If the dictionary had pictures, a smiling Madame Rouchet would appear for the entry French woman. The caption would read, "French woman with poodle." Sadly, I don't think she has a poodle.
Chantal Rouchet (one of the IES directors) is about 60, with the figure of a 30-year old. A few elegant wrinkles framing her eyes are the only sign of her age. She wears a black, long-sleeve shirt tucked into a beige knee-length skirt, with a thick silver belt wrapped around her tiny waist. Her earrings and necklace are also silver, while her lips, cheeks, and fingernails are bright pink. Tiny red glasses rest on the tip of her nose, so she is continually raising her eyebrows to look at us over them. Her hair is a sparkling gray, cut in a sassy bob with styled bangs. She flutters around the classroom in tiny beige heels. Somehow she also manages to walk à la francais (very quickly) up and down stairs and on the cobblestone streets in the older sections of Nantes.
She speaks v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y and annunciates her words. She thinks Parisians are snobs and is proud to be "une provinciale," someone from anywhere other than Paris. She smoked like a chimney in her younger days, and her slightly raspy laugh contains hints of that.
She really should have a poodle.
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Hello. I spent my junior year abroad in Nantes more than ten years ago. This morning I had a sudden urge to search Google for Mme. Rouchet, and I came across your blog. I want to thank you for your description, it brought back many great memories. I think my strongest image of her was skipping along the cobblestones in some medieval town during the semi-annual trip to the chateaux; she was faster than any of us in our sneakers. As you mentioned, she indeed smoked at a lot--at the time, she could do it in the office :). If you don't mind, please send her my regards. My name was Sarah Nelson (now Sarah Repucci), and I am married to Michael Repucci, who was also in Nantes with me. Best of luck to you and enjoy!!
Take care,
Sarah
Ah, mais c'est magnifique, Sonia! I met Chantal in September of 1969 when neither one of us had sparkling gray hair (and my beard was still all russet) and worked at the Institute in 1971-72 (getting married to a Nantaise a St. Louis in 1973). I can assure you that Chantal looks and acts just the same as then. (I ran across your posting after recieivng Thibaut's announcment of the Nantes-Fribourg face off and that made me look for an email address for Chantal to say hello).
Your posts from Nantes remind me a bit of my daugher's blog that she began when working in Oxford England (http://bowlofsoul.blogspot.com -- go back to the 2005 entries for Oxford). I will also send your blog link to her.
Keep writing. You have a flair for it.
Regards,
Philip Marston (Nantes '69-'70 and '71-'72)
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