Jean Girard

I grew up on the east coast and met my French husband during a summer study program in Paris in 1990. We got married in 1991 and lived in Paris until 1998 (two of my children were born there) when my husband got transferred first to England then to California in 2001. While living in France I worked for a French company, but by the time we moved to the US I was a stay-at-home mom. I volunteered to do French enrichment classes at our elementary school and finished a French teaching credential during that time.
I have been teaching high school French for the past ten years. I started doing Manie in either 2018 or 2019 – I don’t remember. My colleague used a lot of French music in her classes, so I did the same. The first year I just played the songs and had my classes vote informally, but little by little I started to do more with the songs and voting.
While I have no musical talent (although my son is a music teacher and plays several instruments), I enjoy listening to music and in particular French artists. My top five listened to on Spotify in 2023 were French and Vitaa was number one. I try to plan my trips to France around concerts that are happening. Last summer I saw M. Pokora in Paris. I just bought tickets to see Cabrel in California in June. I look forward to discovering new songs each year with Manie.