Well, I’m in Montpellier, still jet-lagged and sleep-deprived. However, for my second day of classes tomorrow I got this email:
______________________________
Dear students,
We have just received an official alert from the Montpellier Chamber of Commerce, relaying information from the Police and the Préfecture, advising particular vigilance in Montpellier city centre tomorrow, Tuesday 13th of October, from 1:00 pm.
A new demonstration is scheduled to start at the Peyrou at 1:00 pm and its announced route will pass through Place de la Comédie and Rue de la Loge, very close to ILA.
There is currently no specific safety issue at ILA itself, and morning classes will continue normally from 9.00 am to 12:15 pm.
However, as the demonstration is due to start at 1:00 pm and may cause significant disruption to public transport and movement in the city centre, we recommend that students leave the city centre and return directly to their accommodation after their morning classes.
As a precautionary measure, all afternoon classes scheduled for tomorrow will exceptionally take place online. This only concerns students who have afternoon classes as part of their programme.
This decision is particularly important as some of our students are minors, and we prefer to avoid asking students to travel to or from the school while the demonstration is taking place.
No classes are being cancelled. The afternoon lessons concerned will simply be delivered online. Your teacher will provide you with the necessary information to connect to your class.
We also recommend avoiding the demonstration route this afternoon, particularly Peyrou, Boulevard Ledru-Rollin, Boulevard du Jeu de Paume, Boulevard de l’Observatoire, Rue de la République, Rue Maguelone, Place de la Comédie, Rue de la Loge and the Préfecture, while the demonstration is taking place.
This is a purely precautionary decision to ensure both the continuity of classes and everyone’s safety.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Kind regards,
huxley:
Good luck and stay safe.
huxley, stay safe! Perhaps you can report here. By the end of your classes, assuming all goes as planned, you should be able to fully understand what is being said on the TV news in your hotel or by patrons in your local bistro.
@ huxley — our Intrepid Reporter on the Ground!
Please be careful, mon amie.
The Adam & Eve skit was quite funny.
No one does comedy like the Brits.
I hope they can get their country back soon, but I dread the violence that appears to be coming.
One of the side-effects of leaving Eden.
Apropos of Columbus Day and our huxley’s travels, listen and view to this past week’s greatest podcast, “France’s ‘Mostly Peaceful Jihad’Threatens the Whole Christian West”, see even white girls in France singing to “The Jihadi Rap,” celebrating the murder of Whites of the West, ending our culture and freedom.
The West must embrace its Christian roots, or else lose its fruits entirely!
A gripping monologue about our Muslim invaders. ONE OF libertarian John Papola’s BEST Podcast Episodes, as commenters say.
He builds a strong case that’s tough to gainsay, concluding with Marco Rubio’s speech at the Parthenon in Greece.
Picky: That would be mon ami, huxley being male.
And momentarily I wondered why huxley had gone to Vermont, for the fall colors?
Sacre bleu?
🙂 The Vermont capital has only one “l.”
@Kate: By the end of your classes, assuming all goes as planned, you should be able to fully understand what is being said on the TV news in your hotel or by patrons in your local bistro.
I would do well with a written transcript. My French study is massively weighted to reading books, mostly novels. But I do want to be able to hear and speak French. I understood about 5% of what I heard on my first day.
So it is my penance to be the dumbest and by far the oldest person in the class, which is mostly very attractive young women except for two twin teenage boys who know a suspicious amount of French already and spend their time doodling in the back of the room.
I have nowhere to go but up!
Or down.
The school doesn’t know what to do with me. I can only understand about 5% of what I hear in snatches. So I missed all the instructions about how to use their website and I show up unprepared to class.
The problem is that I confused the assessment exam. I couldn’t answer a single audio question but did well on vocab and grammar, so I was placed in an intermediate class where only French is spoken.
I broke that rule and started speaking English and learned that I could ask to be put in a less advanced class. Now I’m in the Level 0 course. Which is a relief but uninteresting.
