Alors, on y va encore une fois. C’est parti. Formation Civique jour deux.

My second day of Formation Civique was quite similar to the first. We learnt some numbers that we might need to memorise if we ever want to apply for French citizenship.

How big is France? 672m square kilometres How big is the population of France? 67m

How many Regions are there? 18.

How many Departments? 101.

How many Communes? 35,000

We continued to learn about health, employment, accommodation and parenting.

And as ever I learnt some new words:

Laicité – securalism (one of the four values of France)

We had to pick our atelier for the fourth day. Workshop. I chose socio-culturelle.

Depistage – to detect; la soigner– treatment.

Only two days of training left – and next week’s one is in person.

Meanwhile, with the help of Evelina, Euronews’ visa expert, we have applied again for the passeport talent visa which was rejected tout de suite by the embassy in London. This time we are applying to the prefecture in Lyon. It will be too late to avoid two more days of formation civique but it should make staying in France a bit easier for me and Cath.

Ce soir il a plu tres fort. Finalement la vague de chaleur est fini.

Demain il fera 25c. Il faudra mettre un pull.

Today was the day of my first session of Formation Civique. Because I was refused a talent visa the conditions of my one-year work visa is four days of training about life in France.

There were five parts to the day. First up was France. We learnt about the Regions, Departments and Communes of France.

I did learn a few things. About the symbol of my department Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is made up of a volcano from the Auvergne, the river Rhône and the Alps.

It also has a president – Laurent Wauquiez

The flag of France has meaning – blanc pour la monarchie, bleu pour Paris et rouge pour la revolution

I didn’t know Gaul was the Latin for cockerel and thus why le coq is one of the symbols of France.

I didn’t know the emergency numbers – 15 for le SAMU, the paramedics and 18 for les pompiers – who also help you if you are ill. I learnt about un medecin traitant – a GP. And there are levels of medecins – 1 et 2 – and their prices vary.

I need something called Responabilite civile insurance and need to keep household bills for five years and payslips for life!

I learnt some new words:

Hebergement – accommodation

Par le bouche-à-orielle – word of mouth

Puce electronique – chip

I also learnt that when renting a flat, the higher the floor the more you pay! Unfortunately this session on renting came a bit late for us and our new fifth floor flat.

But I’m not sure I needed the advice about how to write a CV and what to wear to an interview.

Or how to enrol my children in a crèche. If you do however you can go here.

Fortunately, there are only three more days of this training to go.

I had my French lesson today with the wonderful Frederique and we were discussing my plans for the impending visit of my father.

To show off that I had remembered a word I learnt last week I said I wanted to take him for a drink on a barge moored along the Rhône.

The word for barge is la peniche but – and I blame my sister-in-law for this as she told me it as an aide-memoire – instead of peniche I said penis.

J’etais tellement gêné.