Enrolment for 2018 on Tuesday 16 January 7-9 pm in Club House Hotel

Getting to stick to your New Year’s Resolutions is difficult. Changing the habits of a lifetime can take quite a bit of effort.  Your New Year’s Resolutions will surely have included some aspect of self-improvement. Possibly, it is losing weight, getting fit, quitting smoking or spending less time online, but should it not also include learning (or improving) your French?  The Alliance Française of Kilkenny is part of the worldwide Alliance Française Foundation promoting language learning and cultural activities.  Based in the Club House Hotel in Kilkenny classes are offered to all abilities with both evening and daytime classes. These include Beginners, Improve Your French, and two advanced classes: current affairs (les Actualitiés) and the French Book Club.  We also have special classes dedicated to Leaving Cert students geared at the oral and aural exams.

But why should you learn French? There are many reasons from career-based ones, where French speakers are in huge demand in the software support and sales area particularly for sales to central and western Africa where French is widely spoken, to personal ones like holidays and culture. But let us not forget the recent scientific research has shown that keeping the brain active by the practice of focus on language processing can help in staving off the effects of mental deterioration and even Alzheimer’s.

So along with getting your body fit this New Year you should also keep your brain fit and increase your social communication and connections. You can even do all together by walking or cycling to the Club House Hotel for the French classes! Enrolment with more information and a chance to meet the teachers is in the Club House Hotel on Tuesday 16th January 2018 from 7 to 9 pm. Classes will start on the following week (22nd January 2018).

Christmas Party 14 December 2017

The Christmas Party has been set for 14th December starting at 7.30 in the bar of the Club House Hotel for an aperitif and then up to the elegant Dining Room for our sumptuous meal. Please book with us at info@afkilkenny.org before Monday 11 December and the cost is €30.

The Menu:

Cultural Events at the Alliance Française

Aperitif au bar

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Roasted Butternut Squash

Crumbled Goats Cheese and Shredded Chicken Salad Tossed with Pine Nuts in a Tangy Lemon Dressing

Winter Vegetable Broth

With Crunchy Croutons

Seared Tiger Prawns in a Garlic and Lemon

Butter with Crispy Avacado Crostini

*****

“Carved as you Like it’’

Prime Roast rib of Beef

Festive Roast Turkey,

Rosemary & Orange Stuffing

Cider Glazed Callan Ham

Seasonal Fresh Vegetables & Potatoes

Gourmet Salad Buffet

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Yuletide Christmas Pudding

Served with Brandy & Nutmeg Sauce

Kirsch & Morelli Trifle with Madagascar Cream

Served with Amaretti Biscuits

Trio of Cramers Grove Ice Cream

In a Delecate Tuille Basket with a Duo of Exoctic Fruit Coulis

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Thé ou Café

Not to be missed. Let us know if you are coming!

Change of date of Christmas Dinner and an Interesting Lecture

Just to give you a Heads Up that the date of our Christmas Party has been changed to Thursday 14th December (it was previously the following day) and we hope that it suits more of you to have it on the Thursday night.

The other event may be of interest to you as a Francophile. Kilkenny Archaeological Society is delighted to confirm that Professor Keith Busby of University of Wisconsin- Madison will deliver his much talked about address to the society on

 

Wednesday 29th November at 8.00pm in Roth House

From the Conspiracy of Mellifont to the Kyteler Trial:

Two Centuries of French in Medieval Ireland”.

 

The talk will consider the use of French as a language of interpersonal communication, literature, and monumental inscriptions in multilingual Ireland from the foundation of Mellifont (1142) until the mid-fourteenth century, ending with a brief consideration of the Statutes of Kilkenny (1366). It will stress the role of Kilkenny in Francophone culture of the period.


Dr. Keith Busby is Douglas Kelly Professor of Medieval French Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds degrees in French and Mediaeval Studies from Magdalen College, Oxford and the University of York. His publications include Gauvain in Old French Literature (1980), a translation of the Lais of Marie de France (with Glyn Burgess, 1986), an edition of the Perceval of Chretien de Troyes (1993), Codex and Context (2002), and French in Medieval Ireland, Ireland in Medieval French (2017).

 

He is currently editing the French language works of Jofroi de Waterford (c. 1300), and is contemplating a new edition of The Statutes of Kilkenny.

 

The event is open to members (of Kilkenny Archaeological Society) and non-members alike and is sure to be of more than usual interest to those mindful of Kilkenny’s early status and society.