Thanks to you all for your responses, [mention]Doug[/mention] [mention]demi[/mention] I was really only echoing Char's comment about voting being the only difference, deep down I feel as you do and have done for many years which was the reason for me starting this element of the discussion.
[mention]MAD87[/mention] I have probably mentioned in the past about Fran's Irish descent (her maiden name can only be Irish
), the first thing we did in 2016 was try to trace and confirm it, but too far back, we think her Grandfather was Irish born, his father definitely was but thought to be a Fenian who fled the law after a loss of life (all the modern family say he was a murderer) so not surprisingly the documented history is distorted.
[mention]DominicBest[/mention] It would seem to be, but I have an uneasy feeling of how easily things could change, my confidence in any kind of permanence was severely shaken by the Brexit vote. In spite of every French person who has discussed it hastening to deny it, who knows what a Le Pen Presidential victory might bring? And by extension, to newbie nationals too, not just residents.
I think I will press on, although both my parents were born more than a hundred years ago and, although I passed it, my experience of the language test was not a good one and I was convinced I had failed. I simply could not keep up with the recording played back and the questions on it and ended up guessing at most of the answers. Only the personal interview went well, when the lady was asking me to describe my life and experience in France. Talking about myself has never been hard.
That is the nub of my problem, as I stated before, I can express myself in French with relative ease, because it is me who is choosing the words, but trying to follow words of others' choosing is a different matter. A bit like wading into the sea and breasting the breakers, it only needs one giant one, a word or phrase unknown, to bowl you over and loose the thread completely.
