July 13, 1976
Dear Mom & Dad,
We’re very pleased to receive your mail regularly. It means a lot when you’re a long ways from home. You people seem to be pretty busy and are living the good life with your dinners out and everything. We’re living pretty simply now because we’re trying to save money.
We’re pleased with our course and are geting a good introduction to French culture and civilization. We have a number of different profs...some better than others but it’s good to listen to different accents and different manners of speaking.
The best thing, of course, is the contact you make with other people and the course has attracted a number of extremely interesting people. Even the grand daughter of Miguel de Unamuno (a famous Spanish philosopher). We’ve become particular friends with a fellow from Poland and two women from Amsterdam. The women are French High School teachers and the fellow is a professeur of French at the University of Katowice. They’re very advanced in French and we learn a lot from them as well as having a lot of fun together.
The women from Amsterdam are completely fluent in four languages, Netherlands, French, English, and German. They’ve invited us to Amsterdam. One has a large apartment we could stay in. I think we’ll drop in on our way back as it’s on the way back and Amsterdam is a pretty interesting city that we’ve never visited. And we would certainly have a good time with them.
The fellow from Poland has invited us to stay with him and his family...they have a spare room. We’re not quite sure if we’ll go or not as yet but it’s a country which interests us tremendously and this would be a perfect opportunity. We need to apply for a special visa; however, that shouldn’t be any problem according to our friend.
Last Sunday we went on an excursion to an island very close to Cannes and spent the day at the beach and had a picnic. It was really nice because the beaches were much less crowded and you could find your own private little niche. The water was beautifully clear and clean.
In the evening there was a dance and a wine and cheese party. The wine was fairly ordinary...not bad, mind you! But the cheese was from all over France and was delicious. This Friday we’re going to have another dance, only this time it is going to be beer and saucages (fancy like salami). It should be good as they make excellent saucages in France. Each region seems to have a specialty. The week after that it’s going to be “crêpes”...very thin pancakes and cider.
Yesterday afternoon we went on an excursion to Antibes, a town between Cannes and Nice. There is an excellent art gallery there with the works of Picasso. Very interesting and the prof who takes the art is a real character. I really enjoyed his lecture.
Tomorrow is Bastille Day so there are lots of doings...no classes. Tomorrow night there is a dance in the streets. It goes on all night and is supposed to be really great. And there will be a spectacular fireworks display. So we’re looking forward to that.
It rained for a short while yesterday and it was fantastic. I never thought I would be glad to see rain after all the rain we had this winter!
That’s all the news for now. Say hello to everyone there. We would be glad to see Emil and Helen if they come. I’m sure they would enjoy Cannes.
Love,
Jim and Janice
P.S. Hope you enjoy the pictures.
Our apartment and our friends from Amsterdam (Dorli & Evelyn) and Marian from Poland.
A great way to learn the language...we actually do always speak French since some people don't speak English.
Marian, Dorli, Jim, me and some troubadour that joined us.
