Hi Félix! Thank you for being with us today. Could you introduce yourself to our readers? 

Thank you for having me! I am Félix Sens from Amsterdam, the Netherlands and I have a huge passion for fishing. I am quarter French and when I was really little I visited Paris very often. Because I visited Paris at a young age, I already got a taste of the Parisian culture and ambience, as well as developing a strong positive emotion towards the French language. Later in high school, I had six years of French as a subject. Besides French, I have always been very interested in the Dutch language. I have found the Dutch expressions very intriguing. I really enjoy writing in Dutch and I rarely make spelling mistakes, but if I do, I find it fascinating to unravel the mistakes I made. Conclusively, I have always really enjoyed writing reports and formulating sentences in a proper manner. 

And if we were to focus on French: In what way do you use French in your daily life? 

Two years ago, I went to France for the first time by myself. I went to Paris and stayed there for a week in order to visit my grandparents. I was accompanied by my ex-girlfriend, who did not speak French at all. So, I tried to compensate by trying very hard to communicate in French with the Parisians. It was not too big of a deal. These were simple, mundane things such as ordering bread at the bakery and buying tickets at the museum. Additionally, my grandparents lived together in Paris for about 55 years. My grandfather passed away last spring. Both my grandmother and grandfather spoke Dutch as well, which made learning French a little easier. Now that I visit my grandmother in Paris, we usually converse in Dutch and French. 

Last summer I went to the Pyrenees with my family (we have a summer house there). On this occasion, we went there due to the fact that my grandfather passed away. One of his most cherished wishes, if he were to die one day, was to have his ashes scattered over one of the most beautiful mountains of the French Pyrenees. Together with half of the family we drove to the Arbizon (a beautiful mountain about three kilometres high) and made my grandfather’s wish come true. 

Due to my passion for fishing, I went on little adventures within the area. Every morning I woke up early in order to bring my fishing equipment along and to fish at the riverside. Many times, I encountered other fishers and I usually started conversations with them in French. I asked them a lot of questions. For instance: I asked them what kind of bait they used, because the answers could be very applicable to my own fishing. After two weeks, my family decided to go back to the Netherlands, while I opted to stay in the region for a longer period of time together with my French aunt who barely speaks English. Once or twice a week, my aunt and I gathered together with some residents of the nearby village and invited them for an aperitif. An aperitif includes (alcoholic) drinks that you enjoy right before your dinner. While enjoying a glass of red or white wine, I also had great conversations with the residents and I have to say… within a few weeks I was able to improve my French more than I could during my six years of French classes at high school. 

After staying for two more weeks at the summer house, I decided to take the train from the Pyrenees to Paris. Altogether, this took about seven hours, including a few transfers along the way. I departed from Lannemezan, a little town in the Pyrenees and took the train further to Tarbes. In Tarbes I departed for a transfer. There I encountered a French girl of my age. This moment was quite surreal, because this encounter suddenly turned into a date. She was impressed by my French and wanted to teach me some French expressions.  We sat in a beautiful park, looked at peacocks and I told her that if she were to visit Amsterdam one day, she would always be welcome to be my guest.

After I arrived in Paris, I decided to stay for an additional two weeks at my grandmother’s place. And again, every morning I went for an early walk and spent some hours fishing at the Seine. After a few hours, I would normally wander around the city, which most of the time resulted in going to a local chic Parisian cafeteria. Usually, I would order a café crème, together with a croissant. I always enjoyed having little conversations with the waiters and they were also approaching me as a local at this point. In the late afternoons, I would normally come back to this little Parisian cafeteria and at this time of day I usually ordered a croque monsieur, accompanied by a homemade apricot cake. 

You could say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time wandering around the city. I have spent a lot of time reading books in Jardin du Luxembourg. I must say, due to the pandemic, there were almost no tourists, so it all just felt so serene. I really felt like a Frenchman, not because of being quarter French myself, but truly due to the lack of tourists. It was such a tranquil feeling. 

Would you also say that due to the COVID-pandemic there is a bigger opportunity for you to really improve your French skills? In essence, there were fewer tourists during your stay in Paris for example. One could argue that this opens the door for possibilities to truly engage with the Parisians.

Currently, I am on a gap year, so I have more time to study French in comparison to my time at high school. Let’s say that there is definitely more time to put my French into practice. In the meantime, I was supposed to visit Paris two times after my last visit, but obviously due to the pandemic this was not possible. In this sense, you could say that the pandemic is holding me back a little bit to fully work on improving my French. However... I truly hope to visit Réunion this coming march. 

Although I am not able to practice my French by being in France, I do listen to French chansons when I am on my way to work. I really enjoy listening to songs by Charles Trenet, Serge Gainsbourg, Dalida… Especially the latter one I find a very refined artist. All in all, this is also a way to improve and practice my French. 

Réunion, you say? I am curious to know about your motives to visit the island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. I mean… I don’t think you would get there without any story backing this up!

