⌗AtoZ challenge, April 23rd 2019, Letter T

Here is my contribution to the A to Z Challenge of April 2019.

This is the first time I am participating in this challenge, so we'll see if I have the stamina to       complete the whole month ! Nearly there !

I was also, very ambitiously, writing for the April NaNoWriMo ! So the challenge was twofold !! But I'm behind in the NaNoWrite, 1500 words out of 10 000 because I'm concentrating on research   and building bridges with my contacts.

Hang on to your horse and enjoy the ride. And good luck to all my fellow participants.

If you would like to know more about the A to Z Challenge or maybe even join in the Future (next year, sign-ups in March 2020)   go here

A special thanks to Arlee Bird for his post as host today and his contributions to the challenge over the years. My special thanks to Arlee for being one of my first followers on my Blogger (blog) back in 2013.

A word from Arlee Bird :

 If you're looking for someone to thank for this year's Challenge then don't be heaping any praise on me.   Maybe I seem to have been a bit withdrawn from the A to Z this time around and to a great extent I have.  If it weren't for the A to Z team this year this Challenge might not have gotten off the ground with the success we have seen thus far.

        Over the past couple of years we have downsized the A to Z Team from what it had been in the past and it's worked pretty well in my opinion.  We've had some outstanding A to Z Team members in the past and this year we've had one of the tightest most efficient teams yet. They're all Challenge veterans who've gotten the routine down to a science.

         So my most expansive thank you to our team captain J Lenni Dorner who with great competency took the reins of this 10th annual Challenge as I've dealt with some distracting personal matters.  J, you're the best and hope you'll stick with us in the coming years.  Also, my thanks to Jayden R Vincente who has done a fantastic job setting up the sign-up lists and maintaining them.   Another big thank you goes to John Holton who has provided technical assistance to make things run better as well as his continual efforts to promote A to Z.  And finally there is Zalka Csenge Virág who has been a key A to Z Team member since 2015 and provided valuable promotional support for the Challenge.

          I hope everyone who reads this post will take the time to visit the blogs of each of these members to say thank you.  I'm sure they'd appreciate that.

        Thank you Team 2019!

My contribution today (Susan)

I'd like to add my thanks to Tarkabarka Högly for contributing to this year's challenge with some very pertinent and useful posts as host.

T is for Trunk

The Elephants

They seek the shallows of a pool,

that shimmers, an oasis of greenery,

far, far, where the drought ends;

where mud meets the haze in the sky.

The long line of hooves beat

the ground, a hundred drums

to boo the sun.The matriarch

halts with a trumpet

to let the babes catch up.

The dust grows darker, settles.

Sharp paws dig into the slickest

patch.Trunks grab a sapling,

break a branch to hatch

a trickle of moisture.

A dark shrub has sunk

its roots deep down

and blooms food.

Humphing mouths

grope at the twine, munch

a coiled rope, sap,

into a nourishing paste.

Jaws grind in a circle.

Further along, the mud

gives up a pool.

Trunks suck and spray.

Backs tumble into the cool

water. The elephants fill the air

with grunts.

©susanbauryrouchard

I wrote this Poem in 2013. Then I edited it and workshopped it with my tutor of three years Tamar Yoseloff. At the moment, this poem is being considered as part of a pamphlet entry  for the Cinnamon Press competition of March 2019 : 15 to 25 poems of up to 50 lines each. Published or unpublished work as long as the copyright is preserved. As everything I post on this blog, this poem is copyrighted©susanbauryrouchard  and I have the manuscripts to prove it ! Everything that goes onto these pages and everything I send off in the hope of publishing,  I wrote longhand with my fountain pen in my notebooks (dating back to when I was about 9).

WWF calendar 2016. Been a member since 1997. A volunteer since 2007.

Also have just started as a volunteer with UNICEF France, giving talks to children in schools. 

I first saw elephants in the Wild in 1989, in Waza park Cameroon. The same year in Kenyan National parks and in Rwanda. In 2005 I saw them in South Africa in the Pilanesberg Park (West of Johannesburg, on the border with Botswana).

Pilanesberg Park  go here

A book that I read in 2009 about the difficult survival of Elephants in Africa.

The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy  go here

White Hunter, Black Heart, a film (1990) by and with Clint Eastwood. Trailer go here

An interview with Clint Eastwood about the film, novel and John Huston  go here  

WAZA, North Cameroon, 31/12/88

WAZA, elephants at the water hole.

