. And of course, it’s so important for English-speaking people to be able to express their deepest concerns in their own language to feel understood both from the standpoint of their own culture, and in terms of the expatriate cultural context of their present lives.

GL: You are a specialist in art therapy too, what media do your patients work in and how do you facilitate this?

ESM: I offer a variety of media that permit a wide range of expression, which can be just a few scratches on a paper to imagery that is far more elaborate. Materials include: gouache, clay, pastels, oil crayons, to name some of the basics. No previous art background is necessary, nor is particular talent. I believe that everybody has a story to tell and often that story can be told through imagery or through shapes and lines formed by the sensuous color and textures of the art media. Art materials used therapeutically elicit experimentation and the process of play. When working with children, I also have available other traditional materials such as puppets, blocks, etc.

Even those children who don’t “like” to draw find other ways in engaging in a creative process that becomes therapeutic in art therapy. Children tend to communicate naturally through imagery and play, so art therapy is particularly suitable and is a less stressful form of therapy for them than verbal psychotherapy. Nevertheless, they tend to become comfortable sharing their feelings through metaphor, symbolism and even direct conversation. Adults who have difficulty verbalizing feelings or experiences, such as in the case of trauma or bereavement, benefit from the sensory contact with the media, which often permits them to express themselves in a way that they might not otherwise have been able to do. The creative/therapeutic process involved helps people get in touch with their needs, even for people who would not ordinarily think of themselves as “creative.”

I have done quite a lot of work in the past with adult psychiatric patients who feel more comfortable in an atmosphere where they aren’t pressured to “talk” about themselves. In other words, using art media helps many people engage in therapy at their own rhythm. I think that my background as an art therapist has also informed my approach to psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in paying particular attention to the therapeutic rhythm necessary for each person, whether that person is verbally at ease or less so.

GL: When and how did you come to work in this field?

ESM: I’ve worked in this field for about 30 years, first in New York, where I grew up, studied and also practiced. My undergraduate work was in art, art history and philosophy but I was always drawn to psychology. I heard of art therapy while I was getting a masters’ in a hybrid field called Interrelation of the Arts, in the 70s, at New York University. Fortunately, my graduate program allowed me to craft my own course of studies to a great extent, and I already had experience working with children of all ages. I had been particularly interested in child development, and the development of children’s creativity, how drawing and the expression of fantasy life comes about through art and through dramatic play. Since art therapy was a new field at the time, it was difficult to find enough courses, so I began to take courses and attend workshops and conferences wherever I could find them, all over New York and elsewhere. Of course, I took psychology courses as well.

Then, a pioneering art therapist named Edith Kramer came to teach at NYU, where I was already enrolled as a masters’ degree candidate. She asked me to work with her at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, in child psychiatry. We worked together for several years and when she retired, she resigned her position to me. I had already been working with pre-schoolers and was fascinated with child development, creativity and what can interfere with it psychologically, so having the two populations back to back was a highly enriching way to learn further.

I did my thesis on body image in children’s art and body movement, where I turned to psychoanalytic writings to help me understand what I was observing. I later worked in a community mental health center in Jersey City, New Jersey, which permitted me to work with children and adults of all ages and all sorts of difficulties, individually and in groups, and where I gained a great wealth of experience. I was assigned all the patients who had any difficulty or reticence about communicating. To further my training as a psychotherapist I then enrolled in The New York School for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, a renowned psychoanalytic training institute from which I graduated.

I have since become a licensed psychoanalyst and licensed creative arts therapist in the State of New York. These licenses permit some patients in my practice to obtain insurance reimbursement.

GL: You use art therapy with patients with very different circumstances – from sufferers of trauma to cancer patients – what are the benefits?

ESM: As in psychotherapy, each patient uses art therapy differently, according to his or her needs, sometimes to handle anxiety, sometimes to deal with “unfinished business” and conflicts that have prevented them from fully becoming the person they hoped to be. Sometimes, patients use art therapy to explore identity or their femininity (in the case of women). This is particularly important in the case of medical illness, such as cancer. The benefits of art therapy include: increased self-understanding, increased self-esteem, a capacity to better handle life’s circumstances, a sense of greater flexibility, sometimes, a better capacity to be nurturing to their children and spouses.

