Mais, vous parlez bien français!

I get so happy when people tell me that. It makes me think that I haven't wasted half of my life learning a foreign language and I didn't waste money and time getting a degree in it...

When I woke this morning, I realized that it's Mardi Gras... Fat Tuesday. So as I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking of what I could eat for lunch to celebrate appropriately. In all honesty, I wanted something that would put me in a food coma, like a steak burrito from Chipotle or a burger, quesadilla, and milkshake from Cookout. But alas, the closest Chipotle is in Paris (and there was no way I was buying a train ticket just for Chipotle... I wasn't that desperate :P) and I'm pretty sure that the closest Cookout is an ocean away.

I eventually decided the the friterie would be the closest thing I could get to cookout and would definitely make it full. I only had one class to teach this morning, so after doing some errands, I headed to the little stand near the Grande Place. My binge meal for the day? A cheeseburger and small fries. Yes, they still call it a cheeseburger... actually just "un cheese." They also have a "burger" sauce... and an "américain" sauce. I've tried the burger sauce before and I want to say it's like a mix of ketchup and mayo, but I'm not sure if it is or they added anything else. And I have no idea what the americain sauce is. I had the ch'ti sauce today.. and once again, honestly don't know what it is. I honestly haven't felt that full in such a long time. I was afraid I was going to throw it up when I went to the gym later. Also, this is France's version of a small fries (it can easily feed 4... so I also want to note that the rest of the fries were my dinner too...):

Anyways, back to the actual point of my post...

The guy at the friterie told me that I have a bit of an accent (thankfully my accent isn't super American and then they automatically know I'm American) and then asked me where I was from and then asked me if I was a student here. This happens a lot, whenever anybody finds out that I'm American, they ask if I'm a student (because otherwise, what would an American be doing in such a small town?) I told him that I'm an assistant at the high school and that I teach English. Then came the phrase I love to hear, "Vous parlez bien français!" "You speak French well!"

Like I said earlier, it's basically a confidence booster. I have days where when I speak, I feel like my accent sounds more American. Also, I know that I'm more conscious about my French when I'm around actual French people. When I'm talking to the other assistants, I don't feel as conscious, but if I'm talking to other teachers, I feel like my brain freaks out a little. There are also just some days where my mind just goes "blah" and I feel like I should go back to French 201. There are time where I'm more conscious of my English. There are times where I don't even notice if I slip in an English word in a French conversation or vice versa. There are times where I just can't think of the word in either French or English. In that case, I feel like my brain just switches between the two languages so often and sometimes it just gets stuck.

Also today in class, a student asked for a synonym of happy. My first thoughts were heureux, content, basically the synonyms in French. And sometimes when French songs come up on my iTunes, I don't realize that it's French/in a foreign language until halfway through the song.

But at least I'm speaking French?

Oh look at that... two posts in two days! See, I'm getting better!

Bis x
N

presque la fin?!

One stereotype about the north of France is that it’s COLD. When it started getting colder, I was surprised… in a good way, I suppose. When everybody else was pulling out their huge bubble or marshmallow coats, I was still fine in my northface or peacoat. However, a few weeks ago, I started to experience the real winter, cold with temperatures constantly in the negatives (in Celsisus). I like to think that I have experienced cold winters and snowpacalypses in Virginia. Sure, it was probably colder when I lived up North when I was little, but for some reason, it just felt oh so cold here… and I was trying to remember if I’ve ever been that cold before. But of course, my feelings of coldness here could be attributed to the fact that at home, I’m used to having central heating and not just one radiator used to heat up one room (my bathroom was absolutely freezing). It’s gotten bit warmer (yay, staying in the positives), but it’s also been cloudy and rainy. At least when it was freezing, it was sunny?

To avoid complete winter hibernation, I joined a gym here so I could bouge un peu. I’ve been going there pretty regularly, doing some classes such as aéro dance (aerobics dance) and zumba! They’re pretty fun… and I still have yet to move my hips like our instructor. One day… one day. Also a few weeks ago, I made a spur of the moment purchase and bought the Dirty Dancing DVD and wait for it… the Dirty Dancing fitness DVD. No shame? I know I’m such an awkward dancer, but I just sometimes have to urge to dance slash at least try. Hmm… maybe after I post this, I’ll do the fitness DVD… (thank goodness I can do this alone in my room)

Since I only have a little more than 2 months left of my contract left (holy crap… it’s almost over?!), I’ve been indulging in pastries, baguettes, and cheese! I seriously could have a baguette and cheese for each meal. Alors, cheese makes my face break out, so I’m trying to cut down on it (or maybe even give it up for Lent?) These are all already on my mental list of things I’m going to miss when I leave France. I am hoping to come back and work/live in France longer… mais, on verra.

