English-speaking mums in Lyon? Or in France?

[internationalbeeboo]

I'm a new mum (DD's nearly 4 months old), I've been living in France for 8 years...wondering if there are any English-speaking MNers in Lyon? Or even anywhere in France, as I'm sure that I could do with advice/moral support on being a British mum here...
Sorry if I haven't done this right, I'm new to Mumsnet too (lots of new adventures at the moment!!)

Hi, I'm in Paris and I've been in France for 15 years . I love the English versus French style-of-parenthood topic.

Hi I live in the Charante. I've been here 2 and a half yrs. I have a ds 4.5, dd1 2 and dd2 is 3 mths. Both dd's were born in France.

How are you finding French life?

Hi international beeboo. I'm in northern France but I seem to remember finding info about a bilingual playgroup in Lyon a few years ago when I was looking for stuff around here.

Mrsjaffabiffa, my in-lawas lin=ve in Charente maritime!

Whereabouts are you exactly?

I'm in the Lubéron, not exactly close, but not that far in TGV terms.

Hi internationalbeeboo,

I'm due to move to Paris in a few weeks time, with dh and ds who is 16 months. I too would love advice and maybe meeting up with english speaking mums and babes.

Thanks for your messages!
Othersideofthechannel, there is indeed an English-speaking playgroup, I'm going to go along to that in September...
Mrsjaffabiffa, I do enjoy life in France (apart from getting annoyed at people being rude in shops, but nevermind...), but becoming a mum, I've suddenly been catapulted into another world... Since having my dd, I've been getting bouts of homesickness and feel that I won't be able to give her as much in terms of the English side of her education because I'm the only one that she'll be hearing regularly speaking English. I'm concerned too that my family will be strangers to her as they won't see her as much...
How easy (or not) have you found it keeping the English side up? Do you have any tips?

Coming a bit late to this thread, but your sentiments were exactly mine when my first baby was little! We're in Northern France too, and have lived here (on and off) for 15 years.

The only way to make your child(ren) as bilingual as possible is to insist on them speaking English to you when they are old enough to separate the two languages, ie from about 3 or 4. Read heaps to them in English, if they watch TV give them either English DVDs or get a satellite dish so they can watch BBC programmes (which are a million times better than French children's programmes anyway). Spend as much time as you can in the UK with your family and, if possible, with British children of similar ages so they have to make an effort with their English. Understanding it is one thing, but they have to use it if they are to be properly bilingual.

More generally, it's amazing how differently the French and British bring up their children sometimes, as I'm sure you will find out!

Good luck.

Where are you Castille?

I lived in Paris for 10 years and found the MESSAGE support group for anglophone parents to be an invaluable resource. I would definitely recommend that you check them out! Although most members are in Paris there are more and more members elsewhere in France, and there is a very active web forum for discussions about life in France, bilingualism, etc.

messageparis.org/

Otherside - I'm in Brittany.

Oh, there's someone on another thread I'm on who is thinking of moving to Britanny.
I'll go and find her....

She's called BandofMothers and she's been on this thread
here

hi international
we are in Germany at the moment but were in France before and hope to return there.

There was quite a long period when I was working away, and my children were speaking with no native english speakers. Ex h got lots of english dvds, Treasure Island, Kidnapped etc to keep their english skills up. At one point, my children's english was freely larded with swashbuckling eighteenth century terms!

English is so easy, it sticks like glue, so I wouldn't worry. My eldest is now 10, and I still correct past participles from time to time, but imo this is outweighed by the benefit of her multilingualism. my children still prefer to speak english rather than any other language.

Thank you all for your responses! And the advice!
Something I've been wondering about - for those of you with older children, how do they react when you go back to the UK? Is it an adventure or do they go all quiet & clam up when suddenly immersed back in a 100% English-speaking environment? I learnt French at school and I remember I used to hate being put on the spot when we came on holiday to France...

Don't have much insight on that internationalbeeboo - my kids were still pretty young (2 and 4) when we moved to the UK and English was still very much their dominant language.