11 November 2021

Le Lycée Corneille à Rouen

In 1972, the University of Illinois sent me to spend a school year in Rouen. I was given a job as an assistant d'anglais in a boys' boarding school called the Lycée Corneille (women went to the Lycée Jeanne-d'Arc back then). Being an "assistant" meant that I helped the English teachers at the school, who were all French and had various levels of fluency and fairly thick accents in English, in any way that I could or that they requested. Two or three of the half-dozen of them asked me to hold conversation sessions in English with their students one hour a week. My job was supposed to be half-time, or about 20 hours a week, and I didn't make enough money to be able to travel much or even eat in restaurants, for example. I was 23 years old and I didn't want to ask my parents for financial support.

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It was up to me to find a place to live. Other assistants in other schools around Rouen and Le Havre were given rooms in their schools for which they may or may not have had to pay rent, but I wasn't offered that option. I got lucky, though. A woman who worked in the offices at the Lycée Corneille told me that her parent had a small apartment that they were remodeling and would rent it to me for a very good price (probably about $40 a month).

I jumped at the chance. It was only a 10 to 15 minute walk from the lycée. It was even closer to the place du Vieux-Marché where I could buy groceries. And it was just a 5-minute walk to the train station, in case I wanted to go to Paris or elsewhere. My apartment was in the building in photo #1. Photo #2 shows the statue of the 17th century playwright Pierre Corneille, for whom the lycée was named. Photo #3 shows a café/restaurant called Le Drugstore that was about half-way between my apartment and the lycée. I had many cups of coffee there, as well as the occasional "banana split" that the place was famous for back then. I might have even had a hamburger there now and then.

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At one point in history the lycée was known as the College Royal. Famous alumni have included the writers Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, André Maurois, Pierre Corneille, and Thomas Corneille; the painter Camille Corot; politicians Jean Lecanuet and Jean-Luc Mélenchon; and actors Jean Rochefort and Karine Viard. (You might have to look some of those up.) The English teachers at Corneille were fairly snooty, and several of them weren't happy to have an American teaching assistant because they thought their students ought to learn English with a British accent. Some of them made fun of my accent, but the students were very interested in things American.

It was all quite an experience, even though my living conditions were pretty primitive — no telephone or bathroom, and a WC shared with other tenants, but at least I had a refrigerator, a stove, hot water, a radio, and a rented TV. I took showers in the dorm at the lycée when the students were in class. At Christmastime I caught the flu and thought I was going to die. I somehow acquired a portable (manual) typewriter and did some typing for some of the professors to earn a little bit of extra money. Good bread was cheap, as was decent wine. I could afford a newspaper every day and a book from time to time. I learned a lot about cooking on a tight budget.

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The middle picture here shows the view I had on my way back to my apartment when I left school. I walked past the Tour Jeanne-d'Arc twice a day. I had a good year. I made friends and learned a lot of French. I co-authored a book with one of the lycée teachers and he got it published by Hachette in Paris.

20 comments:

  1. What an interesting post, and what nice architecture you got to walk by. I wonder if you think the French language has changed from the time you were in Rouen to the present day? Corot, a great artist.

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    1. It's hard for me to say. People use a lot more English words, especially on television. Some vowels are pronounced slightly differently, but that may be a passing fad. New words come into the language and some get widely adopted but others are more like shooting stars that don't last long.

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  2. I agree on what Diogenes says. This post makes your life in France and especially in Rouen as a young man so vivid. You were so lucky to get an apartment, ever so primitive it was, and to meet French people.

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    1. The apartment was brand new as far as wallpaper and appliances went. The owner didn't plan to put in a refrigerator but I said I wouldn't take it unless he did. And he did. There was nothing he could do about a bathroom, really. Later, I lived in Asnières-sur-Seine for more than a year with no refrigerator, but I had a full bathroom. I was working too hard in those days to be able to do much cooking, and I had the money to eat in restaurants.

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  3. You co-authored a book!? That Hachette published!? So cool!

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    1. I worked on the book for 6 months in Rouen and then for another year in Champaign-Urbana, by correspondence. It was published in 1975, and I remember seeing a copy on display in the windows of the Hachette building in the Latin Quarter (or was it Saint-Germain-des-Prés?).

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  4. A most interesting post. With so little money things had to fall in place and they did. You could have been very lonely, but you were busy learning how to teach and cook. I bet the kids loved learning about American ways. We want to know more about the book.

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    1. If I’m not mistaken, it’s about compounded words in French. Some may be tricky. Ken will tell us more about it and compounded words.

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    2. So, I’m confused (as usual!). This is another book.

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  5. J. and E., here's what I just found on the internet: that book.

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    1. I have a copy of the book. Looking at it, I find it very dated. Much of it is about the Vietnam war, for example.

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  6. Also interesting that some teachers wanted the kids to learn British accented English. Of course, that could be a whole variety of things as there are TONS of British accents by locale and class. Which was correct, only recieved pronunciation? In fact there was a good Audrey Hepburn movie on that topic.

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    1. Yes, RP (the Queen's English). American was considered to be a bastardized dialect.

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  7. I have so enjoyed your Rouen series, Ken, and that includes today's post on your year teaching at the Lycee Corneille. Following my year abroad in Rouen (1968-69), those in the program were invited to enroll in an undergraduate course on 17th c. French theater taught by a new professor at Illinois poached from UPenn, RJN. As I recall, we studied two of Corneille's plays, Le Cid and Polyeucte, and it was in that class that I learned about the 3 unities (time, space, action), and Corneille's "querelle" with Richelieu/the Academie Francaise for not adhering to them. Such a pleasure to stroll down memory lane with you as you evoke memories of 50-plus years ago.



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    1. Thanks, Bob. I spent a lot of time in Rouen after my year as an assistant d'anglais there because I had friends. They lived in Mont Saint-Aignan in the early '70s but then moved to Bois-Guillaume and later into central Rouen, not far from the place du Vieux-Marché. I sometimes wish I had been able to live there again. But I was working in Paris.

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  8. What an interesting life you have had! Today's story was very enjoyable--thanks so much.

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  9. W O W!! Ken you are published! Who knew??? We should have known you would be "famous"!
    So which do you think was more beneficial? The refrigerator or the full bathroom? Pretty clever of you to make that point to your first landlord about the refrigerator! That took guts. Also clever for you to use the dorm for your showers. Prices must have been dirt cheap (I was in Germany at the same time - and the Deutsch-mark was 4 to 1 American Dollar) Of course, I had a full-time job and my husband was in the military so there was no comparison to your 20 hrs/week pay, I would guess. I've been to Rouen but only for an afternoon (maybe 4 hours) but now Rouen is on my list of places to see/revisit as well. What an experience to walk the halls of that lycée and think about all those famous people being there before you! If I get there, I might have to see if I can walk the halls, too!

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    1. Rouen is worth the visit, that's for sure. I don't think I had the right to work except at the school. I didn't have a visa that allowed other work. I think the refrigerator was more important, since I needed to cook my meals at the apartment. Taking showers during the day at the lycée was not a problem.

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