Baguette and a religieuse chocolat (filled with chocolate cream!)

Baguette + cheese -- I could eat this all day errday

I guess I’m really starting (or I have been?) to blend in here. One day while walking to Auchan with Melissa, an old lady stopped us and asked for us directions. I think it’s safe to say that we were successful with our direction giving (she could understand us… her response wasn't "oh wait you’re not French…")! Also, one time at the gym, a lady came up to me and asked if I could explain the different machines to her. This time wasn’t as successful… I was hesitating on what to say, because to be honest, even if someone asked me that same question in English, I wouldn’t know what to say. I just use the machines…

This past Saturday, I wandered around Lille with Melissa. It was nice to actually wander around a place bigger than Béthune :P We walked towards the Palais des Beaux Arts (art museum), but didn’t go in because it was still early when we arrived, so we ended up just walking and wandering and ended up in Wazemmes (a suburb) and then eventually made our away back to the centre-ville. On the way, we saw a few churches and did a bit of window shopping before having lunch (I was on the hunt for a new bag—mine broke :( and M was looking for shoes… of course, I was looking at the shoes too…). After lunch, we wandered into this little courtyard where there was a small market selling used books. I feel like I would’ve bought some if I didn’t have to worry about bringing them back and also if I had some recommendations. We did a little more window shopping and wandered over to Vieux Lille. We stumbled across a little shop that sells local/regional beers and food. I bought some Belgian beer… raspberry, cherry, and peach. I haven’t tried them yet, but I’m sure they’re good. I mean after all, it is Belgian.

Palais des Beaux Arts- Lille

This is the last week of school before winter vacation! I’m excited because I’ll be going to Barcelona for almost a week and Marseille for ½ a week. I can’t seriously can’t wait… this week needs to go by faster.

I realized that after break, I only have 6 more weeks of teaching… it’s so crazy. Time really does fly. I’ve also been trying to plan weekend or even day trips for the rest of the weekends until it’s over… Brussels, Arras?, Paris, London?, Germany… oh là.

Also, the school finally gave us internet in the studios so I really should try to update this more often. I know I’ll definitely have some stories in a couple weeks…

And you know how all there's all these sh*t people say videos? I think the one for the French is pretty funny...

Gros bisous x

Nicole 

Who wants to read?

This video is hilarious, probably because it’s true. Cursing seems like it’s no big deal here. The French really do make all those noises with their mouths. After watching this video, I realized that I do it too. I don’t know why, I guess it just feels more natural when speaking French. They also say “ben…” a lot (pronounced more like bah—it’s nasal). Par exemple: “Ben… oui! Ben… regarde! Ben… écoute!”

The other day, I was reading Starter for Ten by David Nichols and since it’s British, I had the urge to try and read a passage out loud in a (horrible) British accent. The result? A French accent. Even as I tried to change it back to sound like I went to Hogwarts, it would just switch back to French, especially with my pronunciation of the ‘r’s. I’ve already randomly said English words with French accent in conversation. I apologize in advance if this ever happens when I’m speaking to you.

Anyways…

With the start of the new year, I’ve restarted the “freak out about my future” cycle. A year ago, I knew that I wanted to do this particular program for 2 reasons. One: I would get to live in France and work on my French speaking skills and two: it’s a test to see if teaching is for me.

I’m about halfway through the program and I still haven’t completely made up my mind about teaching. Naturally, there are good days and there are bad days. There are good lessons and there are bad lessons. Even though I have over 100 students, I’ve gotten to know each group enough to figure out what sorts of lessons work for each of them. One lesson can be really successful with a certain groups, but then a total failure with others. For the most part, the classes that are willing to participate are the ones that voluntarily added an extra hour of English class with me to their schedules. So naturally, the classes/groups that don’t participate are the ones that are sent to me during their normal English class time.

