On previous Saturday, it was high time to take part to the
Dictée du Balfroid. (OK, when I say "take part", I mean taking part while watching the show on telly.) Basically, it's a spelling contest for kids who are currently on the sixth form of Primary School.
This year was the 20th anniversary of the creation of the
Dictée, a project that came from the mind of Madame Balfroid (see second picture, next to Jacques Mercier, TV presenter), a retired Primary School teacher. Semi-finals were organised in each of the 5 French-speaking
provinces (namely Brabant wallon, Hainaut, Liège, Luxembourg and Namur) and in Brussels. More than 800 pupils made it into the finals which took place at the Heysel, a series of huge exhibition halls, not far away from the Atomium.
When I was at Primary School, being the best at spelling, I got to sign up for the semi-finals, then I qualified for the finals… where I didn't win, unfortunately. Of course, I was proud to have experienced it. Back in that time, texts were longer and fairly more complicated. Now, seven years later, I can see that texts are much more easy than they used to. Here's this year's text:
L’urgence de reparler de l’eau (dictée de la finale)Souvent les entretiens privés et politiques que nous ont relatés les journaux avaient pour objet ce précieux liquide.
Le sujet de l’eau revient en force cette année-ci, car on a enfin constaté, non sans effroi, que celle-ci allait cruellement manquer dans les années à venir.
Certains lacs orientaux sont déjà à sec. Des populations entières, assoiffées d’eau potable, arpentent des distances considérables pour trouver le puits qui les assouvira.
Les nappes souterraines se tarissent et des arbres squelettiques ont été çà et là observés.
Croyons-nous que cette matière ne nous concerne pas, nous les gaspilleurs jusqu’à outrance de cet élément vital que nous n’avons pas apprécié à sa juste valeur ?
Le réchauffement de la planète que l’on craint aura tôt fait de justifier notre angoisse d’une pénurie annoncée et d’une aridité évidente.
Quelles que soient nos appréhensions, il faut que nous gérions d’urgence notre façon de consommer puisque le temps nous est compté.Of course, I didn't make any mistake: it was too easy. Really. I mean it. Before, you had to write it on two pages, and now on one single page. And there are less difficulties such as the
accord du participe passé – a matter that petrified us in that time…
We're already in April 2006! Our school gave to 54 students the opportunity to go to Greece as last year destination, and I obviously opted for it. We had to go to Brussels to get the plane, but before leaving Belgium, my parents, my brother and I went to the chip-shop Vandervaeren not far away from the Atomium. I thought I wouldn't get any fries in Greece. Wait and see. So we ate those marvelous chips (they're the best in Brussels, even better than on the Place Jourdan) before going to Brussels Airport. Meanwhile, I took a picture of our beloved monument.
As of 2004, we decided to go to Brussels every 21 July. And so, in 2005, we were back. The day usually starts with the going to Brussels with the car (about 75 minutes), then we stop not far away from the Atomium in order to buy fries at the well-known chip-shop (or as we say in Belgium "fritkot"). The fact is that you've got to be there at 11.30, otherwise there's a queue of 30 people (quite often Chinese or Italians) waiting for their "authentic Belgian fries". The best part of it is that we eat in the car, while seeing ravens which come, hoping that we give them something—if not, they eat trash from the chip-shop.
