Overnight stays in France

Hitchglitch uses the English spelling "Rheims" but be aware that the French spelling is "Reims" and that's what you'll see on the signs! What can be really puzzling to Brits is that Reims is pronounced "ranse"

I put the H in it too but always say "Ranse" 

 

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Hi David, It can be a tad confusing. I was only last week speaking to Officer Crabtree, he was passing by my door, and ...........................!

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I remember the writers explaining that the way he spoke is to represent how we English sound to the French when trying to speak their language!!

I just try to get  hello, please, thank you and goodbye right!

My French is near fluent but my spelling less so! Indeed, if you say “Reems” nobody will understand you. Failure to use the subjunctive when required is punishable by death. Apart from that it is a wonderful country to visit.

Hitchglitch in thirty plus years of travelling in France I cannot recall consciously employing the subjunctive,although perhaps I may have.Osmosis,due to swimming in the pool of the language is how I have gradually gained enough French to advance beyond the transactional phase.I was a victim of a 1960's grammar school,French teacher more interested in grammar than communication!The French enjoy correcting me and I am happy to indulge their sense of linguistic superiority.A smile,a memory for vocabulary and a willingness to learn goes a long way,I find.

Our son hated MFL at school but then he met a native Spanish speaking OH and she says that his spoken Spanish is now excellent-pillow talk being an incentive ?The Spanish also apparently use the subjunctive form to express their varying mood, or so he tells me😁.

 

Good post Ken. I had a head start in language too - with a progressive teacher who sent us to stay individually with families in France - and by pure luck I got a family with an 18 year old daughter. People still ask how I got a Bordeaux accent. 

I jest of course. If you speak French in the villages the locals will go out of their way to accommodate and encourage you and will keep any criticism to themselves.