France can keep it's soul

Hi, LVB. Good to see you too. We just got back from a month in Scotland. It was lovely (except for the weather) and we had a great time, but it is no substitute for France! We're headed to France in September. We've rented a small house in the Loire for Sept. and part of October. Our youngest daughter will be joining us for about 10 days of that so we'll have fun showing her around. It was really hard to choose an area since she's never been to France and has a limited time. She wanted to see a chateau, a cathedral and a medieval village and that should be easily covered in the Loire.

We're stopping at Chartres on the way and, of course, will visit Notre Dame while we're in Paris. That's about as good as cathedrals get! We're spoiled for choice with chateaux but are just a few km from Chenonceau so that will be a definite. Montrichard is right across the river and Loches a few km away so we have the medieval villages covered. The rest is icing on the cake.

How are things going? Are you headed to France soon?

Regards,
SalB

I love the US, this is my country. My last name is Gimbert, that should tell you something of my ethnic origins. I know very little spoken French, but can read some. When my father's people came here they couldn't speak any English. The children were placed in the public school and it was sink or swim time. They swam, my father had agood white collar job with the government,which he served many years. Everyone in that family learned English. It's always been that way until recently,except for small isolated ethnic areas. France is fight for her life, give her a break!

SalB:

Hi! Nice to see you here again. The forums were dead for awhile.

In the US state of Ohio many years ago, they taught German in the public schools. There were many German immigrants and many, especially the older ones, were having trouble learning English so the powers that be decided to make everyone bilingual. It worked. My grandmother who had never been outside the country could speak creditable German!

Now they teach Spanish. That's okay; a lot of people will learn Spanish and in years to come, they will melt into our culture just like the German immigrants did all those many years ago. We eat sauerkraut; we eat tacos. It's okay. It just gives us a deeper, richer American culture.

We will change no matter what we do. Change is inevitable . . . sort of like taxes. )