Certainly, you are right. The origin of all of it lies in the Pyrenees. My aunt is almost 85 years old, but still young at heart. She is also good friends with her neighbours. Her neighbours, an elderly couple in the mid-seventies, live in Lille, but they also have a summer house in the Pyrenees. So, my aunt tends to visit them occasionally in the Pyrenees. At one point, we invited the elderly couple for an aperitif. The entire evening we had great conversations on plentiful topics, in which at one point, I realized that the elderly man thoroughly enjoyed fishing as well. He stated that he did not have the right equipment to catch fish in his area. So, we made a deal. 

He mentioned that his previous occupation was being a chef in a Michélinrestaurant. After realizing that he would be able to create top-quality meals, I proposed to catch a trout for him. In return, he would prepare a pristine dish with the trout. The next morning at seven a.m. I borrowed him my fishing rod and then he joined me in a little adventure to catch the trout. It was a beautiful experience, fishing at the break of dawn and taking in the mysteriousness of the landscape due to the misty weather conditions. 

Together with his family, my aunt and I, we enjoyed the exquisitely prepared trout dish. At the dinner table, he talked about his children and grandchild and that they would be visiting mainland France. And guess what…? They are from Réunion. Since Réunion is a part of France, they do speak French.

At a certain moment in time, the family of the former chef came to visit mainland France whilst I was still in France as well. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I bonded heavily with the grandchild of the family, named Marius. I got to know that he also thoroughly enjoys fishing. Together with Marius and his grandfather, we repeatedly visited the river during the early mornings to fish at dawn. After catching many more trouts, we were becoming close friends. Marius’ mother eventually told me more about everyday life at Réunion, and… I mentioned that I was currently on my gap year. She then offered me to travel to Réunion at the end of 2020. I was ecstatic. Not knowing that by the time it was the end of 2020, I would obviously not be able to travel internationally without a lot of hassle. If all goes well, I am planning on travelling to Réunion mid-march. Fingers crossed! 

They live in an apartment that is also connected to a smaller attached apartment that they own. They proposed that I could spend the duration of my time in Réunion at the attached apartment, even insisting that I could bring a friend with me to Réunion. The idea is that we will discover more about the island as we arrive. It is quite the rough terrain, since there is even a volcano on the island. In this tropical climate, there is a multitude of variety in flora and fauna. Think about waterfalls, palm trees, huge rocks, cliffs and swamps. It sounds like quite the Jurassic Park scenario, to be honest. 

Together with my friend, we are planning on venturing around the island for the duration of one month. We cannot wait to fish in the beautiful Indian Ocean. The family also owns a tiny boat which we could essentially borrow for a couple of days. Moreover, they also have a Renault Rodeo, which is a little car you commonly can encounter in Southern France. It is a beach car with an open roof, so that can be very enjoyable as well in the humid and hot weather conditions. 

Ultimately, I could argue that if I were not able to speak French on a certain level, I would never be skilled enough to really get to know the neighbours from the Pyrenees. It would probably end up being a short introduction and some small talk, but I doubt that I would have been invited to visit Réunion. Especially since they only speak French on Réunion. It would be even harder to engulf into daily life over there. This is what a good grasp of the French language gave me: a potentially awesome trip to Réunion. 

What an amazing story! You certainly took advantage of all of the opportunities that arose during this occasion. And maybe travelling to Réunion will also be a new linguistic challenge? I suspect that the islanders may speak with a certain accent or perhaps even a different dialect of French?

I am not sure, because the family I was spending time within mainland France, did not have any accent at all. But who knows? Maybe they are able to speak in two different ways of French.

Clear! So, maybe you will discover that they possibly speak a different dialect. Who knows what kind of adventures your travel to Réunion will bring!

Exactly! So, another interesting anecdote is that my aunt also has some connections with people that have a vineyard in Bordeaux, France. Through her, I got in touch with those people and discussed the opportunity to pick grapes during the coming summer. In exchange for the work I do, they would then be able to accommodate me. Who knows whether there will be another French-related trip on the agenda. And of course, this would be really amazing.

I wholeheartedly agree. I have to say that I am quite a sociable person, which was definitely not the case when I was younger. I considered myself not very outspoken and actually quite shy. Now that I am fishing more often, I always meet new people that are fishing at the same time as I do. You start a conversation on, for instance, what kind of fish they have caught or what equipment they use. In essence, it is not that hard to start a conversation, since you already share the same hobby and passion for fishing. You could even consider it as a lifestyle. There is this mentality in which you cleanse your mind by spending hours and hours trying to catch a beautiful fish. Being out there, in nature, is truly mesmerizing. There are always very interesting phenomena you could encounter during your time outdoors. You are spending time in nature, witnessing the ice-cold water in the mountains, or seeing halcyons flying past huge cliffs. These are wonderful sights that you would not experience from being at home all day. This mentality connects fishermen with each other. Whether you are French, American or from any other part of the world. There is always an underlying connection with another fisherman. And of course, if you are able to speak the language of the other fishermen, then that is an additional bonus!