We were delighted by the turnout at the first annual Dorothy Speirs-Vincent Rendez-vous. Organized by members of the Milford French group as a gift to their teacher, this event brought esteemed author Roch Carrier to a large and appreciative audience.

Carrier shared stories from his childhood, and experiences as director of the Canadian Council for the Arts. He then read from his latest title, Demain matin j’écris un roman. It was a bilingual talk in both English and French, and it attracted a number of the French speakers in the County.

The library took advantage of the opportunity to distribute a survey about the French content at the library. If you missed the survey at the Carrier event, copies are available at any branch of the library. As you may know, the library has a small collection of French language titles for adults, and a larger collection for children (or beginning French readers of any age).

With a limited budget which must stretch to cover everything from ebooks to picture books to best sellers, we have to decide whether there is sufficient demand to purchase more French books. If you are interested in reading in French, please let me know. You can send any comments to [email protected] or call 613-399-2023. We are also planning a focus group, so if you would like to take part you can contact me as well. We will choose a date when we have enough participants.

You may be interested to know that you can access French language books through the interlibrary loan service, which means borrowing books from other libraries. If you are interested in specific French titles and would like to request them from other libraries, contact Jenn at [email protected] with your requests. In fact, there are books in other languages available through Interlibrary loan as well, and you can connect with Jenn to find out more.

If you are interested in learning French, consider joining Les Amis Francais, which is a welcoming conversational group that meets weekly on Wednesdays at noon at the Picton library branch. It is led by Leah Garfield-Wright, the Milford Branch Librarian who is keen to share her love of the French language with the community.

If you would rather learn at home, the library has access to Mango Languages, which is an online service you can access with your library card number and PIN. Through Mango Languages you can learn any of over 70 languages in a user-friendly, conversational format. Visit peclibrary.org to find it and if you need help or would like a demonstration, drop by your local branch of the library.

Additionally, Kanopy, a film streaming site available from the library, has a series called “Bonjoir Les Amis”and one called “Little Pim: At Home – French for Kids”. If you visit Kanopy from the library’s page and search “French” you will also find a collection of French films. As always, if you have feedback or comments regarding the library’s collection, contact me by e-mail: [email protected], call 613- 399-2023 or drop in to your neighbourhood library.