The Real Housewives of Clermont-Ferrand

We are from America, France, Poland, Ireland, India, Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand.

We have lived in 6 of the 7 continents of the world.

We are Doctors, Nurses, Lawyers, Teachers, Engineers, Artists, Business women.

We are Wives, Sisters, Mothers, Daughters, Friends, Aunts.

We are lovers of books, cooking, art, shopping, fashion, food, good wine, sports, sewing, antiques.

We are the REAL housewives of Clermont-Ferrand!



Ok, that was a bit dramatic, but it is an accurate description of the ladies that are apart of a weekly chit-chat group that I attend. (I guess I have been watching too much RHA on the internet!) The purpose of the group is to help us improve our conversational French and English by chatting about different topics each week. For those of us that speak english, we are to speak in french and those that speak french are supposed to speak in english. We help each other with vocabulary and grammar, teaching each other as we learn. I must admit that my french is not great (yet!) and sometimes things go over my head, but I learn something every time I go.

Some of the topics have included sharing our favorite past times, earliest childhood memories, playing games and discussing the different political systems of our home countries. We have also discussed famous artist and their artwork and women in the workplace in our home countries. We share our personal experiences as well as our cultural practices. The conversations are always lively, as we all express our opinions on the various topics. This past week we shared our different Christmas traditions and celebrated with an international lunch and gift exchange.

We are also a support for one another. Most of us are living here in Clermont because of our husband's jobs. This is my first big move, but many of the ladies have been out of their home countries for several years and they have lived in many countries. We often discuss our struggles to adjust. It is fascinating that although we have differences in language and culture, we are still more alike than different. We don't agree on everything, but one thing we do agree on is as we "Chit-chat", we are not only learning French and English, but about the lives of women from all over the world.