There can be also a rebuilding of the self that takes place with certain people, especially after serious trauma, as experienced in medical illness, even divorce or separation and all sorts of loss and other difficulties. I could go on, but again, there are no guarantees for what will be the specific therapeutic outcomes, as therapeutic benefits always vary. I should add that no substantial change ever happens over night. It is important to add that we can’t predict exactly how long therapy will take; each person is unique with unique needs.

GL: Is this kind of therapy broadly accepted by your peers or are there skeptics?

ESM: Many people today think that a psychoanalytic approach to psychotherapy or to art therapy is outdated. Yet they may be unfamiliar with recent developments in psychoanalytic thinking, from the time of infant observational studies of mothers and children which have yielded a wealth of information on what is needed in terms of building the structure of the psyche in a young child, as well as understanding the corresponding parenting experience. Understanding the different psychological phases of mother-child interaction, and then father-child interaction as well, has greatly informed researchers and psychoanalysts about treatment.

I think that many people view the psychoanalyst as a caricature of the “silent analyst.” Yet, today, at least in a contemporary psychoanalytic American (and usually British) approach, the therapist is much more active, the therapist doesn’t simply pronounce his or her “interpretations,” but the work and relationship is much more collaborative, more as two partners, yet with different roles, each coming to the therapeutic situation with his or her own special competencies to explore and understand the life of that particular patient. Often the psychoanalytic psychotherapist (or psychoanalytically oriented art therapist) will help to rebuild the self, not simply make what was “unconscious conscious,” as was so in classical analysis.

In France, art therapy is as yet an unregulated profession without strict standards for training. The same is true for psychotherapy. Therefore, skeptics can be justifiably concerned as to the competence and credentials of many therapists.

Of course, art therapy is far less well known than psychotherapy, and is practiced in many different ways, often very different from my own approach. I think that when choosing a therapist, it is very important to be careful about whom to choose, especially those promising all sorts of personal transformations and quick results.

GL: You also teach “Psychology in English” at Ecole des Psychologues Praticiens, The Catholic University in Lyon – what are the core themes of this course and who is it for?

ESM: I have taught second year psychology students and now will also teach the third year. The course has two specific aims, one that the students perfect their English and, second, in doing so, they learn an American or British approach to psychology. Since I am not an English teacher per se, I teach the writings in psychology of authors and psychoanalysts whom students probably wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise, or would study in less depth in their other courses.

I also emphasize learning about observational studies involving mothers and children, often through film. I’ve always enjoyed teaching and had taught pre-schoolers in the distant past and graduate students in art therapy for many years at New York University and elsewhere. I’ve supervised the practical work of art therapists and psychotherapists since the 70s, both at New York University and after moving to France. Since 1984, I’ve supervised art therapy interns in Italy (Turin) and Switzerland (Lausanne) and have taught in Paris and Berlin as well. I am passionate about the importance of training of new therapists and enjoy immensely participating in their learning.

GL: Why did you come to Grenoble originally?

ESM: I moved to Grenoble when I married my husband, who was already living here.

GL: You are an artist yourself. Tell us about your work!

ESM: I’ve always returned to my own art as a source of renewal and pleasure, though in recent years, I’ve had far less time to concentrate on my own work. My focus was always on painting and stone sculpture.

GL: Give us some contact information for your practice.

ESM: To make an appointment for a consultation, my phone number is: 04 76 54 03 12. My practice is located at: 1 rue Beyle-Stendhal, Grenoble. Tramway stop: Place de Verdun, Line A.

Grenoble University Campus

I visited the Grenoble University Campus for the first time in a while last weekend and spent some time enjoying the Brutalist architecture. As someone who also studied at a university built during the much-maligned architectural wildnerness of the 50s and 60s, and who subsequently went on to work at London’s monolithic South Bank Centre, there is a special place in my heart for these visions in concrete. I think the style has long passed its nadir in terms of fashion and popularity, and we have begun to accept such buildings as part of our urban and cultural landscape. We no longer immediately associate such concrete idealism with the failed high rise housing estates. Walking around campus on a sunny May Sunday, it was easy to appreciate the original vision: the blend of functional concrete and broad lawns. Frankly the abundance of greenery and uncrowded assembly of buildings was refreshing after the more tightly-knit pressures of the city centre. Here are some pictures – let me know what you think.

