Notre excursion en France!  -  Charlotte Graham

Last Friday, the Year 10 and 11 French students travelled back in time to the French impressionism exhibition at the NGV.

Filled with beautiful landscapes and inviting colours we got to see famous artists like Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne and many more. The aim of our excursion was to immerse the students in French culture, and of course to have fun exploring paintings from the peak of the Impressionist era.

The exhibition was absolutely stunning, each room carefully curated to suit the aesthetic and stories being depicted in each painting; everything down to the carpets were made to suit the exhibition’s purpose, meanings and messages. We unfortunately only had a little short of two hours to see the exhibition, but you could have easily spent many more studying the intricate and impressive details in each of the paintings; each one showing off unique skill and talent that these famous artists utilised to make their Impressionist pieces stand out.

We continued our French immersion by attending two French restaurants - 'Roule Galette' and ‘Croque-Monsieur’ - where they had huge selections of galettes and crêpes. There was so much to eat that we didn't know where to begin, everything was so delicious. But nothing beat 'La Lotus' - a crêpe that was filled with ice cream, homemade salted caramel and biscoff!

We highly recommend visiting the French Impressionism exhibition before it makes its departure across the world once again in October. You only get so many opportunities to say that you’ve seen Van Gogh! And the next time you're looking for a nice place to eat in Melbourne, go to Roule Galette for delicious French cuisine.

À bientôt!

Berthe Mouchette competition -  Alice Conaglen

Earlier this year, the Year 12 French class was enrolled to participate in the ‘Alliance française’ Berthe Mouchette poetry and speaking competition . We all participated in a 7 minute long zoom call where we engaged in general conversation for a few minutes with an assessor and then recited a French poem by heart.

The options we could choose from were "Au bord de l’eau" by René-François Sully Prudhomme or “Aimer à perdre la raison” by Louis Aragon. There was some nervous excitement in the days leading up to the event, but overall, we all found it a wonderful experience and a good opportunity to practice our speaking skills in a slightly more formal avenue especially with our final oral exams fast approaching. I think we all got a lot out of the experience, myself especially.

I was lucky enough to be selected for the second round as a finalist. This event was also held over zoom on the 13th and 14th of September, however this component of the competition was only general conversation about my own engagement with the French language and culture. Overall, the experience has vastly improved my French speaking skills to strangers and made me more confident in my abilities.

Thanks to Madame Slootjes for her help in preparing us all for the competition and for generously giving her time to me in the week leading up to the finals. She’s an amazing mentor to all of us VCE French students and we couldn’t have done it without her. Merci!