Do those who learned some French at school by any chance remember the text book that I remember? Alas I do not know its title. If I could find it I might well buy a copy as I would like to have another go at it.

There were stories.

I remember one was about, possibly in pre-revolution France, how villagers with small vineyards were obliged to take a small barrel of the wine that they had produced and pour it into a huge barrel at the Bishop's palace, so that the Bishop had a supply of wine for himself and his guests.

A villager was taking his barrel of wine when he met another village on his way back, laughing.

He bragged that he had taken a barrel of water and tipped it in and purported that nobody would notice it amongst the rest of the wine.

Well, the man who heard this decided to do the same and the story spread.

The Bishop and his guests ended up drinking glasses of water because all of the villagers had done the same.

Another story was about two men who went into a café and each ordered fish. The waiter brought a plate each and a bowl with two pieces of fish, one large, one small.

One man insisted "After you" and the other man chose the larger piece of fish.

The first man protested that if he had gone first then as good manners he would have chosen the smaller piece of fish.

The second man said that he (the first man) had got the small piece so he had got what he would have chosen.

Each story was illustrated with a single line drawing, one of a Bishop and his guests drinking, and the other of the two men sat at the table.

There was another story, Le prestidigitateur, the conjurer, but I do not remember that apart from the title.

There may well have been other stories too.

I have no idea whether many schools across the country were using the same textbook.

William