Les vacances

Hello everybody!
I'm always thinking about what I can do to try and find ways to get me thinking more in French. Earlier this week, I'd started looking at the AQA GCSE French syllabus for something of a more structured plan for me re-learing French - it might seem odd, given that I have a GCSE in French, already, but still! Looking at some of the past papers on the site, I thought I'd give this a go, from the 2018 Writing part of the exam. I've been trying to learn more vocabulary in general, and words and phrases associated with holidays have been my starting point. I mean, it's probably the closest any of us is going to get to an actual holiday this year!

Vous décrivez vos vacances pour votre blog. Décrivez:

- votre destination de vacances préférée

- le voyage pour aller à cette destination

- vos vacances l'année dernière

- votre préférence pour les vacances à l'avenir

J'aime bien voyager en Grande-Bretagne. Quand j'étais jeune, nous voyageons ici souvent, car nous n'avions beaucoup d'argent. Je pense que j'ai visité la plupart du pays! Cependant, j'aime explorer les pays d'outre-mer aujourd'hui, bien que j'aime les petites vacances ici.

Surtout, j'adore l'Italie, et j'y ai visitée trois fois jusqu'à maintenant. Je suis allé à Milan deux fois, et je suis allé à Rome en 2018 avec ma femme pour la lune de miel. Mes vacances à Milan étaient la première fois que j'étais en vacances à l'étranger seul. Le voyage à Rome était très génial, car j'étais avec l'amour de ma vie - c'était merveilleux! Malheureusement, je n'aime pas voyager en avion!

L'année dernière, nous sommes allés dans le Kent, dans le sud de l'Angleterre. Nous étions là en mai, pendant que Jemma était enceinte, et nous ne voudrions pas voyager au lointain. Nous louions une petite maison au bord de la mer pour une semaine - c'était tranquille, et nous l'aimions beaucoup. Nous avons passé un bon séjour!

A l'avenir, j'espère voyager plus en France. Après avoir étudié le français j'aimerais utiliser la language dans la réalité. J'y ai visité il y a vings ans avec ma famille, mais nous ne sommes pas allés loin. Je voudrais visiter Paris, mais surtout je voudrais aller en Avignon car je suis très interessé par le Palais des Papes - j'aime beaucoup l'histoire médiévale. Mes vacances de rêve seraient visiter New England aux États-Unis. J'ai un projet depuis 2014 à visiter Boston, Washington et Philadelphia, mais je n'ai jamais eu d'argent!

Well the question asked for around 90 words, and I've gone on for more than 250! Of course, most of this answer wasn't written under exam conditions, so that certainly helps! But let's take a look through what I've come up with, and see if it's all correct...

J'aime bien voyager en Grande-Bretagne

An answer for this question asks for a whole bunch of tenses, so this opening paragraph is quite exciting in that respect! To start with, I thought I'd reminisce about holidays in Britain when I was young, using the passé composé and imperfect. Most excitingly of all, though, I've got a subjunctive trigger in here! 'Bien que j'aime les petites vacances ici' means "although I like small trips here", which is a fairly innocuous little sentence, I'm sure you'll agree, but 'bien que' is one of these little phrases that requires the subjunctive, which makes using this particularly tricky verb mood a little easier. At some point, I'll get round to writing a blog on the subjunctive, for sure, though I'm currently still getting to grips with it myself! That said, it's not exactly all that exciting, as regular -er verbs like aimer conjugate in the subjunctive very much like they do in the present tense. Anyway!

Surtout, j'adore l'Italie, et j'y ai visitée trois fois jusqu'à maintenant

I love Italy. It's been something of a love affair for me since my teens. Sadly, I've only been there three times before - though the last time was my honeymoon ('lune de miel') so that was really special! Getting back to the grammar here, I do like being able to use y when I can, as I said in my last blog - there's just something about it that feels so very French! Here, though, we've got an example of direct object agreement with a past participle, the only time verbs which take avoir as an auxiliary have to agree. However, I'm not 100% sure that I've got this right - are countries classed as direct objects in French? Don't know - but Italy is feminine in French, and as it comes before the the verb construction, the past participle would therefore need to agree. Right? I think so. 

L'année dernière, nous sommes allés dans le Kent

Last year, we went to Kent - my wife Jemma was pregnant so we didn't want to go far, and so rented a cottage near to the sea. It was lovely, anyway! Bit of a tricky one here, deciding which conjunction to use for "while" - I'd originally hoped to get in 'lorsque', as it's one of these words I'd like to use, but I think the better fit was indeed 'pendant que'. After all, Jemma was pregnant for the entire duration of our stay! I find it very French how the verb 'passer' is used to indicate spending time, so wanted to use that here somewhere.

A l'avenir, j'espère voyager plus en France

This last paragraph has got another mix of tenses, as I throw in the conditional as well! This last paragraph, describing my preference for future holidays, I thought would originally use a lot of the future tense, but I suppose the way the world is right now, that just wasn't going to happen! Of course, I'm sort of dreaming big with some of these ideas - I've had plans to travel to the USA since at least 2014, but never had the money - and you'd perhaps think that the subjunctive would be called upon once again, as the likelihood isn't great... but I'm choosing to be hopeful! 

I'm sure there would have been a much better way of writing this answer - certainly a bit more idiomatic - but I was trying to rely much more on my own knowledge that I've managed to gain up to now, without having my nose in a dictionary for most of it. I'm starting to produce longer written pieces in French now, albeit still very much focused around the DELF A1 level of talking about myself, but it really doesn't matter while I'm at this stage what I'm writing about - the fact that I'm getting to use the language and all the rest of it is really the important thing, I think!

I'd hesitate to say that I'm getting a lot more comfortable with writing in French, but I do think that a lot of things are slotting into place for me, now! And this is half the battle, and really the main reason that I spend a lot of my learning time writing - if I can get more used to writing my thoughts in French, that is a good way to practice the use of the language, so that I can grow in my confidence and speed at producing French. From there, I can then look at speaking more and more. Don't get me wrong, I speak fairly often in French anyway, though while I'm currently learning by myself, there aren't a great deal of opportunities to do so! To my way of thinking, if I can keep going with writing this stuff down, I'll be able to build those reflexes that should (will!) allow me to get more natural at speaking, once I manage to get all of the grammar down. 

That's my plan, anyway!