Opposite the student union

Europole, Grenoble

When I planned on moving to France two and a half years ago I had little notion of the working culture and environment. Like many Brits, I had only a hazy notion that France is some kind of Shangri-La for the work shy and the gourmand. I thought that just by moving here could add ten years to my life, so I packed my bags. The leisure-centric French lifestyle is one of those national stereotypes – supported by column-inch consuming reports such as this one by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – that we haven’t got tired of hearing. The OECD’s breaking news that the French spend more time sleeping and eating than most people and also live longer probably didn’t raise an enormous number of eyebrows internationally. But where’s the catch? If France is really a worker’s paradise, why doesn’t everyone want to live there? Why are economic migrants from all over the world camped in Calais desperate to go to England?

As an English teacher, my experience of French working life is not just limited to my tasks, but is filtered through the stories recounted by my students, most of whom come from the Grenoble-area business community. I may not have canvassed tens of thousands of people like the OECD, but I must have spoken to hundreds, and it is through their experiences that I have formed a certain understanding of the working culture. Coming to France without a job and hoping to find one’s way may be very difficult, but not impossible. I’ve done my best here to summarize the major particularities of working in France.

1. What is Cadre?

A manager in France is normally considered Cadre, a hierarchical expression that might seem politically incorrect in Anglophone nations. According to a human resources director that I quizzed on the subject, ‘Cadre’ was a nineteenth century term to distinguish between the workers and managers, but is still very much in use and not just in industry. Office hierarchies may be expressed in this way: the workers, who may have contracts with a fixed number of hours (see ‘The 35-hour week’, below), and the Cadre, who have no fixed hours in which to complete their tasks.

Where French employment culture can seem an anathema to Anglophones is that Cadre status often corresponds directly to educational level, i.e., length of study and the attainment of specific qualifications (diplômes). Unlike in Anglophone countries, it is education, more than experience or necessarily proven hard work within a company, that grants Cadre status. A highly skilled technician – for example someone who has studied the application of three dimensional drawing software and is employed to use his skills to develop products – can not expect to be made Cadre just by dint of length of service in a company or, thus, by learning on the job. In fact, if he or she wants to progress up the ladder, he may be expected to return to study to complete the necessary theory and acquire the relevant diploma. If not, he will inevitably be leapfrogged by better-qualified, possibly younger candidates, who have studied to be an Ingénieur. From my experience this can cause some resentment among experienced technicians, but also a despondent acceptance of the status quo.

When I first arrived in France I was perplexed by the number of students who described themselves, with no small amount of false modesty, as Ingénieurs. What I quickly realised was that Ingénieur is a faux amis: it does not in fact translate easily into ‘Engineer’ in English, which is used liberally to mean someone who operates or maintains a machine. A boiler maintenance man in the UK, for example, can refer to himself as an engineer without fear of being accused of some nefarious act of fraud. In France, an Ingénieur is someone who has completed at least 5 years of training in a technical or scientific discipline and enjoys a professional status not far off that of a lawyer or a doctor.

2. The 35-hour week

The 35-hour week is somewhat misrepresented in foreign media as evidence of France’s clock-watching labour culture. What is not always mentioned is that the 35 hours does not include a lunch break (0ne hour or otherwise), so essentially constitutes a 40-hour contract: the standard in the UK for example. What may be true is that many workers contracted to do 35-hours a week do not normally do more than they are obliged to, nor would they be expected to by their employers. A 35-hour week contract suits many employees whose tasks are equal to the allotted time, and whose schedules are arranged as such that many enjoy Friday afternoons off, or even a three-day weekend every fortnight. My contracted hours were not always respected by my employers in the UK.

