The Alliance Francaise, Wednesday, 4 November

Down to serious business. Virginia studied French on an earlier trip but was not impressed with the school she attended. This time she decided to try the Alliance Francaise. The AF is situated on the other side of town but is easy to reach from our local Metro line 12. It is fourteen stops; about half an hour. There is, of course, Virginia's preferred option which involves two buses, the number 80 almost from our door to the Place de Clichy and from there the number 68 which, like route 15 in London, passes many of the famous sites in Paris: for example the Opera Garnier, down avenue de l'Opera, past the Palais Royale, the Louvre, across the Seine with views to the left of Notre Dame and views to the right of the Eiffel Tower, then on past the Musee d'Orsay and down rue Raspail to the AF. Not a bad route to school. And who needs a tour bus when the public transport takes you to all the sights? Mind you, it has taken several trips to Paris to develop our confidence with buses and metro and the frisson of what? Danger? The risk of getting lost? Je ne sais quoi but it makes it all the more fun for both of us.

Virginia has decided to take a nine-hour-a-week course consisting of three hours on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. When she did her course some years ago, it was much more intensive; so much so that she felt it defeated the purpose which was to simply improve her existing skills. Anyway, tomorrow she has to sit an examination, both written and oral, to establish her level of competency in the French language. This is very formal. The examination is the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) test which ranges from level A1 upward. If you are interested in the AF here in France, the website address is: www.alliancefr.org.

Meanwhile, back at the flat I was diligently working on summer school preparation although I did break at mid-morning to sneak out to the boulangerie to purchase a demi-baguette to make lunch sandwiches as well as a beignet au chocolate to have with coffee. Ah, shades of New Orleans and beignet at the Morning Call!

One of the problems with travel is how do you safely take money? In the past we have used our credit cards which, while safe, is an expensive way of accessing your cash. We have also gone down the travellers' cheques route but not everyone is happy to take these and apparently there is a good bit of fraud around them. Of course, you can take cash, but if you have ever travelled for days with a concealed money belt, you know just how uncomfortable that can be. We finally settled, for this trip, on international money cards. Most of the banks sell them as does the Post Office in Australia. After doing our homework we decided the best deal was with the pre-paid Visa cards with Travelex, purchased from our friendly postmaster, Wayne, in South Hobart. These are basically debit cards which can be used in just about any machine that allows you to access funds with a Visa card. Whatever you put on the card is based on the exchange rate at the day of purchase. If it is good and then drops, you are a winner. If it is low and goes up, you lose. We purchased our money at intervals as the exchange rate was improving so while not big winners, we certainly were not losers. It is a good and safe way of travelling with funds readily accessible and safer than your ordinary credit cards.

When Virginia arrived back we had lunch and later went off to the Place du Tertre where all the pseudo-artists hang out hoping that you will let them sketch you so that they can earn a few euros. It was the first time we had been there in colder weather and the difference between now and the warmer seasons was quite remarkable. Usually the whole square is filled with extensions of the restaurants and around the edges the artists set up their easels. Now the artists have the entire square to themselves. Previously we could hardly move without being accosted by someone wanting either to draw our picture or cut out our sillhouette. This time we saw none of the latter and only two or three of the former. Some of the restaurants which in summer do a great trade were closed for the winter or were closed three or four days of the week. Oddly, both Virginia and I commented on how much nicer it was now without quite so much hustle and bustle. We went to one of the cafes, sat outside (despite the cold) and had a glass of wine while we watched the world go by. It is wonderful to be here again!