Camp in the Wild, Frontier with Nigeria. The car broke down. 1/1/89

Our Gang, Dent de Mindif, near Garoua.

Postcard, Masaï Mara, Kenya. I have no photos. One night an elephant irrupted into our camp looking for food and attacked the metal canteen/trunk. Our guides raised the alarm and we all took refuge in the jeeps. The elephant couldn't open the canteen and went crazy so stomped all over the tents. We spent the rest of the night in the jeeps.

Pride of Lions, Rwanda, January 1989.

Lake Kivu, Rwanda, January 1989

Pilanesberg, South Africa, October 2005.

The children, Pretoria, October 2005.

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment, discuss. I will be sure to reply and visit your blog. See you tomorrow for 'U' Day.

Still windy in Toulouse. The laundry can't go outside to dry otherwise it will be covered in sand !

⌗AtoZ challenge, April 22nd 2019, Letter S

Here is my contribution to the A to Z Challenge of April 2019.

This is the first time I am participating in this challenge, so we'll see if I have the stamina to complete the whole month !

I am also, very ambitiously, writing for the April NaNoWriMo ! So the challenge is

twofold !! But I'm behind in the NaNoWrite, 1500 words out of 10 000 because I'm concentrating on research and building bridges with my contacts.

Hang on to your horse and enjoy the ride. And good luck to all my fellow participants.



If you would like to more more about the A to Z challenge or join in the future go here

In keeping with John Holton's post, (our host today), I have no intention of stopping today, either the AtoZ challenge for 2019, nor blogging. I might not br blogging every day in May, because I will have have other work, and play to do, Tennis to watch ( the clay season: Vamos RAFA) !
I will still have the IWSG post every month on a Wednesday, the WEP-IWSG challenge every two months (I missed April and the Jewel Box !) and the FMF post every week on a Friday on this blog. Then I will be going back to allpoetry.com that I have completely neglected this month ( Kevin has been sending me emails frequently ! ). In the future, I have not decided if I will be posting more frequently or not, neither which day I favour. "Tears on a Tuesday, that won't do.." as Postman Pat says. That's an Idea !

S is for Snow

Burst out of the door, all excited about the funny fluffy Stuff which has Smothered everything outside during the night.
The lawn, the sidewalk, the street, the flower-beds, the tree stump, all were blanketed beneath the glistening white Snow.
White rubber boots, artificial fur fringed blue anorak, white rubber mittens, all so tight I could hardly move.
I'm a Space man setting out to discover a lost planet.
I slither down the steps but can't go any further.
Towering above me is a tenfoot wall of dark, white compact ice-cream.
One leg forward and it disappears in the freezing mush. The other leg too and I fall flat in the cushioning cold flakes.
And Scream.
When my mother retrieves me a few hours, no seconds in fact later, I've had my first taste of fresh snow : mouth, ears, hair, melting down my neck and rolling down through the crack between sleeve and glove into my open palms.
©susanbauryrouchard

I wrote this little piece November 18th 2005 for my first writing workshop with Ione Harrison who had an MA in creative writing, had published a few short stories in magazines and was living in a village just outside Villefranche de Lauragais, about 50 km from Toulouse, with her husband and small children. She set up this workshop to earn a bit of money to supplement her husband's income as a self-employed building entrepreneur. They had decided to leave England and to move to France and this area because the prospects, climate and quality of life in this part of the world had attracted them.
We were only 4 in this writing workshop, including Ione. She charged us 5 euros a session and we met in her kitchen. My first session was on Monday 8th September 2005. Before I left to drive to the workshop, my mother had phoned to say that my father had died in the night between Saturday and Sunday 7th. Of course, she wanted me to come at once, as my older sister had been in the hospital treating depression since July. I booked my Tuesday morning flight to Paris and told her I had just signed up for a writing workshop that started that morning : no matter what I was going ! Except if one of my children or husband had been in dire need of me. I had been waiting too long to get my professional career as a writer going to miss out on this opportunity. It may seem callous of me but I had put the needs of my old family in perspective. After all I hadn't chosen them and their behaviour suggested that they hadn't chosen me either, at least not the me I was as opposed to the me they expected me to be.
For this piece of writing, the instructions were :
"Writing from memory: The means by which you remind yourself of the past are the same ones that any writer needs to use in order to create any kind of experience for their reader. You need to recreate exact colours and smells and textures. These sensual clues are what can take you back at any moment to a point in the past. The tiniest of things can re-evoke the biggest, most elaborate scene, for example finding a cat's eye marble ( Margaret Atwood) or dipping biscuits in tea ('la madeleine de' Marcel Proust). Your precise and detailed evocation of experience is how you make your stories seem like your reader's own memories" Ione Harrison.
The idea of writing with your 5 senses ( or with your 6th sense!), I learnt during my MA in Anglophone Literature and Civilisation at Toulouse University (2002-2006) and found again in  my Open University creative writing courses of 2007, 2008 and 2009, is called Synaesthesia.


