From the President

 Chers tous,

A little birdie (two in fact!) told me that with nearly 40 members present, great food and excellent hosts (as always!), and no rain despite the forecast, the Welcome Party was a success all round. Many thanks to Lilias and Mike for their hospitality and congratulations to all of you for your involvement in the evening.

Our French lunch-debate took place on Tuesday 25 February at the Toast Cafe Pambula, bringing together 11 guests around a very convivial and chatty table. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, and the food, as always, was a perfect blend of flavours to complement the very lively discussions taking place at the table. The group left the café with smiles on their faces, looking forward to the next meeting.

This month, you will find a very interesting article on pp 3-4 written by Wal, as well as an article on the Lascaux cave in our Coin Français/French Corner section; I highly recommend that you read both articles.

Should you want to practise your French, the French comedian and actress Tania Dutel will be performing at the Canberra Street Theatre on May 20th. Her style is characterised by feminist and frank humour, tackling personal issues with a certain audacity. The show will be performed entirely in French.

Finally, for fans of French cinema, you can find the programme of the Canberra French Film Festival by clicking on the following link: https://www.affrenchfilmfestival.org/films/canberra

News from France:

You may remember that last year, in one of the ‘French Corners’, I talked about the famous zinc roofs of Paris, I just want to add that the skills of Parisian zinc roofers and ornamentalists have been included on UNESCO's official list of the  Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.  Lonely Planet has named Toulouse as the top city destination in its Best in Travel ranking 2025. Known for its stunning  terra-cotta architecture, the city is often referred to as the “Pink City.” The travel guidebook publisher said that the city is  offering a maze of charming streets ‘overflowing with art galleries in repurposed industrial spaces, excellent food and  scenic river and canal banks’. A destination to consider for your next holiday in France… 

The people of the village of Dorlisheim in Alsace have set the record for the longest tarte flambée (a traditional Alsatian  dish called flammekueche - recipe published in La Mouette in June 2021) at 45.85 m, beating the previous record of  38.80 m set in June 2022. To bake this giant version, the locals built a special device consisting of a double oven and 46  metres of stainless steel plates forming a tunnel. The recipe required 35 kg of pastry, 35 kg of cheese and cream, 40 kg of  bacon, 15 kg of onions and two and a half hours of cooking. The tarte was then sliced and sold for charity.

A très bientôt,