It’s frustrating getting those blank stares from students, especially when I know that they understood because I can hear them translating it for their friends. If no one volunteers, I reach for the roll. Sometimes it works and somebody raises his or her hand right away. But more often than not, I pick a name. The most frustrating lesson I had recently was when I decided to do a comparison between French lycées and American high schools, especially since that was a popular topic. I was telling them about the US education system-- elementary, middle, and high school. I just asked them for the French equivalent. Their responses? Head down, avoiding eye contact, until finally one student spoke up and said that maternelle would be the equivalent to American preschool. I’ve noticed that this mostly happens in the bigger groups. I guess it’s because they all think they can hide, unlike in small groups.

Luckily, I have enough classes that participate to make me not completely hate my job. I’ve noticed that for the most part the terminales (seniors) are the least motivated. I do have a couple good terminale classes, one of them being the only class that I see every single week (I set them up with penpals with my sister’s French class in the US!). My secondes (equivalent to freshmen) are all pretty good. As a matter of fact, this past week, 2 students brought their friends into my class just because they wanted to sit in on my class during their free period (instead of being hoodlums/smoking outside)!

Being a teacher in a completely different school system is definitely an interesting to experience to say the least. One day in the teacher’s lounge, some teachers were saying that it gets harder and harder to motivate their students because they use up all this energy trying to motivate them, but in the end, they get nothing, so then they have to motivate themselves to motivate others. After this conversation, one of my colleagues asked me if I was sure that I want to become a teacher. I told her that I’m not sure. Also, I had dinner with another English teacher recently. It was interesting to hear her thoughts about student and the education systemfrom someone who’s been teaching for 30 years, especially with all the reforms going on. But in the end, despite all of their complaints, they still say that they love teaching.

My experience hasn’t sent me running in the other direction, so I guess that’s a good sign? I’ve also recently had dreams about teaching. I’m just in front of a class, teaching or disciplining. As a matter of fact, in my most recent dream, the students thought I was being too mean. They haven’t been like nightmares, so I guess that’s a good sign too?

I also sometimes wonder if my lack of decision has anything to do with high schoolers. The boys I tutor are a lot more enthusiastic about learning English and they like to show off what they know. So maybe when teaching a foreign language, it’s better to do it when they’re just starting off because they’re more excited? The fact that my secondes are better (participation wise) than my terminales just proves my little theory.

My favorite part of teaching? Writing on the chalkboard and using the copy machineIt makes me feel so… teacher-y.

I need to keep up with my resolution to start updating this more often. I’ll work on that. Hopefully they’ll be more little anecdotes or observations that don’t have to do with teaching.

Bisous x

Nicole (say that with a really French accent)

Bonne Année!

I suppose that it’s finally time to update my blog—it‘s been almost a month. Maybe a new year’s resolution should be to update more often?

I spent mes vacances in England, first visiting my sister in London and then spending the holidays with my cousin and her family in Peacehaven (near Brighton). I found it kind of ironic, because on the train ride to London, my brain was still a bit in French mode and I even chose to listen to Zaz (a French artist) on my iPod. During the first couple of days, I was still somewhat in French mode, especially when I heard people on the bus or in museums speaking in French. Also, I want to say that I love accents and whenever I heard people speaking, I was so tempted to speak back in my oh so fake and horrible British accent. Luckily, I resisted (and avoided embarrassment—maybe I should just stick to my bad French accent).

Going from the small town of Béthune with 30,000 people (according to Wikipedia, but I swear it’s less) to the big city of London (should I even bother to look up this statistic?) was a pretty big change. Walk around Béthune at 9 pm and there’ll barely be any cars or people (if you’re not in the centre-ville, but even then, it can get pretty empty, especially since the Christmas Market is over). Walk around London at 9 pm and it’s completely the opposite. Cars, buses, and people everywhere. I did tell my sister that there were so many Asians (Béthune also isn’t too diverse). But of course, there’s so many of … everybody.