I don't have any photographs from my New York childhood at hand (they are all in my mother's  house) but this memory is a picture in my mind. I have a photographic memory. My dreams are films with dialogues, not just words and thoughts. I remember the fright, the cold and the towering wall. It must have been at the beginning of 1967 when I was nearly two. " You can't possibly remember that ", I hear a voice...and yet it happened and I remember it !

SNOW by Angus and Julia Stone (brother and sister), September 2017  go here

Snowman in our garden, January 2013

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, one of my daughter's and my favourite winter stories  go here

Christmas present from my Auntie Ann to my youngest daughter.

Week One of Ione Harrison's Workshop (my handwritten notes), September 2005

Good thing I didn't miss it !

Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment and I will be sure to reply in full. Exchanges are what make the World go Round.

Grey here in Toulouse this morning, rained in the night. Southerly wind bringing sand from the Sahara. Sun glowing through now, still no hint of blue sky. Sunny and hot in London on Easter weekend. Showers and cool again forecast for next weekend.

See you tomorrow for more adventures.

⌗AtoZ challenge, April 20th 2019, letter R

Here is my contribution to the A to Z Challenge of April 2019.

This is the first time I am participating in this challenge, so we'll see if I have the stamina to complete the whole month !

I am also, very ambitiously, writing for the April NaNoWriMo ! So the challenge is

twofold !! But I'm behind in the NaNoWrite, 1500 words out of 10 000 because I'm concentrating on research and building bridges with my contacts.

Hang on to your horse and enjoy the ride. And good luck to all my fellow participants.

If you would like to more more about the A to Z challenge or join in the future go here

In keeping with Jayden R. Vincente's post, I hope to catch up my Retardiness, Respond to more comments and Read more blogs this week. But I won't stop either after April 30th. I will not Rest from writing, blogging and Revisiting ! Hang on in there, 8 days to go.

R is for Robot

He was their son.

Why didn't they want

him anymore. They said

he needed to be repaired.

But his parents answered : 

" We want a new one,

the latest model ".

Why couldn't they keep two ?

They cast him aside.

Left him on a heap pile.

He felt sad and afraid.

Would nobody come to his aid ?

He met new friends.

They became his family.

They united and fought

the humans for their rights.

©susanbauryrouchard

A.I. Artificial Intelligence, 2001 by Steven Spielberg with Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment   

go here

If you would like to know more about the film  go here

A.I. Rising, 2018 Serbian film by Lazar Bodrosa  go here

To know more go here

Respire, song by Mickey 3D, 2003   go here   with English subtitles   go here

to know more about this French group  go here

Entre les Lignes: clouée au sol, song by Keny Arcana with lyrics. go here

That's all folks, have a pleasant Easter. See you on Monday.

Thank you for dropping by and reading. If you would like to comment, please do so below. The same posts AtoZ challenge appear on both my blogs, all through this month :

on Wordpress, lifeinpoetry.home.blog

on Blogger, writingsusanb-rouch.blogspot.fr

The difference is that on Blogger you can see my archives from January 2013. Also more about who I am and what I like. Maybe you are a kindred spirit ? Please feel free to go and find out.

If you would like follow up comments and notifications on next posts,

on Wordpress, click on the appropriate buttons after your comment.

on Blogger, you can click on 'Notify me for comments' . To receive notifications of next posts :

Follow or send me an email on my profile.

Brilliant sunshine today in Toulouse. Blue skies all round. The wind that had swept away the petals of my white and yellow tulips has given way to a soft breeze. The purple ones are still blooming and closing, asleep at night. My yellow roses are coming out one by one.

