Bonjour!

Today is the big day, with our first national broadcast.  When I say “our”, I’m not using the regal plural but I am thinking of all the people who have supported me from the very beginning.  So, we are on Broadcasting House today and I hope you don’t feel I’ve let you down.  As I said in my previous blog entry, I can only get better, but this is assuming we get another chance.

I’ll be distributing flyers and trying to get people to come to a Top Up your French session while you’ll be drinking your third cup of tea with the Sunday papers spread around you Radio 4 in the background. 

I went to see Norman Baker MP yesterday at his surgery in Lewes, Normie as my friend Mayke calls him.  I did not kiss him on both cheeks on her behalf as she had asked me to do but we’re not on those terms (yet!) and actually I don’t think she is either!  She’s a Dutch woman with a big heart, and when she kisses you  you’d think she has a loo plunger adapted to her lips!

So Norman Baker was very receptive and offered to help me with the media and with getting in touch with our MEP Sharon Bowles.   He also said he would write a press release for me.  My natural French arrogance (don’t you like stereotypes?) made me think “well Normie, that’s very nice, but I didn’t wait for you to write a press release that got me to BH and also a “sounds great, what are your sailing dates in the summer” from, wait for this, Simon Calder, yes, the Independent Travel writer! ”  Funnily enough, I still haven’t managed to secure an article in the local papers such as Sussex Express and The Argus.  I accept that reading about a mad French woman trying  to get people to learn foreign languages is not as exciting as “Kitten found in geranium” (Sussex Express), but hey! I’m local (Alfriston) and I can prove it; can the kitten???

Ooops, nearly 7 am and I must get ready for the ferry.  It’s a later start today but I still woke up at 4.30!  I’m meeting my Transmanche contacts and supporters Emmanuelle and Marie in Dieppe for lunch.  First time I have the opportunity to step off the ferry since I’ve started the ferry sessions. 

Best cosmofil greetings

Babette

Tags: broadcasting house, dieppe, ferry, France, Lewes, M E P south east, newhaven, Norman Baker, radio 4, Sharon Bowles, Simon Calder, the argus, the Independent, the sussex express, transmanche

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