My first full day in London, Tuesday, I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and saw the Power of Making exhibit since it was free, but I didn’t see the Postmodernism one, which I wanted to see. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about taking my sister's ID so I could get in for free. My favorite part in the V&A Museum was probably the jewelry room. I like looking at the jewelry from way back when over the centuries and I can’t help but think how much I would love to wear some of their pieces. They also swords and crowns—so cool! Afterwards, I went to the British Museum, where I saw the Rosetta Stone (of course there was a huge crowd around it the first time I walked through the room), and other things like the remains from the pediments of the Parthenon, and Greek vases. Then, we went out for my sister’s early birthday celebrations and got to listen to some blues. It’s always nice to listen/see live music. :)

V&A Museum

Inside the British Museum

Rosetta stone

Wednesday, I wandered over to Buckingham Palace, took pictures along with other tourists and then walked down the Mall and stopped in the Institute of Contemporary Art for a bit before heading over to Trafalgar Square, where I was touristy once again and took pictures before going into the National Gallery. I saw some impressionist paintings (one of my favorite artistic movements) and some paintings by Camille Pissarro and Georges Seurat. Then I headed over the National Portrait Gallery, where one of my sister’s friends escorted me into the First Actresses for free. The weirdest thing in the NPG is the blood head. At first, I was just looking at it and thought maybe the artist had just used red wax. Nope. It’s his own blood. Kinda creepy, not gonna lie.

Buckingham Palace

Trafalgar Square

Thursday, we headed to Greenwich. We wandered around the market, and of course we bought some food, sweets, and mulled wine. Noms. Then we wandered around the Old Royal Naval College before trekking up to the Royal Observatory. I wasn’t going to pay 7 pounds just to see the Prime Meridian; so luckily, I was able to take a picture of it through the gate. :P We visited the Queen’s House for a bit and then later that night we saw Chicago, starring America Ferrara! As always, musicals make me wish that I could sing and dance (side note: I wonder if taking dance when I was younger would have helped prevent my old lady foot problem, or if it would’ve just made it worse). That actually reminds me, I’m surprised that I haven’t tried to download the soundtrack yet…



Royal Observatory on top of that hill



 The Prime Meridian

View of London

Friday was Aisa’s birthday, so that meant FOOD. We headed to Bourough Market (omg like heaven for my family ha), where there was TONS of food! We had two delicious sandwiches – one was chorizo and the other had lamb… nomnoms, once again, more mulled wine, and bought some baklava (teehee). Trying to fight the itis, we then went to Tate Modern. I wish I could’ve seen the Gehrard Richter exhibit since from the postcards and books I saw in the gift shop, I would’ve liked his work/probably should have studied him back in high school.

Christmas Eve, we left for Brighton to visit my cousin and her family. It was really nice to be around family and with the Filipino parties and food, it felt more like the Christmas season and a bit more like home (the rest of my family went to Orlando and went to Harry Potter World/Land (?)… kinda jeal!). The week in Brighton/Peacehaven from Christmas to New Year’s involved lots of food and therefore, naps. It was a nice relaxing week. Aisa and I took walks along the coast to try and not be complete bums and try and maybe work off some of the holiday weight (even though we ended up buying chips on the way back…). I also did a bit of post-holiday shopping in the town centre, but I didn’t buy too much (I’m actually being better with my shopping habits now!).

On the coast-- Peacehaven

One day during the week, Aisa and I went into Brighton and visited the Royal Pavilion and the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. I thought the Royal Pavilion was really nice, especially with the Asian influences (although the dragon on top of the chandelier in the dining room was a bit scary). We also had some tea and scones in the tearoom--- my first real cup of English tea! Afterwards, we just wandered more around the shops in town. Brighton is such a nice quaint town and it’s on the coast—so pretty!

Royal Pavilion

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery

tea and scones

New Year’s Day we headed back to London… and the wheels on my suitcase broke off. Lesson learned: don’t buy cheap suitcases. But I made it back to Béthune… back to being the only Filipino in the village. I definitely have to visit England again, not only to visit family, but also to do more touristy things (like the Tower of London, the London Eye), and see other parts of England. This is one perk of being in the north of France.

As for teaching, well it’s teaching. There’s not much to update there. Wednesday was my first day back teaching (school officially started on Tuesday, but I didn’t have to teach). For a bit during my first class of the day, I forgot that I couldn’t speak at my normal-having-conversation-with-friends speed since it’s hard for the students to understand me (props to any students who could). If you know me, you know that I speak pretty fast (my family likes to say it’s because I was born in NY), and it’s a bit shocking to hear how slowly I speak to my students. As a matter of fact, a couple of months ago, I found the interview I did for the school on youtube (I’ll have to find it again) and I was surprised at my speed.