So I’m back to my usual problem with classroom education. I’m either bored or I’m anxious. AI is the solution to that problem. Or personal tutors but they’re expensive.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch apparently was what lit up the eastern sky from my Old Town, FL location this morning. That thing moved fast and caused a great light show…
Domage, huxley, but perhaps you will learn to understand more spoken French. From the elementary level the door might open to hearing it and connecting to what you know from reading. Hope so.
Huxley: good for you for taking the plunge. It’s not quite sink or swim, but close to it. Your strong vocab and grammar foundation will eventually converge and click with spoken French. I had a similar experience with classroom Russian and real-life colloquial Russian. Go out, sit in a café, listen to people talking. You’ll soak it up. Courage, mon vieux!
Kate et Hubert:
Eh, I usually go balls-out in a program, but ILA is expecting students from conventional education with similar listening, speaking and reading skills. Which is not me. So I’m going to relax and take France and French as they come.
Beside I’m still jet-lagged and catching up on sleep. My legs and feet ache from all the extra walking I’ve done while lost in Old Montpellier where even the inhabitants don’t know the names of the unmarked streets they walk.
Google Maps is confused too. It never gives me the same directions twice and regularly changes its mind in mid-journey.
Hubert, I can tell I’m picking up some French just soaking things in.
Hearing people speak French in America is exotic. Here it is normal!
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Pretty silly, Squirrel!
Eh, Natasha?
Yes, Borris.
What is this tree?
An appalling new trend, killing your nearest before suiciding:
https://nypost.com/2026/10/12/us-news/ex-california-police-sergeant-shoots-ex-deputy-wife-in-murder-suicide-reports/
— Cicero
Horrible, yes, evil, yes, but I don’t know about new. This is something that’s been known to happen all too often for years.
Geese grazing in a park:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKMvSmXCxsk
Park Goose Therapy:
https://www.youtube.com/@ParkGooseTherapy
Well, I’m in Montpellier, still jet-lagged and sleep-deprived. However, for my second day of classes tomorrow I got this email:
______________________________
Dear students,
We have just received an official alert from the Montpellier Chamber of Commerce, relaying information from the Police and the Préfecture, advising particular vigilance in Montpellier city centre tomorrow, Tuesday 13th of October, from 1:00 pm.
A new demonstration is scheduled to start at the Peyrou at 1:00 pm and its announced route will pass through Place de la Comédie and Rue de la Loge, very close to ILA.
There is currently no specific safety issue at ILA itself, and morning classes will continue normally from 9.00 am to 12:15 pm.
However, as the demonstration is due to start at 1:00 pm and may cause significant disruption to public transport and movement in the city centre, we recommend that students leave the city centre and return directly to their accommodation after their morning classes.
As a precautionary measure, all afternoon classes scheduled for tomorrow will exceptionally take place online. This only concerns students who have afternoon classes as part of their programme.
This decision is particularly important as some of our students are minors, and we prefer to avoid asking students to travel to or from the school while the demonstration is taking place.
No classes are being cancelled. The afternoon lessons concerned will simply be delivered online. Your teacher will provide you with the necessary information to connect to your class.
We also recommend avoiding the demonstration route this afternoon, particularly Peyrou, Boulevard Ledru-Rollin, Boulevard du Jeu de Paume, Boulevard de l’Observatoire, Rue de la République, Rue Maguelone, Place de la Comédie, Rue de la Loge and the Préfecture, while the demonstration is taking place.
This is a purely precautionary decision to ensure both the continuity of classes and everyone’s safety.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Kind regards,
huxley:
Good luck and stay safe.
huxley, stay safe! Perhaps you can report here. By the end of your classes, assuming all goes as planned, you should be able to fully understand what is being said on the TV news in your hotel or by patrons in your local bistro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8kJ8gC88WY
==
Neo denies she’s Windy.