If you are not Cadre, theoretically your employer keeps track of your hours. If you are Cadre, no-one is paying attention to your hours, just if the job is done. If you work in a company which employs more than 20 people, and are contracted to do a 35 hour a week, you will receive the standard amount of holiday (25 days). If you are contracted to do more (39 hours a week maximum, for non-Cadre), it is possible to receive up to 25 extra days leave a year (known as La réduction du temps de travail or RTT). In smaller companies, there is now a system of income tax-free overtime to compensate workers instead of extra holiday. As I am contracted to work 38.5 hours a week in a small company, at the end of the year the extra 3.5 hours amounts to pleasant chunk of non-taxable income.

3. Why qualifications are more important than experience

The French place complete faith in their educational systems to provide the right skills for the job market. But does this suggest very fixed ideas about the way in which jobs should be done? Can an imaginative and hardworking employee work up the ladder with iniative and flair without the relevant qualifications? At one publishing company I worked at in London, the CEO had started as a teen in the post room and climbed to the top. While such mobility is certainly not impossible in France, the country can appear suffocatingly technocratic rather than meritocratic. This reality often riles Anglo-Saxons but must be tempered by the fact that (non-selective) University education is free and open to all. Although the Grandes Ecoles de Commerce and Engineering schools create fee-paying elites, further education is less the preserve of the privileged than in the UK and US.

4. Annual leave and sick days

In France the standard number of annual holiday allowance is 25 days (five weeks), which will seem outrageously generous to US or Japanese readers but perhaps not so impressive to Brits, for whom 20 is the minimum. If you work in training you may be entitled to a 5 day bonus on top of this.

So what’s the catch? The catch for workers with permanent contracts, especially those from abroad planning on only a short term stay, is that you can’t take your paid holiday immediately. Holiday time is accrued in the first year and banked at the beginning of June. Thus, if you begin work in June, theoretically you are not entitled to any holiday until the end of May the following year. If you begin, for example, in December, you will accrue half your year’s entitlement by June the next year, and that will be your lot for 12 months. RTT excepting, one can only really enjoy a full holiday allowance after an entire year of work or more. If you are lucky enough to have reasonable employers (like me), and a some euros lying around (unlike me), you might be allowed to take unpaid leave. Bizarrely, if you start in June and finish work a year later, the company will owe you money for the untaken leave.

Depending on your field of work, your company may not be obliged to pay you for your first few days off sick (arrêt maladie). After this the employee’s salary is guaranteed by social security. Different industries are tied to respective conventions, labour regulations that dictate everything from pay bands to holiday entitlements. It is worth looking up your convention on the internet to confirm your rights and determine, for example, if you are entitled to supplementary days off for, say, your wedding or moving house.

5. Parental leave

Fully paid maternity leave in France is surprisingly short (only 16 weeks for the first and second child) but must be considered in relation to France’s admirably high proportion of working mothers. Many women take the option of additional full-time or part-time parental leave, for which they are entitled to the Complément de libre choix d’activité benefit, approximately 500 euro per month for full-time leave. While all women with permanent contracts can take parental leave for up to three years and have their job kept for them, first-time mothers are only entitled to it for six months. Fathers, as I well know, are entitled to three days leave at the birth (congé de naissance) and 11 days (taken consecutively, including weekends) congé de paternité. The little tax advantages for parents are numerous and too complex to list here but all conspire to make parenthood in France easier and fairer.

While sitting around a campfire somewhere in the Chartreuse with my boyfriend last spring, I suddenly had an urge to go back to school. As a fairly new inhabitant of the Grenoble area, and France itself, I was a little unsure of what the process might entail, but I was so taken by the idea that it became an obsession. There were many challenges involved, and as I soon discovered, many surprises as well. It’s been an interesting adventure which has not only helped improve my French and develop my career opportunities, but also to appreciate the French education system and all its happy advantages.

The first major challenge was collecting all the necessary documents for the application. Fortunately everything was well explained on the website – in French only. As my boyfriend patiently revealed to me as we huddled around the computer later that week, the dossier d’inscription for the Master program entailed a motivation letter, a thesis proposal, and a number of official documents, officially translated and stamped with approval by city hall. The first two items were fairly doable for me. It’s always the administration documents that really make my head spin. The due date approaching fast, I started to question my timing. Later I realized I was taking things a little too seriously.