For some reason the dreary, windy weather here in Béthune just feels more depressing. Sure, it was rainy and cloudy in England. Maybe it’s because at least in Brighton and London, the streets were still busy and full of life. That’s not really the case here. I feel like the streets only look busy when it’s noon and all of the students are leaving the school to walk that one block to the cafeteria.  

I can’t believe it’s 2012. 2011 was a pretty good year, probably the best that I’ve had in a while. A year ago, I was praying and hoping that I would end up in France after graduation and here I am. I had always told people that I would move here at some point after I graduate, but I didn’t really expect it to come true and so soon!

Here’s to an even better 2012… !

Bises x



Turkey Day in France and Stereotypes

So it’s been a while since I last updated, but better late than never?

“Francsgiving”

After teaching many of my classes about Thanksgiving, there was no way that I was going to not celebrate Turkey Day. So along with two other American assistants (Melissa and Erin) and the German assistant (Yvonne—it was her first Thanksgiving), we decided to have our own version of Thanksgiving. We knew that it wouldn’t be different since we don’t have an oven, but we were determined to make it work.

Our “Francsgiving” was a success! We went grocery shopping together to get all the ingredients and then cooked it all together Thursday after we were all done teaching. We had to use 3 different kitchens since each kitchen was small and only had 2 burners each. We made it work! Our menu consisted of stuffing, green beans, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes – all made from scratch! And of course, turkey. Well since we don’t have an oven, our turkey was just turkey breasts and we ended up buying some pastries from the local patisserie instead of having pumpkin pie. Our dinner definitely tasted like Thanksgiving! We had a good time having dinner and spending time together. We definitely have to do our “family dinners” every week.

Stéréotypes

I’ve been doing a little lesson on stereotypes in my classes, and for the most part, the students seem to enjoy it and like listing all the American stereotypes that they’ve heard or seen from movies and TV show. I have them list both American and French stereotypes, but they don’t seem to have as much fun with the French ones, except saying that all French people are beautiful. I’ve been showing this cute video of French stereotypes:

Here are some interesting American stereotypes that one of my classes came up with…

All Americans…

-          were in fraternities in college

-          eat burgers and drink soda

-          drink beer

-          are fat

-          girls wear a lot of makeup, wear heels, and are superficial

-          have a lot of money, big cars, and big houses

-          boys are cool and beautiful

-          are vain

-          have a lot of shops

-          have better movies (Hollywood)

-          girls were cheerleaders in college

-          guys were the quarterback in college and got all the girls

-          stars are beautiful millionaires, are attacked in magazines/tabloids, and do drugs and are alcoholics

-          play sports

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Anyways, I can’t believe that it’s already December. Despite the somewhat colder weather (it’s been raining too), the Christmas market, lights, and music, it doesn’t feel like the holiday season. Maybe it’s because I don’t have any Christmas decorations in my studio or maybe because for the past four years, I would be studying for finals at this time. It will be weird not being at home for Christmas, but at least I’ll be with family! I bought my train and bus tickets, so I’m all set to spend Christmas break in London and Brighton!

ALSO, I tried escargots for the first time last week… and they were actually pretty good! I guess I still have to try rabbit and/or horse…

À bientôt

Belgium, getting stranded/adventures, and of course, more teaching

La Belgique

One of the best things about being in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region (Lille region) is how close I am to some major European cities. Paris is only a little more than an hour away by train, a couple of hours from London (if you live on the coast, you can easily take a ferry to Dover), and really close to Belgium. As a matter of fact, the train ride to Brugge is only 1 ½ hours (and that’s with a longer stop, with the train just chilling in another Belgian town). Driving, that’s about the same amount of time from Richmond to Virginia Beach, with no traffic (and really depending on how fast you drive).

Last weekend, we had a 3-day weekend. Or at least us assistants did. Friday was a holiday, but some students still had to go back to school on Saturday morning. Thank goodness none of the English teachers I work with teach on Saturdays. Ideally, we would have liked to spend the weekend in Bruges, but it was a lot of last minute planning and we couldn’t find a cheap enough hostel or hotel that was available for at least one of the nights. So on Saturday, I headed to Bruges for a day trip with 3 other assistants. We did get a late start and caught a train 4 hours later than originally planned, but we got there!

