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A very special Bastille Day!

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Bastille Day is France’s National Day, analogous to Independence Day in the U.S. Its formal French name is la Fête Nationale, and is celebrated every year on July 14, commemorating a key moment of the French Revolution.

USA Today wrote an interesting piece in today’s paper: Bastille Day 2018: What you need to know about the French holiday, if you’d like to learn more.

And in case you missed it, this year Bastille Day falls on the same weekend France is playing the World Cup finals. I know, I know – most Americans don’t care about soccer, but in France, this is like having Super Bowl and 4th of July in the same weekend. This is huge!

By the way, if you’re interested in helping us cheer on Les Bleus (that’s our team, The Blues), follow this link for details about our family-friendly World Cup viewing party tomorrow, Sunday, July 15 starting at 10:30 a.m. We’ll have several TVs tuned into the game, kids activities and more.

Enrollment is now open for the Adult programs

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The next 6-week session for the Aux Petits Soins Language Immersion Classes for Adults starts on Monday, July 9. A full description of the program is available here. To start the enrollment process, please fill out an enrollment form and pay online.

New students who sign up online should make at least a partial payment in order to save their spot. Returning students don’t need to take that step, but both new and returning students need to be paid in full by the first class.

Please remember that there is an annual fee of $25 per person which covers the cost of all teaching materials. It also counts as a one-year membership to Aux Petits Soins, which gives you a full year of access to all APS groups (APS Book Club and APS Group Conversation), whether or not you’re still enrolled in an APS program.

Happy Music Day!

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Today isn’t just the first day of summer — it’s also the French holiday Fête de la Musique,  or “World Music Day.” All over France, there will be free concerts performed by professional and amateur musicians alike who will take advantage of today being the longest day of the year to fill the air with music covering all genres. These planned and impromptu concerts are held in theaters, bars, parks and street corners.

Article: “Fête de la Musique: What you need to know about France’s biggest street music party.”

And what better way to start summer vacation right here in Lansing than with a special day full of exuberant, music-making fun? This Sunday, Aux Petits Soins will host our Second Annual Music Festival. For two hours, we will transform the Aux Petits Soins classroom into a music and dance studio, with a range of musical instruments for the kids to play, a craft table, new French tunes to learn and more.

Space is limited to 15 kids, so make sure to reserve your tickets today. For details and more information, check out the event page on our website, or call (517) 999-7277. Ticket can be purchased online or in person at Aux Petits Soins during our business hours.

It’s time to enroll!

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Enrollment is now open for our three Explorers programs this summer, aimed at kids between the ages of 6 months and 5 years old. The program starts on July 9 and will last six weeks. Summer can get busy, so we mix up our syllabus a little bit more to be more flexible to everyone’s schedules. You can choose to enroll for the full session or purchase individual classes. To enroll, please fill out an enrollment form then pay online.

SUMMER SCHEDULE:
• Explorers I : 5:15 p.m. on Tuesdays and 10:30 a.m. on Fridays
• Explorers II: 5:15 p.m. on Wednesdays and 9:30 a.m. on Fridays
• Explorers III: 5:15 p.m on Mondays and Thursdays

New this summer!!! Kids 5-12 can join our first Summer Camp. To register, please fill out the registration form, then pay online.

“Un beau soleil intérieur” (“Let the Sunshine In”) at Celebration! Cinema

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Good news for fans of French cinema in Lansing! Or, at least, fans of Juliette Binoche and Gérard Depardieu.

Following its big win at the Cannes Film Festival last year, Un beau soleil intérieur (“Let the Sunshine In”) has arrived in Lansing. This French language film (with English subtitles) opens this weekend at Celebration! Cinema – showtimes are here. It’s a bittersweet romantic comedy about a divorced woman (Binoche) looking for her soulmate, and has gotten rave reviews since its release in the U.S. earlier this spring.

This film was brought in town by the East Lansing Film Festival​, which has been committed for over 20 years to screening foreign language films in this area. ELFF Director Susan Woods personally selected this film for Celebration!’s Indie Film Series, which brings independent and foreign films to Lansing nine months a year.

“When I found out this was available for local distribution, I did everything I could to make sure this could come to Lansing,” Woods said. “Because Lansing has a big international population, foreign films – especially French films – do very well here. And besides, Juliette Binoche is absolutely incredible. Everyone loves her.”

Binoche, of course, also starred in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), The English Patient (1996) –which she won an Oscar for – as well as Chocolat (2000) and Godzilla (2014).

 

Kids will explore French culture at Aux Petits Soins Summer Camp

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This summer, Lansing-area kids can explore French culture, food and customs right here in mid-Michigan at Aux Petits Soins Summer Camp. This first-ever event will run July 9-13 and July 16-20 from 9 a.m.-noon.

Kids age 5-12 can join us for one or both weeks of fun learning and social activities. Aux Petits Soins’ head instructor, Gaëlle, and DeWitt High School French teacher, Katie, will engage kids through active learning vocabulary words for having a basic conversation in French and receive a primer on French phonemes (the distinct sounds particular to foreign languages) that will better enable hearing, reading and speaking fluent, accent-free French.

Kids will get their hands on French culture through engaging board games, cooking lessons and art classes. The goal is introduce kids to a new language and culture, and to make French fun and a memorable experience. More details to follow.

Registration is now open – register here!

 

Meet the winner of our second annual #APSAprilFool contest

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French people have a unique way of celebrating April Fool’s Day: you tape a fish on the back of an unsuspecting “victim,” and when the prank is discovered, you scream “Poisson d’Avril!” It’s a tradition that dates back to the 16th century, and has to do with an unpopular king’s decree for a calendar change that bumped the new year celebration from April 1 to January 1. It’s a long story, but you can find out more here or here.

On April 1, we hosted our second annual APS April Fool’s Day event, which this year we turned into a contest. We asked everybody to post pictures with the hashtag #APSAprilFool on social media, with the best picture winning a special prize pack.

And meet the winner! Audrey and her daughter Hannah, won gift certificates from Le Bon Macaron and Aux Petits Soins. Congratulations, we can’t wait to meet you both!