France comes to Oklahoma

Upon our return from Amiens, we began frantically preparing for the visit from the French delegation. We finally set a date for March - during Spring Break - and began making arrangements to welcome the French Minister of Education, the Ambassador to the United States, the Consul Général from Houston, and representatives of the Picardie region, Jules Verne University, and the Académie d'Amiens. As you would expect, plans changed on a daily basis. In the end, nothing went as originally planned, but the signing took place nonetheless. Because then-President Jacques Chirac had just announced that he would not be running for a third term, he needed all of his ministers in Paris. This meant that Mr. Gilles de Robien would not be joining us. His change of plans resulted in all of our plans being changed. Other people who had planned on coming didn't, and we welcomed new delegates who weren't on the original schedule. Still, we were honored to welcome a 10-person delegation to take part in this historical signing.

The French arrived in waves. The first wave was Mr. Sofiane Tahi, special counselor to the president of the Université Jules Verne. Desa and I met him at the airport and got him settled in at newly reopened Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. We offered to take him to dinner, but he declined claiming he was tired. The next day we found out he'd wandered around and ended up at the Blazers-Oilers hockey game and learned to yell "Let's go Blazers," among other things. We spent Sunday with Mr. Tahi, attending a session at the K20 Winter Institute, searching for good espresso in downtown OKC, lunching with Millie Audas & Jack Hobson from OU, and touring the Napoleon exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Later, Mr. Tahi, Charlotte & I rode the Bricktown water taxi before meeting Jack for dinner at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar & Grill. There, we had to teach our new friend about chicken fried steak, fried okra and free refills of his favorite new drink - Dr. Pepper. (Many visitors to the U.S. find that Dr. Pepper tastes like medicine, and they tend to avoid it).

While we were having dinner, the second wave of the French delegation arrived. In this group were Chantal Manes, Mme Campion, and Maître Lec, a lawyer and member of the regional council of Picardie. We were so excited to see our friend Chantal again, and the anticipation of the signing really began to grow.

Monday we spent the day at the University of Oklahoma, where we had lunch with the leaders from the K20 Center before meeting with them at the research park. We also were treated to a bilingual tour of the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. Maître Lec entertained us in the car on the way back by reading us our horoscopes from the Oklahoma Daily. Between the visit to Norman and dinner, I escorted Mr. Tahi and Mr. Lec to Shepler's for cowboy hat shopping, which proved to be a cultural event in and of itself!

That evening, the final wave of the delegation arrived just in time for dinner at The Petroleum Club. Mr. François Rivasseau, deputy French Ambassador to the United States and Mr. Robby Judes represented the French Embassy. From the French Consulate in Houston, we were joined by the Consul Général Mr. Patrick Berron, and Mr. Joël Savary, the cultural attaché. From Paris, we were fortunate to have Mr. Marc Foucault from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. François Decoster, who is the top diplomatic adviser to the National Minister of Education.

Dinner at the Petroleum Club was sponsored by FSB, the architectural firm of the father of one of my students. Because I couldn't stop talking about the pending MOU at school, my enthusiasm seemed to rub off on the kids. Seth, equally excited about the arrival of the French, shared the news with his parents, Philip & Nancy. They e-mailed me offering to sponsor a dinner! This was a huge relief to Desa, who had been scrambling to find sponsors since state taxpayer money could not be used on food. The McNayrs and the Frankforts deserve an award for patience, as plans for the dinner changed on a daily basis. In the end, it was a very special evening. Seth, who was seated between Mme Campion and Mr. Judes, made me so proud. I was watching them from across the table, and I could tell they were speaking in French. I looked at Mme Campion and gave her an inquisitive thumbs-up. She shook her head at this, and then gave me two thumbs-up. Of course, this brought tears to my eyes, and I later began introducing Seth as the future ambassador of the United States to France. Here, he's pictured next to Mr. Tahi and Mr. Rivasseau.

Tuesday was the Big Day - the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. I began the day by having coffee with my father so Mr. Lec could meet an Oklahoma lawyer. I served as interpreter, and think it was the first time my dad had really heard me speak French. Mr. Lec is very interested in establishing relations with lawyers in Oklahoma and Picardie, something I recently heard may really be in the works. From there, we had breakfast at the Skirvin with the French delegation and State Superintendent of Education Sandy Garrett. Other guests included Lieutenant Governor Jeri Askins, representatives from the State Department of Education, the University of Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma City community. At breakfast, the French were presented with gifts from the SDE - Frankoma plates commemorating Oklahoma's Centennial. Combined with the gifts we took to France in December and the gifts from the Alliance Française and Tulsa Global Alliance, there is a significant collection of Frankoma Pottery in northern France!

From breakfast, we moved downstairs for the press conference and signing of the MOU ... at last! In attendance were fifth-grade students from Eisenhower Immersion School in Tulsa, who were getting ready to spend a few weeks with their partner school in Amiens. The speeches at the signing were very moving, and in the end, Chantal, Desa and I - among others - were in tears because all of our hard work over the past few months had finally come to fruition.

After the signing, everyone met at the Oklahoma Historical Society for lunch. We were joined by about 150 people - members of the Oklahoma City Francophone community, senators & legislators, school administrators, and were entertained by the Classen School of Advanced Studies Orchestra. Lunch ended all to soon, and then it was time for all of the delegation minus Chantal to go to the airport. We couldn't believe it was over so quickly! Goodbyes were tearful but we were reassured that the Oklahoma-Amiens partnership would have us seeing each other again soon.

The rest of the week we spent with our friend Chantal. After a frantic shopping adventure at Penn Square, Chantal treated Desa and me to a manicure. Then, we joined the Oklahoma City French Conversation group for a wonderful evening at Dody Turk's house. We went to Tulsa to meet with Judy Glenn of the Tulsa Global Alliance, and visited Guthrie High School - the only one in the area that had school during Spring Break! We saw "Picnic" at Carpenter Square Theatre and visited the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial. To bring our whirlwind week to a close, we were treated to a brunch hosted by the Alliance Française of Oklahoma City. I think Chantal and the others left with a greater understanding of our State and a deep appreciation for the generosity and enthusiasm of our citizens. Oklahoma really made me proud!