THE first meeting of 2015 was a very friendly and enjoyable exploration of vocabulary devised by Roger Theobald, which began with cartoon pictures illustrating various French colloquial sayings.

Finding equivalent English expressions brought forth amusing possible suggestions during which members found, among many other things, that whereas the deceased this side of the Channel “push up the daisies” our French neighbours “eat dandelion roots” in the afterlife.

Next, members were introduced to La Disparation, written in 1968 by Georges Perec, a novel in which the letter “e” never appears, – no mean feat in a language like French with its feminine nouns, articles, etc all containing that letter, verbs, adverbs and so on. Members considered the problems and discovered that this task had been achieved in other languages too. Finally, members looked at French crossword styles.

The Déjeuner Annuel was held at the Riverside Restaurant where members were served a delicious luncheon as usual. The next meeting will be a tasting of French cheeses with wine in March, organised by Sidney Flavel.