S6-EP3 Best Of: Debbie and Sam Go Back to France

A replay of a popular atmospheric episode set in France. This is Season 6 of my [B]OLD AGE podcast. Thank you for listening! I interview authors, experts, and exceptional individuals to reveal the truths about [b]oldly entering old age in a society that, generally, devalues old people. I also invite my husband on as a frequent guest. He’s a retired physician with a dry sense of humor and he makes me laugh. You can find over 100 previous episodes on Apple podcasts or on my website.

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Updated with a new introduction, this is a replay of an episode describing Debbie and Sam’s experience in a French immersion program in Avignon in 2019. They planned to go back in 2020 but of course the pandemic intervened. Now, Debbie and her husband have just completed another week of immersion in Avignon with their favorite French teacher, Julie Gaudin.

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Behind the Scenes of this episode…

Don't miss the Substack essay accompanying this episode: Behind The Scenes With "French Debbie"

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In the episode you'll hear accordion music and several snippets recorded in a cafe where Debbie speaks French. Both she and Sam have a special relationship with France from their adolescent years. And they both have a longstanding bucket list item: to live in France for an extended period in order to practice and improve their French. They both agree you can’t become a true ex-pat in only two weeks but it’s enough time to adopt a daily routine and to make a friend or two at the local boulangerie and at a favorite bar serving artisanal beer. 

They both continue to be fascinated by the mystery and allure of French culture and the French language.

Mentioned in this episode and/or useful links for visiting Avignon and Provence

• Séjour linguistique means staying with a teacher (or prof) in their home for language immersion.

• Julie Gaudin's immersion program in Avignon

• A list of other French immersion programs via  FrenchToday.com Note: in the episode Debbie mistakenly refers to the site as FranceToday.

• Pithiviers is a town south of France where Sam lived on a farm when he was 18. It was also the site of the infamous Pithiviers internment camp during the Second World War.

• Collège Cévenol in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is where Debbie went to school for a year when she was 14.

• Alliance Française in Paris

• L’Atelier de Belinda (wonderful tiny restaurant in Avignon)

• Les Halles, the famed covered market in Avignon filled with magnificent displays of fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, cheese, olives, bread, lavendar honey, wine and more. Sam discovered “les bulots”: whelks or large snails best eaten alongside raw oysters and with a glass of white wine.

• Quirky Cinéma Utopia in Avignon where we saw two French films on two rainy afternoons. Debbie insisted she got the gist of both films. At the end of the second one, Sam said, “Well, I know I understood the last sentence.”

• Parking des Italiens just outside the ancient walls of Avignon (1,150 free parking spaces… AND the free navette shuttle bus we talk about.)

• Our favorite excursion outside the city: Les Gorges de la Nesque (near Sault)

• Les Calanques near Marseille (this natural wonder is what we did NOT see in Les Goudes)

• Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence (small Cézanne collection with a focus on his obsession, the nearby Mont Sainte-Victoire)

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Our Media Partners:

• CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org)

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Credits:

• Host: Debbie Weil

• Producer: Far Out Media

• Music: Lakeside Path by Duck Lake