French Adventure.

A tourism training course for teachers of the French language opened at the Asia-Pacific French Language Centre of the Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogical College on September 14.

The four-day course involves twenty-six French language lecturers from universities in Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang and Nha Trang and six foreign lecturers from Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

The trainees will learn about the social environment of tourism, basic concepts of French for tourism and methods of selecting teaching materials, and tapping supplemental sources, such as the Internet and other media.

The training programme aims to improve the lecturers’ knowledge of the language needs in the tourism sector, and develop the quality of teaching French for tourism at universities in Vietnam and other regional countries.

The course is jointly organised by the Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogical College, the Francophone Organisation and the Francophone University Agency with support from the French Embassy in Vietnam.

Tourism in France, the world’s top holiday destination, held up over the summer months because a rise in domestic French holidaymakers offseting a sharp drop in foreign visitors.

French hotels saw visitor numbers rise 1 percent in July and August, breaking down into a 3.6 percent increase in July and a 1.2 percent fall in August, Herve Novelli, state secretary for tourism, said in a statement.

Tourism accounts for around 6 percent of France’s gross domestic product and the government had forecast a marked decline for 2009 because of the economic crisis, extending last year’s 3 percent drop.

Foreign visitor numbers did indeed dive in France over the summer, with a 14.5 percent fall in July-August underlining the tourism downturn that has hit cities, beaches and mountain resorts all over Europe.

Compensating for this, hotels, holiday homes and campsites recorded a 6.3 percent rise in the number of French customers.

“In terms of types of accommodation, we have noticed that French customers tend to stay in more moderately priced accommodation,” the statement said.

Unfaithful French spouses beware: Passionate text messages sent to mistresses and lovers can now be used as evidence against you in a divorce.

Experts say the recent ruling by France’s Supreme Court to accept phone exchanges as legitimate proof of adultery will make it easier for the French to get divorced. Previously, French husbands and wives often had to wait for years to escape a marriage if they could not prove that their spouse was misbehaving or mistreating them.

The June ruling by the country’s highest court went largely unnoticed until it was reported by the French media last week.

Text messages have long been accepted as official proof in murder and other criminal trials in France, and the new decision extends such practice into family law. E-mails are also accepted as evidence in trials.

Getting a divorce can be a lengthy and painful procedure in France. If the spouses fail to agree to separate by mutual consent, those filing for divorce must prove that the spouse was cheating or abusing or mistreating them.

If the judge is not convinced, a divorce will be pronounced only after 2 years of living separately. Up until 2004, French law required couples to wait as long as 6 years.

Over 273,000 marriages and nearly 135,00 divorces were registered in France in 2007, according to government data — meaning that half of all marriages was likely to end in divorce.

C’est la vie!