From the President

Chers Amis

2016 is now long gone, the new year 2017, is well on its way and I expect that we are no longer looking at a predictable progression of one year to the next. World events in 2016 will make this particular transition from the old to the new one which will be somewhat out of the ordinary. Hopefully, living as we do on the far south coast of a country at the bottom of the world, the impact of this transition will be softened by distance and time.

One thing for us which will be predictable and reassuring is the strong program of events which your Alliance Francaise is preparing for you in 2017. We will continue to provide all of the cultural events and activities we have given you in the past.

We are not a Language teaching Alliance but we are lucky to have a number of local teachers including Brigitte Leroy, Benedicte Moreau and Jan Porter giving private French language lessons. Our friends at the U3A also offer French language courses.

Thanks to the involvement of our new Committee member Hilaire Alba, we are restarting our French language conversation groups. For more details please read the note about this further down.

If there are any other activities cultural or linguistic which you think might enrich our Alliance Francaise please let us know. This is your Alliance and we want it to work for you. On behalf of the committee may I conclude by wishing you good health and happiness in 2017.

Rob McCombie