@ huxley — our Intrepid Reporter on the Ground!
Please be careful, mon amie.
The Adam & Eve skit was quite funny.
No one does comedy like the Brits.
I hope they can get their country back soon, but I dread the violence that appears to be coming.
One of the side-effects of leaving Eden.
https://freebeacon.com/campus/hitler-was-right-all-along-haverford-professor-charged-with-stalking-jewish-coworker-has-long-history-of-threatening-jew-rats-praising-nazis-in-suspended-posts/
==
Haverford has 165 faculty. The smart money says Republicans on the Haverford faculty hired after 1989 number about two.
Apropos of Columbus Day and our huxley’s travels, listen and view to this past week’s greatest podcast, “France’s ‘Mostly Peaceful Jihad’Threatens the Whole Christian West”, see even white girls in France singing to “The Jihadi Rap,” celebrating the murder of Whites of the West, ending our culture and freedom.
Dad Saves America PODCAST
9Oct26 — view/listen to the end, over one hour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqHEOR6MnJ8
The West must embrace its Christian roots, or else lose its fruits entirely!
A gripping monologue about our Muslim invaders. ONE OF libertarian John Papola’s BEST Podcast Episodes, as commenters say.
He builds a strong case that’s tough to gainsay, concluding with Marco Rubio’s speech at the Parthenon in Greece.
Picky: That would be mon ami, huxley being male.
And momentarily I wondered why huxley had gone to Vermont, for the fall colors?
Sacre bleu?
🙂 The Vermont capital has only one “l.”
@Kate: By the end of your classes, assuming all goes as planned, you should be able to fully understand what is being said on the TV news in your hotel or by patrons in your local bistro.
I would do well with a written transcript. My French study is massively weighted to reading books, mostly novels. But I do want to be able to hear and speak French. I understood about 5% of what I heard on my first day.
So it is my penance to be the dumbest and by far the oldest person in the class, which is mostly very attractive young women except for two twin teenage boys who know a suspicious amount of French already and spend their time doodling in the back of the room.
I have nowhere to go but up!
Or down.
The school doesn’t know what to do with me. I can only understand about 5% of what I hear in snatches. So I missed all the instructions about how to use their website and I show up unprepared to class.
The problem is that I confused the assessment exam. I couldn’t answer a single audio question but did well on vocab and grammar, so I was placed in an intermediate class where only French is spoken.
I broke that rule and started speaking English and learned that I could ask to be put in a less advanced class. Now I’m in the Level 0 course. Which is a relief but uninteresting.
So I’m back to my usual problem with classroom education. I’m either bored or I’m anxious. AI is the solution to that problem. Or personal tutors but they’re expensive.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch apparently was what lit up the eastern sky from my Old Town, FL location this morning. That thing moved fast and caused a great light show…
Domage, huxley, but perhaps you will learn to understand more spoken French. From the elementary level the door might open to hearing it and connecting to what you know from reading. Hope so.
Huxley: good for you for taking the plunge. It’s not quite sink or swim, but close to it. Your strong vocab and grammar foundation will eventually converge and click with spoken French. I had a similar experience with classroom Russian and real-life colloquial Russian. Go out, sit in a café, listen to people talking. You’ll soak it up. Courage, mon vieux!
Kate et Hubert:
Eh, I usually go balls-out in a program, but ILA is expecting students from conventional education with similar listening, speaking and reading skills. Which is not me. So I’m going to relax and take France and French as they come.
Beside I’m still jet-lagged and catching up on sleep. My legs and feet ache from all the extra walking I’ve done while lost in Old Montpellier where even the inhabitants don’t know the names of the unmarked streets they walk.
Google Maps is confused too. It never gives me the same directions twice and regularly changes its mind in mid-journey.
Hubert, I can tell I’m picking up some French just soaking things in.
Hearing people speak French in America is exotic. Here it is normal!