Over 30 of the adult students learning French at the VICI Language Academy attended the inaugural French Ambassadors Club at The Fox at Peasemore this week and indulged in Francophile fun and games and a veritable French feast.
The venue is a favourite of VICI founder Nathalie Danon-Kerr and where she often takes visitors from her native France when they want to see a traditional English country pub – however this traditional venue has a far from traditional and very talented French chef who created the mouth-watering menu for the evening.
It included such delicious starters – or should we say ‘Les Entrées’ as:
Gratinée des halles
Petite tarte aux champignons sauvages
Followed by ‘Les plats’ such as:
Rable de lapin farcis et sa crème d’estragon
Pavé de loup façon petit salé
And then there were ‘Les desserts’ like:
La tarte des demoiselles tatin, crème fraiche et glace vanille
Clafoutis aux pruneaux d’Agen parfumé au cognac
If you want to know what those dishes are then surely you should be learning French at the VICI Language Academy!
Before the food everyone had got to know one another with a challenge to find a fellow guest with certain interests or pets – all in French naturally and there was also a quiz which tested knowledge of both the language and culture of France.
There were also certificates given to a variety of students who have performed especially well at the Academy – normally such certificates are only given to the children at VICI, but were nevertheless very well received.
The idea for the French Ambassadors Club came from our Communications guru Nigel Morgan who also writes many of our blogs and creates case studies and we are delighted so many of the students at the event have accepted his invitation to be featured in forthcoming case studies – keep an eye out for them in the near future!
Nathalie commented: “It was a great way to help our adult students get to know one another, especially the one-to-one clients who may not have met their counterparts in classes or other one-to-one and vice versa. There was a great atmosphere and the food was amazing; we are already getting requests for the next French Ambassadors Club meeting!”
“It was a great evening and very enjoyable,” commented one-to-one student Derek Rodgers, who has been learning at the Academy for two years. “It was great to have the chance to meet fellow students and to spend more time with the really friendly people from VICI and see how successful they are being.”
This was echoed by fellow one-to-one student Vince Scott, who has been learning French for six months, who said: “It is really great to meet the other students and practice your French in a fun environment. The event made me feel part of a really good linguist community!”
Would you like to be part of our French Ambassadors Club? Well the first step is to begin learning French so do get in touch and we can help you fulfil your bilingual ambitions.