11 in France

From Claire Ozel Wiki

1963 our family left Britain: The Thames Valley was no good for asthmatics.

Primary school started at St Martin, Mougins. A teacher radiating positive energy, Madame Pazzonni, taught a large number of children the elementary skills while many of us were learning French. Ages ranged from the regular 6 year olds up to 14 year olds school learning to read and write. French children were in a minority amongst those who spoke another language at home: Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Russian, English and the language of the 'Gitan' (gypsy) families.

I was about 7 when my best friend Abderazak (Adbul Rezzak?) taught me a few letters of his native tongue, Arabic (36 years later I learnt the rest of the alphabet at the Farsça Külütr Merkezi, Ankara). Our first taste of racism came when we understood that in the teachers eyes we were not equal

I have been told that I wouldn't recognise the area where we lıved ın for 10 years: We bought land that had been cleared of stones by medieval monks, the stones built up into raised walls. The front half was a planned garden, with a house for the four of us, and room for Granny's flat below. The back half of the land was virtually untouched, with wild flowers (grape hyacynths, anemones, orchids, etc) and visited by the shepherd and his flock, and occasional tortoises. When we first visited the land, there was a stone track past our neighbour's house: Mme Maillard called her husband "Viens voir, Il y a une voiture!"

When the road was built, It was called route Thomas et Pallanca, after two people from the nearby La Roquette: they'd been shot by the occupying Nazis when a French flag one dark night mysteriously replaced the Swastika. No one would say who had done this, so two men were picked out for punishment.

I wonder if any of the 3 almond trees at Les Amandiers remain.

5 brain operations, aged 9, took up the autumn term. I returned to school at Mougins: on the top of the hill, in the centre of the village. On a good day you could see Corsica.