Chapter 10 After the week or two in London, Dad and I set out for France. We travelled from Tilbury to Ostend, an uncomfortable stuffy night crossing, then by train to Paris, change of station and train, then on towards the south. For some reason, we spent a night in Aix-les-Bains in a magnificent Victorian-type hotel, all a bit dream-like to me. I found Dad rather a fussy traveller and doubtless he found me incredibly offhand, but he did depend on my French. Eventually we reached Grenoble, where 1 was installed with Monsieur and Madame Helly. Dad lunched with us and didn�t approve that Mirette, aged about 12, was allowed to drink wine and water with the meal. He read me a lecture on the dangers of drinking, fixed up my finances, and went on to do his routine post-graduate study in Berlin. Grenoble is a very beautiful city, surrounded by the foothills of the French Alps, and. with the river Is�re running smoothly through it. It was a city of old buildings (how I wished I could show Jim the Palais de Justice and tell him the story of Bayard, Grenoble�s ancestral knight), and spacious squares and many cobbled streets. I settled in with the family in their apartment in Rue Voltaire. I never did learn where everyone slept, but I had a bedroom with a small cabinet de toilette in which was a wash basin on a stand. There was a bathroom with a bath in it which as far as I know was never used, so I went, I suppose once a week, to the Public Baths, taking my soap with me. Emmanuel, the eldest, had worked on a mink farm in Canada and could speak English, but with the rest I spoke French only. Marie-Louise ran the house very efficiently. Henri was a priest who visited home quite often, and fixed up an earphone crystal wireless set for me. Pompom (I don�t remember her real name) was engaged to a man in Tunis. Marie-Madeleine - about my age - worked in an office. Albert was doing his military service and came home at intervals. Marie-Josephe (Bichette) was at boarding school most of the time, and Marie-Renee (Mirette) was a day girl at school. Quite a family, and all so welcoming - they�d loved Anne Parker and accepted me as her friend. I attended University lectures in a half-hearted sort of way, but did manage to make friends through the classes. I was very proud of my South African background, and was not pleased when a Professor asked various students to read aloud short passages and as each one finished he would state where they came from because of their accents - and he said I came from Angleterre! Grenoble attracted students from all over the world - I mingled with Greeks, Indo-Chinese, American as well as British and French. One lad, with melting brown eyes, came from Le Havre and when I said I came from the Cap, Afrique du Sud, he said disbelievingly: �Mais vous n�etes pas noire.� Eileen Smiley from St Andrews, Joan Hymans from Oxford and Becket Bulmer (Bulmer�s Cider, but I never was mercenary-minded, worse luck!) are names which come back to me. About twice a week we played mixed hockey, about seven a side depending on who turned out - this was great fun and was organised by Dr Chabanne who also ran the Anglo-French Club, and after a very strenuous game we would all gather in a cafe for hot chocolate and talk! I remember a drive with a crowd of young people in a large open tourer, and I was exhilarated and also a wee bit alarmed when the speedometer reached 100 - the fastest I�d ever been - until I realised later that of course it was in kilometres, not miles per hour! |
