Teaching dance to adults April 2019

I was invited to Josselin by my friend Dr Penny Gibbs, who lives in a 16th century town house with sculpted stone fronting and cute a walled garden.

Josselin: le chateau du Duc de Rohan.

In Josselin I was asked to contribute to the English language immersion program of French Air Traffic Controllers. My job was to entertain them in English. I was asked to talk about myself (have you ever met a MAN who did not want to talk about himself?) and about Scotland.

Oh yes: I must wear the kilt.

Of course.

Every woman likes to see a man in the kilt. They like strong curved calf muscles.

Some men too, but they are not my type.

These French Air Traffic Controllers are very highly educated maths and physics graduates who complete a further three or five years of training after selection by competitive examination. They are intelligent, calm and have high concentration who work in teams with 2.5 hours on the screens and 30-90 minute breaks between sessions.

The French Air Traffic Controllers work in shifts, 12 to a team and the teams are on varying shifts. They never see an aircraft, yet they are following aircraft permanently on the radar screen and giving instructions as to height, direction, wind-speed etc in order to avoid collisions. The people I met in Josselin operate an air-traffic center near Brest (in Plougastel) that works corridors between the centers of Bordeaux and Paris, Dublin, London and Prestwick (Glasgow) keeping the airspace of Western Europe safe and coherent.

Once every three years, they must take a break of 3-5 days for English language immersion: either in UK, or in an organized course in Brittany. Before an Indian buffet meal where we had informal English conversation, and after a double-English-Language treasure hunt, they came for Tea and Scotland to the home of Dr Penelope Gibbs. I told them stories, and then we took them off the dance Ceilidh dances chosen by Penny, who is an excellent organiser.

I taught them as I taught the 9-year-olds in Mme Bernadac’s class

The river Oust looking northwards, and away from the castle.