Hello

Now that the Top Up Your French on Board’s first summer is about to end, I think it is time for an assessment of what was a “Première”!  I still find incredible that no-one had thought before of offering language sessions on international ferries.  Please let me know if you have come across the same service offered before on a ferry. 
Top Up Your French Onboard has been an overwhelming success in terms of media intere st but more importantly in terms of “customer satisfaction”.  Participants arrived looking shy and feeling under-confident, some even sea-sick, but they left after the session looking far happier and ready to “give it a go!” and not sea-sick anymore, which is a definite plus!  The feedback was absolutely amazing and of course heart-warming so watch out for more “Tune into the Local Language” sessions on more ferries in the near future!
The sessions were not only a success with the participants but they were also very well received in the media, even the French media.  The Paris-Normandie newspaper published two really nice articles about the sessions and a FR3 team came onboard the Côte d’Albâtre last Thursday to film the Top Up Your French sessions. 
 Last but certainly not least, I was interviewed on Seahaven FM last Friday by Nick Mallinson and David Foster.  I think they give their local community a fantastic service and I will write a special blog entry about them next.

There will be no sessions during the week in the winter but I will be organising Weekend Trips to Dieppe including a Top Up Your French Onboard sessions and a guided tour of the town with a “treasure hunt” and a meal at one of the harbour restaurants.  Please email me at babette@cosmofil.com for more info.

Best cosmofil greetings

Babette

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

Hello

I still can’t believe it!  Cosmofil on Radio 4, Broadcasting House (BH) on Sunday at 9am?  Up to the last minute, this morning 6.15 I did not really believe that  Paddy O’Connell would be boarding the ferry in Newhaven to join me on a day return trip to Dieppe.  Actually, he almost did not make it, arriving just seconds before the bus took the foot passengers to the ferry, in real “Tintin reporter” style!

If you know me a little, you will have an idea of how anxious I was about meeting him, but believe me, my anxiety subsided as soon as we met.  He could have been an old friend of mine and in fact I felt more at ease with him than with many people I have known for years.  I guess that’s what makes a good reporter, this ability to make people comfortable so they confide in them. 

Paddy helped me set up for the day’s crossings (sticking posters on the wall and setting up the captain’s table for the first Top Up your French On Board session).  He then followed me when I went to the cafeteria and the bar with my questionnaire and £1 off vouchers trying to get people to  join a session.  Amazing how the sight of a microphone (and Paddy’s light hearted questions) can get people talking!   There was much laughter and frank admissions along the lines of “yeah well, I know I should make the effort but what the heck, I’m on holiday, let me finish my drink and I might think about it”.

Top Up Your French On Board broke a new record today with 10 people attending the first morning session, 6 adults and 4 children.  It was a joyful session, with 3  generations of one  family playing their part in the roleplay “ordering a meal at the Cosmofil restaurant”.  So much fun and just what cosmofil is about, bringing people together to enjoy communicating in a foreign language.

Only two people came to the afternoon session, despite the £1 off voucher and Paddy’s rich voice making the announcement on the loud speaker.  Still, two is better than none, and I’m sure they’ll help spread the word, one way or another.

I hope I did not miss this fabulous opportunity to put the cosmofil message across.  Of course I am annoyed with myself for not always giving short and sharp answers or sounding cleverer but hey, it was a first  so I can only get better.  Anyway, I am sure the children’s laughter is worth ten times more than anything I could have said.

Tune in to BH on Sunday at  9am if you can.  I will be  almost mid-way between Sussex and Normandy so I’ll listen to the broadcast on the internet when I get home on Sunday night. 

 Best cosmofil greetings to You

Babette

French road sign

Hello

Do you know what this road sign means?

 I am amazed by the number of British participants to the  ”Top Up Your French On Board” sessions who have no idea about the importance of this French road sign.  This road sign warns drivers that they must give way to the cars coming on their right at the next crossroad.  Even an English couple now settled in France did not know what it meant.  Amazing isn’t it? There must be an angel looking after them.

Obviously feeling concerned, I’m busy laminating more road signs to do my bit for the safety of the Brits in France (and of drivers coming to their right).  Who would have thought cosmofil would one day work alongside the gendarmes (AKA “les poulets”)!

Babette

 Hello

  I am sitting at the captain’s table on the Côte d’Albâtre, on a smooth cruise back from Dieppe (in France) to Newhaven.  Cosmofil is now offering French language sessions on board Transmanche ferries.  During 50 minutes, participants practise their French and learn some useful and practical phrases.  The feedback is fantastic, and it is great to have the support of people from so many different walks of life.  I am very proud of the fact that last week an English builder who has already lived in France for 4 years and still does not speak French, decided to give a good at learning the “lingo” and sat down with a glass of red wine to give him some Dutch courage.  Yesterday, a young man on his way to a youth conference in Ukraine dropped in to learn greetings and basic sentences to use during the two days it would take him to cross France.  The media are intrigued by what I am doing, and probably also amused!  Watch out for the headlines: Mad French woman on a cruise to make us speak French!”  And on a ferry! A place better known for boozing and shovelling the last greasy English breakfast before two weeks of French cuisine.   

We already have had one interview on Southern FM, a local radio. Local newspapers but also the BBC and a well known travel writer have expressed their interest.  Let’s hope no celeb’s heart ache or politician’s misbehaviour comes to distract their attention. 

“Top Up Your French On Board” is a great way to promote the cosmofil message for a different way of travelling based on meeting real people, not just people there to serve us.  It might take time to catch on, but it will happen and we’ll see “Top Up Your foreign Languages on Board” on all International British ferries, and then “Branchez-vous à l’heure italienne” and “ricaricarti in Greco” etc.  And now I can hear you agreeing with the media: “who is this mad woman?”

Babette