Two days before the due date, I was ready with a killer thesis proposal, gratefully translated by a friend who’s got a translating fetish. However, I still hadn’t found the time and money to hire qualified translator to translate my diploma and transcript from Trent University in Canada, where I’d finished a bachelor degree in English literature two years earlier. Completely out of time, I reluctantly mailed the file with my personal, hand-written, unstamped translation of the diploma and transcripts.

After two months of expecting a just rejection of my very incomplete application, an acceptance letter came, along with the dates by when I was to finish the inscription process and start classes. Apparently my stamp of approval was just as legitimate as City Hall ‘s. In my North American experience, if you don’t have things exactly in order with administration requirements, Tant pis pour toi. Here in France, however, as I am still discovering even now, the university education system is pretty ‘chill’, considering my rather strict view of education.

I had a hard time finding course descriptions, for one thing. Eager to sign up for classes and organize my schedule, I revisited the website for information. I found nothing. Instead, I spent the first three weeks of the semester visiting different classes and making my decisions slowly and thoughtfully. Teachers and profs had me email them if I wanted to stay in the course officially. The day I actually finished the inscription – two weeks after classes had started – I was asked to pay for my student health insurance along with the tuition. The sum total came to less than 500 Euros. I ‘ve never been so happy to spend such a sum. One year of my bachelor degree in Canada was 9 times more expensive than what I payed here in France for one year of a Master, and half of it is medical insurance! I can see now why students here actively and regularly protest against the privatization of schools.

This is where I start to see a great difference in the mentality of students. The democratic availability of education creates a body of students who, at first appear to lack the motivation to do well, knowing they are not losing much economically if they fail. Students are content just to pass their course with a grade of 10 out of 20. However, the lack of stress caused by that fear of failure also results in the idea that the education itself is the reward. Students are motivated by knowledge, not by money, to succeed. In the US and Canada the chain of failure is directly connected to money. If you don’t succeed in your education, you lose money, a career, a future, and often have debt with no reward. And even if you do succeed, you still have debt. The lack of monetary value on the education of youth in France is quite utopic.

Another surprising aspect of University courses in France is the method teachers employ in the classroom. I assumed that the Masters here would be something like that of which I’ve heard of in Canada: a series of seminars where students have readings, both required and suggested, to discuss. However, I find that the verbal participation of students in the discussion is strangely low. I remember commenting on something a professor said one day, and feeling later that I had interrupted her train of thought, and that what I had to say was not relevant to her « study ». I was confused and disappointed to discover that seminars are not designed for the students to share interpretations and develop theories, but for the professors to provide the necessary terms and a complete, in-depth study of the subject. I feel that this inhibits students from critical thinking and doesn’t encourage the freedom of expression and interpretation as well as it could.

In fact, at the end of the day, the classes themselves don’t carry the same weight as they do in English speaking countries. At the beginning of the semester, students are given a bibliography, all the references that apply to the professor’s study and curriculum. There are students who rarely come to class, or those who are given special permission to be absent, who pass the exam after an independent study of the bibliography. This kind of independent study has merit, especially at the Master level, where research and analysis is a key skill which needs developing. On the contrary, if a passing grade can be given to someone who simply “regurgitates” the professor’s study, as one fellow student revealed to me, the challenges of critical analysis are lost.

I also find it interesting how much more formal classes in France are. Raising a hand to make a comment (however rare that might be) is appreciated more than simply jumping in. Slang is taboo when speaking to a professor. Literary and technical terms are abundant in lectures, as well as references to ancient philosophy and modern critics. For example, Rolland Barthes is a celebrity, mentioned in every literature and cultural studies class at least once. I had never heard of him before coming to France. My education in Canada now seems more corporal, and humanistic, talking about how things made me “feel” rather than producing technical terms to explain my theories.

Despite the inconsistencies with my previous experience as a student, I thoroughly enjoy my time at University here in Grenoble. With just 10 hours of class a week, manageable class sizes, and plenty of academic resources, there is no cause for complaint. The professors, as formal as they are, seem friendly and available, lively and passionate about their work, inspiring students to feel the same. The general ambiance is that education is life; it is as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.