Faces and Places
Et maintenant , le journalist qui s ’ appelle Gilly Smith parlez avec Fabrice Camus qui runs “ Le Club Pour Le Parlez de French ”. Bon .
I
’ ve wanted to speak French since I was a 17 -year-old au pair in Paris , happy to chat with the kids , but freezing with anyone over the age of 10 . I want the easy , shoulder shrugging kind of French off pat , not the ‘ il fait beau aujourd ’ hui ’ kind of French that ’ s never going anywhere . I want the effortless chatter over a glass or three that would transform our adventures en France , the friend-making , options-opening kind of French that ’ s almost impossible to learn in the country itself . While everyone in France either sneers at your pathetic grasp of language ( Paris ) or wants to practice their English themselves , it ’ s just not going to happen on holiday .
So I put a shout out on Facebook . ‘ I think there ’ s a guy called Fabrice who does conversation classes ’, said West Hill Hall Lou who knows the answer to everything . And she ’ s right . ‘ Yup , Fabrice is your man ’ says someone else . ‘ He teaches my daughter GCSE ’, someone else pops up . ‘ I do his Book Club ’ says another . It seems that the whole of Brighton is speaking French with Fabrice .
I looked him up . Fabrice Camus , freelance French teacher , clearly an orchestra leader for a choir of English voices wanting to learn , advance or polish up their Francais ! Camus ? Wait . Surely he ’ s related by Albert , existentialist , poet , philosopher , footballer and my teen hero when I was a French A ’ level student . ‘ No relation , malheureusement ’, messaged Fabrice . ‘ Il ya beaucoup de personnes qui portent le nom de famille ‘ Camus ’ en France !’
£ 50 , he told me , would include a weekly class at my local pub , The Eddy as well as French Book Club on Friday mornings and French Cinema on Saturdays or Sundays , both monthly . It turns out that there ’ s a Saturday morning breakfast too every week at Cup of Joe in Kemptown . I was in .
Four months later , I ’ m chatting if not fluent French , fluently to an ever-changing cast of French Clubbers , also chatting happily , whatever their level , at Cup of Joe . Ceri is an TV animation producer who lives in Brighton and works in Paris one week a month . Hyanna is a young doctor who arrived in Brighton from Brazil and seems to like a challenge . Tony is a retired French teacher at Brighton College , Sian , a historian , Shirley an opera singer agent ... The conversation is flowing .
I ask Fabrice how he thinks the magic happens .
‘ Number one is confidence ’ he tells me . ‘ If people have got the confidence , they can do it .’ And they can . Margaret and Richard moved to Brighton last year and have used the opportunity to polish up their French , aand to meet new friends . ‘ I lived in France for 15 years ,’ Margaret tells me . ‘ My spoken French was good , and reading French is good . My written French is still terrible ! It was very difficult to speak French when I lived there ; when you ’ re shopping it ’ s ok , and some people are always patient . In Paris not so much . But here , I can relax and practice it easily . It ’ s very informal .’
Husband , Richard works in Lyon but spent Lockdown in the UK and quickly found that the quality of his French was deteriorating . He went back to basics with Fabrice , concentrating on grammar through exercises in class and through homework . ‘ The sessions with Fabrice are very efficient ,’ he tells me as he tucks into his croissant .
Lesley is retired and moved to Brighton last year . ‘ I ’ ve met so many people with common interests . I love the breakfast most , but also we have the weekly class over a cup of coffee . We do have conversations but we also we go through the homework we ’ ve had during the week so that ’ s very useful .’ It ’ s more than 50 years since Jill was a student
in France and is quietly loving the hubbub of spoken French . ‘ I lived in Paris when I was young ,’ she tells me , dreamily .
I notice the almost fluent French booming from the end of the table , albeit in a rather cute New Zealand accent . ‘ When I came overseas ,’ James tells me , ‘ I realised that a lot of Europeans spoke their own language as well as English pretty well . So , I tried to use some of my high school French , and I struggled even to order a coffee in a cafe . And that really annoyed me . I got frustrated with the fact that I could only really speak one language . I had expected everyone to speak my language , to accommodate me in their country !’ He moved to Brighton , spotted a poster in a pub window for Fabrice ’ s informal French classes , and decided to give it a go . ‘ I kind of just fell in love with it . It ’ s just a nice challenge . I enjoy learning another language and discovering a whole new world through the language and the culture .’
l To join Fabrice ’ s Rendezvous French Club at a variety of pubs and cafes around Brighton , call 07704 188055 .