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A French Education

16th February 2008 by Helena 7 Comments  

MarianneThis week I felt the full force of the French educational system. Olivia had some homework about the origins of the French flag, Marianne and other French national symbols.

If I had been a contestant on ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ I would have been disqualified. Not only did I have to phone a friend, I had to look online (for hours), ask my husband and look in an encyclopedia. And even after all that we apparently got some of it wrong.

On the way home from school last night Olivia was telling me about some things they had learnt at school about our village. I added some knowledge of my own.

“Mummy,” she said looking at me with a mixture of impatience and pity. “I really don’t think you know more than my teacher. He is a teacher after all.”

Does he knw that pink is the new black? That Laura Mercier has just launched a new water soluble all-in-one cleanser and toner? I don’t think so.

This is a man who told them last week that Father Christmas doesn’t exist. Clearly he knows nothing at all.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: Children, France, blog --> Tagged With: education, french

7 thoughts on A French Education

  • Miranda M. says:
    17th February 2008 at 5:51 am

    Do you know you have an advertisement for mail order brides on this page? One would think you could have a final say over what Google advertises on your website.

  • helena says:
    17th February 2008 at 6:38 am

    Hi Miranda
    No, I didn’t know, how horrible. I will see if I can get it taken off. Thanks.
    Hx

  • Sharyn G says:
    18th February 2008 at 3:09 am

    What does this teacher know? I am 57 and still harbor hope for Father Christmas. He’ll never leave that luxury European Tour if you don’t believe in him!

  • Jonathan Miller says:
    18th February 2008 at 2:38 pm

    Of course Father Christmas exists! I shall see that a copy of Miracle on 34th Street is under your Christmas tree this year.

  • jules ritter says:
    18th February 2008 at 5:37 pm

    I am an atheist but I believe in Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy and family Sunday dinners and singing carols at Christmas and the Easter bunny because I believe in the family and the human spirit and one way of keeping all of that going is to bide by tradition. That is my religion. I would have lynched the teacher how dare he, quel con! Excuse my French!
    Julesritter.com

  • Scott says:
    19th February 2008 at 9:37 am

    Just wanted to thank you for the advertisement for a mail order bride. I think I have found the girl of my dreams: I am sure that Zelda and I will be very happy.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor in chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. Helena is also working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in spring 2021 as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and in paperback in April 2018.

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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