Marseille was quite uncomfortable visiting when I was there during France '98, possibly made worse by England beating Tunisia and Brits thereafter getting a seriously hard time. Montpellier is infinitely nicer, my sister lived there at the same time. If I were you, JtS, I'd be looking towards SW France, towards Bordeaux from Montpellier, somewhere around the Perpignan area.

Thanks for the copious notes on Geneva, I'm still not sure whether I'm going yet, if so it looks like it'll somehow have to be after Euro '08. Anyone know the answer to my question on League of Nations documents?

So... it looks like I will be moving to Geneva in September. Well, unless my scholarship goes pear shaped. But I really really hope it won't. It's very cool. I have always, always wanted to live abroad.

When do you find out about the scholarship?

Oh I've been told it's fine, they want me to go, etc. I'm not really sure what could go wrong, I just worry too much.

Congrats on the scholarship Lyra. Il va falloir réviser tes cours de français cet été!

Merci bien! Et alors, oui, absolument. Heureusement, j'ai entendu dire que les Genevois parlent très lentement et avec beaucoup de clarté.

C a, c' e s t v r a i.

Do you do translation in your subtitling work? If so, is French one of your languages?

I don't usually, WOM, but I have done bits of FR>EN in the past. Bien sur, mon francais laisse beaucoup a desirer...

That bit about Genevans speaking slowly and clearly had me laughing...

Lyra, you know how to get in touch, don't be shy if you need any help. I'll probably go to Geneva in September for a long week-end, I'm sure we can arrange to meet-up and I'll show you around.

Do they not? Did they lie to me?

1890 thank you, I would love that and will definitely take you up on it. A friend has promised to set me up to meet a rich expat banker friend of his too but he sounds a bit scary.

Well so I got an official letter so I guess it isn't going to go pear shaped. Fingers crossed. I'm going to hand in my notice at work and then I guess I need to start looking for a room. Excuse me wittering on but it feels a bit unreal as well as exciting.

I would say we don't speak like we are on speed like Parisians do but if you really want slow speakers, you'll have to go further inland than Geneva. Plus you'll have fun with the dozen of different accents from native Swiss and foreign residents!

I can set you up with a few middle-aged bloke with a drink problem, but they are a good laugh if you can keep up...

Heh, fair enough. I'm going to have to start reading a FR newspaper every day at the very least.

I have to be there by the 12th Sept! Only three more months of London to get through.

Are they rich? Are they blind? If so bring them on...

no honestly any new friends would be much appreciated.

Start online with tdg.ch, the local paper and letemps.ch, a good broadsheet along the lines of the Grauniad and Indy.

One is quite loaded but he has a girlfriend, the other certainly do not seem to lack money considering the amount of travelling they do (my bus driver mate is in Venezuela now and going to Argentina in November...). The date is perfect, I shall be there that week-end, it's also the start of the ice-hockey season...