Le Rochambeau - janvier 2024

Bonjour et bonne année!

I hope you enjoyed your New Year's Eve celebrations.  Now, it's time to move on to 2024!

As we enter the New Year, your Alliance has set a few simple goals for the year. First, we plan to to continue and to expand our French-language educational programs, which we launched in 2023. We have had a great reception to our educational programs and plan to expand them throughout the year. Secondly, we hope to continue offering events and activities of interest to Alliance Française of Richmond members and their friends. This past year those events included numerous cultural and social activities and we will continue to grow this in 2024. And finally, we plan to strengthen our use of the resources of the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA, including their author programs, films and books.

Starting in the second week of January, our winter education program begins. We will be offering A1.1, A1.2 and A2 courses in January. Our classes and registration can be found on our Learn page.  Please reach out to Françoise Mullen (RichmondAFCR@Gmail.com) if you have any questions regarding our classes.

Each year, the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA chooses a French language book to help promote language comprehension.  Please join us this year in reading the 2022 Goncourt prize winning book Vivre vite by Brigitte Giraud.  Vivre vite was chosen as the One Book-One Federation book for 2024, and the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA will be providing us with a reading and discussion guide.  We, Alliance Française of Richmond, will be meeting in the late February for our initial discussion of the book.  Registration for the first discussion can be found on our Events page.

This Thursday, January 4, the Federation of Alliances Francaises USA is hosting an author disucssion with Bryn Turnbull on her novel The Paris Deception. Her novel is focused on the occupation of France during the war, and specifically the assembly of stolen artwork throughout Europe at the Musée Jeu de Paume in Paris. You can find more details at our Events page.

On January 18th, we have the French film, Farewell Mister Haffman playing at the Weinstein JCC. You can find the link to register for the event on our Events page.

We're excited to announce that on February 13th we will be hosting author, teacher and friend of Alliance Française, Mark Greenside, to speak to us about two of his books. The books, Mastering the art of French living and I'll never be French (no mater how much I try), paint an insightful and humourous picture of life in Brittany, where Mark has spent his summers for the last 20 years. I participated in a book discussion with Mark a few years ago and it was a fun, insightful and laugh-filled discussion.  You can register on our Events page.

And on Saturday, February 17, we'll venture out for a long hike and discussion along Richmond's Buttermilk and North Bank trails. See our Events page for details. This is an invigorating and beautiful 7+ mile hike that loops around a section of the James River.

That covers our activities for January and February.  We hope to see you at one or more of our upcoming events.

Brian Burns

President - Alliance Française of Richmond