Bruges

Bruges’ chocolate festival was that same weekend, so that was kind of the reason for our trip, but once we got there, we just really wanted to wander around, especially since we only had the afternoon. Bruges is beautiful, but of course very touristy. At some places, I couldn’t decide if I should speak in English or in French to order…I ended up using both languages. I definitely want to go back again, to actually see more and maybe go inside some museums or up the beffroi. I’m seriously glad that I’m close enough to be able to take a day trip, plus we got this special pass/ticket that cost only 20 euros round trip!

Perfect Belgian town?

Wandering around, we saw plenty of chocolate shops and we even stumbled across the beer wall – a wall/glass case with the thousands of Belgian beer on display! And of course before we left, we had to have a Belgian waffle (and fries), AND I bought a kilo of chocolate… and I got a small box free (which came in handy later…)! It kinda sucks that the last train from Bruges to Lille left at 7:32 pm, but it’s ok. It’s close enough.

One of many chocolate shops!

The kilo + of chocolate that I bought :D

Only one small part of the beer wall!

Bloquées

So we already knew that we would be cutting it very close with our trains because our train was scheduled to arrive in Lille at 8:56 and then the last train to Béthune was scheduled to leave at 9:02 pm. We knew that we would literally have to jump off the train and book it to the other side of the station, and by the end of the day, we were just so tired so we were very eager to get back home. Unfortunately, the train pulled into the station at about 9:02 and we still booked it to the other side of the station... and yes, we missed our train. Just by a minute. Darn these trains for always leaving at precise times.

Luckily, we had bumped into other assistants at the train station in Bruges and we got their number, just in case we really did miss our train. So after sitting in McDonald’s until it closed using their wifi and texting a bunch of assistants in the Lille area, looking for a floor to sleep on, one American assistant offered us his floor! Now French apartments are known for being pretty small and there were 3 of us stranded, but there was no way that we were going to split up. So, we met up with a group of assistants and were able to sleep with a roof over our head (yay no having to sleep in the train station)!In exchange for a floor (it was carpet… how luxurious!) and to express our gratitude (especially since we were really desperate and tired), I gave our gracious host my small box of Belgian chocolate. Everything happens for a reason right? And at least we made some friends and some good came out of being stranded. But on Sunday morning, I had never been so happy to come back to the small town of Béthune.

L’enseignement

Teaching, is, well, teaching. I’ve definitely had days with good classes who are more interested in the lessons and who participate more and then I’ve had bad days with classes who clearly aren’t interested and/or don’t want to participate at all. We did a little activity today in our last meeting for lycée assistants and we were really put in the shoes of our students. It really hasn’t been that long since I’ve been a student, but sometimes you kind of forget how difficult things can be in a foreign language. Also, for them, English is a required subject, so not everyone is learning English because they want to. One of the teachers told us today that it seems like in general in the French education system, the students have been somewhat trained to listen and have never really had to participate as much.

I have also started tutoring 2 boys, ages 11 and 9. They’re the kids of a Spanish teacher at Blaringhem and they’re actually really enthused about learning English. They’ve already learned some at school, so they get really excited when I tell them some words they already know. So far, I’ve only had one session with them and I was just trying to get a feel of what they already know and try and see what kind of activities I could do with them. I did play Simon Says with them (which they loved) and I’m excited I get to plan some activities, etc. for little kids too!

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Thanksgiving is in a week, so this past week I did a lesson on Thanksgiving for some of my classes that I see every other week. I taught a little bit of history, food, and contemporary culture (football, Macy’s Day Parade, and Black Friday). My students have seriously been in awe of how much food we eat at Thanksgiving (I had shown them pictures of the main things—turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc.) and how crowded it gets on Black Friday. Also, showing my students all the food made me super hungry.

To celebrate Thanksgiving (sometime next weekend probably), the other assistants and I are going to make our own version of a Thanksgiving meal. None of us have an oven, so I guess we’re just going to buy turkey meat from the store and just cook it on the stove? We’ve found cranberries here, so the only thing really missing is a pumpkin pie. I guess we’ll just have to have some sort of French pastry as a substitute!

À plus! xx