Quiche aux legumes, tart au poulet et au fromage, croissant, jus de citron…it was all French at St. Teresa’s College on January 8. The college was hosting its annual event La Fete Francophone 2013-14.
Teachers shepherding school children from venue to venue, stalls selling French food and fruit juice and the not-very-French costume jewellery made of quilling paper. The venue was a beehive of activity.
The event is organised by the college’s department of French. The event is an inter-school and collegiate competition which will see participants write and sing in French, besides making salads and showcasing their knowledge of France.
The literary competition comprised quiz and essay writing, the cultural competitions saw rendition of French songs while salad making, Adzap and Le Melange (a photography exhibition) constituted creative competitions.
At a ‘stall’ that announces ‘crepe au chocolat’ – Bila Boss and Rosemin Rich of the department of French make crepes.
Bila makes the crepe, Rosemin spreads the chocolate paste and sprinkles powdered cashewnut and rolls out crepe after crepe. Each is priced at Rs. 25, “the proceeds from the sale go to our department,” they say.
Sabeena Bhaskar, head of the department, says that in the past five years there has been an increase in the number of participants, “French is taught as a second language in schools due to which there is a surge in numbers.” The college has been organising the event since 2007.
The salad making, which was held in three categories, saw keen competition. All the competitions were conducted in three categories – Classes IV-VII, Classes VIII-X and Classes XI – college. The participants were given a list of ingredients which could be used and had to be assembled in 30 minutes. Vinay Joshi, Rachna S. Nair and Augustine Thaliyath of Greets Public School proudly show their work – Vegetable Nicose. The recipe came from the Net but “we had to improvise because we couldn’t find all the ingredients.” For Sachin Saji Mathew and his partner Rohan K. Mathew of TOC-H School too the Net was the source for their delicious looking Salad Lyonnaise. These were participants in the second category.
The judges were ‘Frenchman from Fort Kochi’ Misha and Noby who works with a pizza chain. The photography exhibition saw several photographs based on the photographer’s perception of the topic, Le Melange.