Tomorrow, I'm making a red fruit topping cheesecake in the morning. In the Afternoon, my husband and I are participating in a Clean-Up of the banks of the Garonne at Gagnac-sur-Garonne to prevent more trash from falling into the river and being carried 200 km West to the Atlantic.

                                                                              

The Canal du Midi 

that gets its waters from the Garonne and links the Mediterranean with the Atlantic : from Narbonne to Bordeaux. It flows through the heart of Toulouse, 

a few hundred yards from the Garonne.

⌗FMF, Five Minute Friday, April 19th 2019, NEXT

Hello, it’s Friday again. In fact, I’m only posting this on Saturday 4.00 p.m. European time ! I’m participating in the A to Z challenge, 10th anniversary, this month. As well as the NaNoWriMo April.
So I’m perpetually on to the next thing !

Write five minutes flat every Friday with Kate and her ‘gang’, on a word prompt given Thursday evening. If you would like to know more or participate in the future.   go here

NEXT

Make a list and take what is NEXT.
One by one the chores will be done.
No pressure, enjoy every one.
Work becomes pleasure, seize the Day.

Tomorrow it will be gone.
Now is the next thing in your thoughts.
An idea is precious, jot it down.
The written word stays, speeches stray.

For your life, you only have yourself
to thank and blame.
©susanbauryrouchard

The Last Supper, Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice. Official film soundtrack, 1973.   go here

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment either on Blogger (writingsusanb-rouch.blogspot.fr) or on Wordpress (lifeinpoetry.home.blog)

⌗AtoZ challenge, April 19th 2019, letter Q

Here is my contribution to the A to Z Challenge of April 2019.

This is the first time I am participating in this challenge, so we'll see if I have the stamina to complete the whole month !

I am also, very ambitiously, writing for the April NaNoWriMo ! So the challenge is

twofold !! But I'm behind in the NaNoWrite, 1500 words out of 10 000 because I'm concentrating on research and building bridges with my contacts.

Hang on to your horse and enjoy the ride. And good luck to all my fellow participants.

If you would like to know more about the A to Z challenge, see today's post or participate in the future go here

In keeping with Tarkabarka Högly's post today, I have tried to encourage you to comment by adding some Questions at the end of my contribution.

Q is for Queen

We can be Queens, just for one day.

Queen on the hill, Queen in our home.

Queen of the people, listen, give, help.

Queen of our emotions, our thoughts.

Queen of our time, our choices.

We can be Queens of our likes and hates.

Gracious Queen with our friends.

Tender Queens to our families.

Loving Queen to our King.

We can Queen away the day.

Dream our futures, write them

in stone, live them together.

Queen the weather, bow to the sun.

Queen the lion and nurture the cubs.

Queen our meals, wash up when done.

Queen our waste, Queen our tastes.

Queen our strife, Queen our Life.

©susanbauryrouchard

Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody  go here   Live Wembley Stadium, AID concert 1985.

Eddy Vedder, Society, from the Album Into the Wild, musical film score 2007  go here

Thank you for dropping by and reading. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it. If you did, rate it. If you didn't, rate it anyway. Please feel free to post a comment. What are you Queen or King of ?

See you later, as the entry for Saturday is forthcoming. I am officially one day behind.

Cala Gonone, Nuoro, Sardagna, Italy. photo July 2015.

⌗AtoZ challenge, April 18th 2019, Letter P

Here is my contribution to the A to Z Challenge of April 2019.

This is the first time I am participating in this challenge, so we'll see if I have the stamina to complete the whole month !

I am also, very ambitiously, writing for the April NaNoWriMo ! So the challenge is

twofold !! But I'm behind in the NaNoWrite, 1500 words out of 10 000 because I'm concentrating on research and building bridges with my contacts.

Hang on to your horse and enjoy the ride. And good luck to all my fellow participants.

Good Morning World. If you would like to know more about this challenge or are thinking of participating in the future  go here

In keeping with Jayden R. Vincente's post today, I will try to respect the ten steps for a better blog.

However I will not be prudent. So I apologize for this post. My intent is not to offend.

P is for Politics

WAR 1984

City at war..............

With itself alone

Born from subtle differences

Lost in the wakes of time.

A house is thrown down

Death and loneliness all around

The cause is a word in the sacred book

Understood and misunderstood.

We are right, you are wrong

You must die

For you do not believe

In the same

God as I.

A square where children played

Reduced to rumble

Now the boys and girls play no more

Guns are their toys.

