Day 1,024 (Sunday) 29^th March 2020

Day 14 and we’re feeling a bit stir crazy but at least it was warm and sunny and my bougainvillea is coming back to life

Huw put Andy and Chadwick in Hannibal Lecter’s cell to discuss the merits of eating under-cooked meat in a scene from the blockbuster horror The Silence of the Lambs.

I was very sad to hear that one of our village characters has died. We nicknamed him Shouty Dog Man because he was drunk very often and shouted at himself with his faithful dog always at his side. He once kissed Huw on the forehead for no apparent reason and he seemed like a happy little soul.

After lunch we filled in our forms to go out for some exercise. There’s a new form now and we have to write what time we leave because we are only allowed to be out for an hour and only once a day.

I sent Angie a text saying that we would be walking past their flat and we had a nice chat with them from their second floor balcony. As expected the streets were empty

We walked up to the top road and it was deserted and we saw a number 15 bus going to Saint Jean Cap Ferrat and it was also empty – just the driver.

On the way back down we walked past Chadwick and Helene’s flat and they were on the balcony so we had a chat with them as well. It’s bizarre that when we do actually speak to people there’s really not much to talk about because nobody has done anything.

We walked down to the seafront

and really wanted to sit on these red chairs but we’re not allowed to because the purpose of us being out is to take exercise not to admire the view.

The fish stall was closed but I think he only opens in the morning anyway

There are more new spring flowers near the beach

The put barriers up to stop us going to the beach

This is the only restriction that makes me angry – why can’t we walk on the beach? The reason for this is that a few weeks ago people were congregating on the beach in groups and staying too long, which I can understand is wrong but just put one policeman or woman to make sure we don’t congregate.

The train station was empty even though the trains are still running.

When we got home my phone told me that we’d walked 2kms and had been out 55 minutes.

In the last few months both Huw and myself have been very lazy in the learning French department but this self-isolation has inspired us to get back into and I found this article about French people learning English today…I wish!

French students use hypnosis to learn English and improve their accents

It sounds like a dream for all language learners - instead of spending hours sweating over grammar and revising vocab, just close your eyes, drift off and wake up fluent in another language.

But one French sixth form college is pioneering the use of hypnosis to teach their students English.

A private agricultural college in the south west département of Landes has become the first in France to pioneer the technique - offering their 150 students a weekly 45-minute hypnosis session, during which the English vocabulary and grammar they have learned through the week is reinforced.

The course, which has been going since the start of the school year last September, is run in partnership with start-up firm Hypnoledge.

Student Emma told French newspaper Le Parisien: "I would never have imagined that I would one day learn with my eyes closed. I remember the expressions much better and my accent has clearly improved."

Her classmate Ionne added: "Every time, it's like taking a trip inside me. I immediately visualise the situations.

"We can choose several themes, cooking, trip, weather, cinema... and I feel like I am at the heart of all these scenes. It's amazing and I'm getting better in English."

France has one of the worst records in Western Europe for competency in English, well below countries like the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

The latest English proficiency ratings show that 57 percent of French people speak English to a moderate standard (compared with 38 percent of people in the UK who speak a second language while in the US it's nearer 20 percent).

But France is slowly climbing the rankings, overtaking both Italy and Spain.

One of the interesting effects of the hypnosis trial is that students felt it improved their accent - which many French people say is a barrier to speaking English, as they feel self-conscious about their pronunciation.