52. The French Connection

One of my regular walking friends, I shall call him Patrick for this story, was born in Belgium, a beautiful country which was once part of the southern Netherlands but, which became independent in 1839. It is a small country, just as The Netherlands is, but it has three official languages, Flemish (Dutch), French and German.

When Belgium was still a part of the southern Netherlands, most of its residents were Catholic and many spoke French, while the northern provinces were mainly protestant. In the early 1800s, the Dutch King, William I, introduced new rules which meant that all schools in The Netherlands were required to teach their students the Dutch language, and, in addition, to promote the protestant religion. This created resentment among the people in the southern provinces and in 1830 riots broke out which developed into a popular uprising and revolution, which eventually led to the establishment of Belgium as an independent state.

So, Patrick and I have a number of things in common. We were both born in “the low countries” (a term referring to a region of Europe on the coast of the North Sea), we both settled in Australia, and we continue to share an interest in our common European history. In addition, we both have “a French connection”, because the history of our countries of birth is, to a large extent, part of the history of France itself.

Throughout the history of Europe, the French language was the preferred language of the “ruling classes”. In England, for example, French was spoken by the aristocracy for hundreds of years after the Normans had landed there in 1066. In the 18^th century, when France replaced Spain as the major European power, French became the language of the gentry throughout the continent and many people in Holland became infatuated with all things French. French grammar and French literature were studied. French clothes, wigs and music became popular, and food had to be prepared in the French manner. Between 1795 and 1815, for a period of 20 years, the country was actually ruled (directly and indirectly) by France.

The French Revolution had taken place in 1789 (a year after the First Fleet had arrived at Botany Bay!), and in 1795 the French invaded the Netherlands, which then became the “Batavian Republic”. Thereafter, Louis Bonaparte (Napoleon’s brother) reigned as King of Holland from 1806 to 1810, until the country became part of Napoleon’s Empire. Napoleon was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and King William I was appointed (by himself) as King of The Netherlands in 1815.

That’s probably more than enough history but it hopefully helps to outline the historical ties between France, Belgium and The Netherlands. As an aside, it is interesting to note that when all this was happening, Australia was still known as New Holland. The first time the term “Australia” was used in British legislation was in 1828, for the combined colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (renamed Tasmania in 1856).

My own interest in the French language began in 1947 when I was still at primary school, and it continued later at High School. Unfortunately, I had to leave after my third year of High School. It was quite common, at that time, for children to start work at age 15, to help supplement the family income. In the case of my parents, they had little choice in the matter, having to care for 7 children. The burden of having to pay for all the books which had to be purchased each year, and all the other associated costs, was just too great. After leaving High School, I enrolled at night school to continue studying French for 2 more years, however events took over and, unfortunately, I did not get back to it until I was 68 years old.

In 2004, when I had basically retired from full-time work, an opportunity came up to attend a French language course, which was held once a week in a room at a local golf club. The teacher, Françoise, was happy to enrol me in “Level 1”, which meant I could start “from scratch”.  Each of her classes had at least a dozen or so students, but usually only 1 or 2 men.

Françoise was an exceptional teacher and I was motivated to stay in her classes until 2012. Each lesson was expertly prepared and there were many exercises, tests and class talks. For example, I remember having to give a talk about Victor Hugo. However, not only did Françoise take it all very seriously, she also organised social functions, such as at Christmas and on Bastille Day. These were attended by students from all levels of her classes, with each group having a separate table and most tables presenting sketches and other entertainment. These functions were always a huge success and I looked forward to them every year.

A clear highlight of the opportunities which Françoise offered was a French language seminar which she organised at a resort near Lake Macquarie in New South Wales. As the photo shows this three- day event provided us with a lot of fun, in the process of trying to improve our language skills.

In that same year, 2008, Sue and I took my Dutch son, Mark, his partner, Adele, and my grandsons Dave and Lars, to Paris for a visit to Disneyland, which was their request as a holiday destination. We travelled from The Hague to Paris by the very fast Thalys train and stayed in the Holiday Inn Disneyland Resort. The photo at the top of this post was taken by us when we were there. I did not have much opportunity to use my French, but we certainly had a lot of fun in Euro Disneyland.

The language, the literature and the history of France continue to fascinate me and I’m grateful to be able to talk to Patrick about all of these from time to time. Also, I occasionally try to follow the current French news on SBS, which does help to give me an interesting and slightly different perspective on how people in the French speaking world navigate the troubling times in which we live.

O.P.

P.S. On Sunday, 18 August, we’ll talk about oysters, Chinese visitors and much more.