We are right, you are wrong

You must die

For you do not believe

In the same

God as I.

City at war............

With those it should protect

No one will live between its walls

As long as they need to select.

©susanbauryrouchard

This poem, I wrote in 1984, another version, I wrote in 1983 during the conflict in Lebanon. I think that unfortunately it still applies today.

Politically Correct doesn't exist: it is a Hypocrisy !

You are either committed to Freedom, Equality and Peace or you simply don't care enough.

This blog is for writing poetry, short stories and memoirs. But it doesn't mean I don't have an opinion on Politics. I do, but I choose to show them elsewhere. That is what I am doing today by writing articles and spreading news about Political Injustices which are costing lives today as they have everyday. They have come to my attention particularly for the past few months.

Notre-Dame can wait ! She's only made of Stone ! She can be rebuilt.

We only have one planet, one climate, one species of every living thing and only ONE LIFE.

So it is time to act for what is important : LIFE and everyone who is still alive today because tomorrow they might not be.

Plus it's my daughter's Birthday and she is not with me. So I am sending her videos to celebrate and Facetiming with her. Also back to the Dentist to check everything is OK. And a meeting for my voluntary work helping poor and hungry children.

So long Folks, see you tomorrow.

Cloud cover today in Toulouse.

Thank you for reading and feel free to comment, disagree, argue and vent your opinions. I can take it !

Radiohead Creep  go here

Imagine John Lennon  go here 

The Man who Sold the World   David Bowie  go here  

Women don't Cry  Bob Marley  go here

Alice is 24 today

⌗AtoZ challenge, April 17th, letter O

Here is my contribution to the A to Z Challenge of April 2019.

This is the first time I am participating in this challenge, so we'll see if I have the stamina to complete the whole month !

I am also, very ambitiously, writing for the April NaNoWriMo ! So the challenge is

twofold !! But I'm behind in the NaNoWrite, 1500 words out of 10 000 because I'm concentrating on research and building bridges with my contacts.

Hang on to your horse and enjoy the ride. And good luck to all my fellow participants.

In keeping with Tarkabarka Hölgy's post today (thank you, by the way for hosting),

I would like to thank all you Wonderful Bloggers who are still hanging in there and visiting my blog. I would like to apologize for not visiting the master list more often and to those for whom I have not left comments (although I have, but due to a computer glinch (glich ?), the blog did not accept my Google account post. This only happened on Blogger, on Wordpress, it recognises me immediately!). Just now, my mouse conked out, had to go recharge the battery: technology getting back at me for critisizing it. The World works in Mysterious ways.

If you would like to know more about this challenge or participate in the future go here

O is for Origins. 

Thank you to Roland Clarke, my long distant cousin, for prompting the idea by his comments on letter K.   

Up, Up, Up and Away

In my Beautiful Balloon.

Green Christmassy Carpet

and icy Apartment.

Boiling water falling

from the Angry 2nd floor.

Holding Hands 

with Alice Brake.

So long the road Home.

Stingy building.

Roller-Skating on pebbled ground.

Saving up for a Bag of Marbles.

Golden trees and long green alleys.

Walking about in this lifeless town.

Watching the Walls go up.

Choosing the yellow-flowered wallpaper.

Meeting Sophie by the letterbox.

Best friends at first sight.

Lost to years and growing up.

You can't fight where you belong.

A poem I wrote in 2002 in my early morning notebook. It sits on the shelf of my night table, open at this page. This is the first time I have typed it up, although I had my first IMac in 2001.

My Father was FRENCH, half- 'Breton', half- 'Brie'.

Jean-Louis Baury, son to Robert Baury and Louise Colombelle, born in 1931 in Rabat, Morocco.

My Mother is English, half-Yorkshire, half-London.

Patricia Dunkley, daughter to Albert Dunckley and Kathleen Arter, born in 1932 in Bournemouth, Dorset.

They were married in Bournemouth in 1956. They lived in Paris. My father worked for American Express Travels. My mother, at UNESCO as a trilingual translator of reports: English, French and German, after having worked for NatWest in Bournemouth for 5 years.

They moved to L' Etang-la-Ville, West of Paris, near the Fôret de Marly, when my sister, Kathleen Louise Baury was born on 13th of May 1962 in Poole (My mother made the trip so that her daughter would have English nationality as well as French). My mother stopped working and they lived Happily Ever After !

