Dear Friends,
May I wish you a belated Happy Easter. This year the normal influx
of Easter visitors turned into a veritable flood as people from as far away as
Queensland, free of Covid restrictions, flocked to Pambula and Merimbula to
catch the last week of sunny weather that the season had to offer. But it all
came to an abrupt end in the last couple of days as the visitors return home
and only the very hardy venture out in the early morning without warm clothing.
The change in weather signals the end of summery events like the ill-fated
Tathra picnic lunch in favour of events held indoors like our French Film Night
on 22 April at Club Sapphire and our French dinner to be at Wheeler’s in May.
As always, more details of these events will be provided elsewhere in this
issue of La Mouette.
As an Alliance Francaise organisation we receive a considerable
amount of unsolicited correspondence about things French which are not
particularly relevant to our members. However, we recently received an e-mail
which could be interesting to anyone interested in French-Australian history
and current affairs. The e-mail
was from the Institute for the Study of French-Australian
Relations (ISFAR). As part of its 35th anniversary, ISFAR is offering a series
of public events including a free on-line lecture by Professor of European
History at the University of Sydney, Professor Robert Aldrich, titled ‘From
the French East Indies Company to the French Indo-Pacific’.
ISFAR also publishes a journal called the French-Australian Review, the latest
issue of which provides book reviews and first-hand accounts of Australia’s
involvement in France in the First World War, including by French Australians
fighting in the AIF. A list of abstracts and session timetable can be found on
the ISFAR website: https://www.isfar.org.au.
Meilleurs voeux
Rob McCombie