Not so lucky. In 1965, along came another...daughter: me. Susan Françoise Baury, on the 13th of ........April, in Poole, Dorset (same story). It's my grand-mother Louise who wanted to call me Françoise. Maybe they were expecting a boy and she had thought of François, very French....' Les Francs ' to counteract the fact that her only son had chosen an English girl, of all people ! The Hundred Years War still beating strong !

When I was 3 months old, we moved to NICE on the Côte d' Azur for my Papa's work. In July 1966, we moved to New York, Staten Island: as the Dutch said, when they discovered and colonised New Amsterdam, " Is Taten Island ? " (Brooklyn humour), no offence to all you Dutch Bloggers.

Papa was then working for the French Line: planning the crossings for the FRANCE, Le Havre - New York and its cruises in the Caribbean mostly, until its Round the World trip in 1974. I crossed the Atlantic on the ship and went to the Caribbean . I remember coming down the gangway in Barbados and being fascinated by the musicians on their tin drums : the image stuck although I have never been back to the Caribbean. Definitely on my bucket list ! My mother says I can't possibly remember (I was 2 and a half) but what does she know, she can't see inside my head, Thank God ! (or whoever...)

In July 1971, we made our last crossing on " Papa's boat " as my sister used to call the FRANCE, even in front of his boss ! This is the crossing I remember, I was six and a bit. There was a sea-water pool on the ship and that was all I could think about as we unpacked in our cabin. I was fighting with my sister over who would get the upper bunk bed and I fell on my back, wind knocked out. Mummy said I couldn't go to the pool, I had to recover in the cabin. I made such a fuss, saying I was alright, that I went anyway. After a few laps,    good thing I could swim (we had gone to the YWCA in New York) as the pool had no shallow end and was deeply sunk to ensure there was no risk of spillage in unclement weather,   I felt sick and had to be dragged from the water.

One evening, we were allowed to go to dinner with the adults in the fabulous first class dining hall. For dessert, I ordered Crêpes Suzette, to the horror of Mummy and the amusement of Papa. The waiter came and performed the ritual in front of me, with his saucepan, his bottle of Grand Marnier and his lighter ! I was over the moon !

We arrived in Le Havre and went straight to Paris. For the rest of July we stayed in a hotel in St Germain-en-Laye called 'Le Cèdre'. Our furniture would take 2 months to arrive by container and ship, at least one container. We would have to wait a whole year for the second, in which there was...my bicycle ! Boo-hoo ! August we spent in Bournemouth with my grand-father and Auntie Ann, who lived together in Mummy's childhood home in Parkstone, Wharfdale Road.

In September, we moved into a horrible flat in Maisons-Lafitte, West of Paris, near the Seine.

After 5 years in New York, I could read and write in English ( when I opened my mouth, however, I spurted a broad Brooklyn accent, so much so that Dilys Barré who interviewed me for the British Section of the Lycée International, said to my mother that she should put me into the American Section. She said NO). I couldn't speak a word of French. ( My parents always spoke English at home. My father's English was so much better than my mother's French when they met, so it just became the language of the home ). My sister had forgotten all the French she had learnt in Paris and Nice, so we were equals in that respect.

I started 1st Grade (I had gone to Kindergarten in Great Kills), 11ème in France (now CP, Cours Préparatoire), in September 1971. The first day, I walked into class with Alice Brake, who was new too and we stayed best friends until she moved to Portugal in 1976. She gave me my cat, Tibby, a kitten of her own cat. Tibby died in 1985 when I was in my first year of Business school in Lille. I was stricken.

In July 1972, we moved to Chambourcy, a village on a hill, just outside of St Germain-en-Laye     (where the Lycée International was).

We finally had a house, with a garden. I met Sophie François by a letter box one day, while we were visiting the house under construction. We were a gang, the two of us. The others children called us " Les Siouses ". I lived there until September 1984, when I went off to Business School in Lille, North of France.

©susanbauryrouchard

Thank you for reading and bearing with me ! Have a nice A to Z, ' O ' day. Please feel free to leave a comment, whatever crosses your mind, and I will be sure to reply.

Brilliant sunshine this morning, here in Toulouse, France. The Westerly wind has now brought clouds from the Atlantic. The tulips have bloomed, their petals swept away. The yellow roses are out, the red ones are 'teething' !

     For Sonia, from a Hundred Quills.     

in 1974, from the Card Game

landmarks list, my hand-writing. Notice the Franglais !