Archives: Events

Looking for a way to get organised, stimulate yourself and reach for your dreams while expressing your creativity? This 2-hour step-by-step workshop is for you. What is a bullet journal? Check out the description here (https://www.tinyrayofsunshine.com/about-me)!

Jade, a student studying English at the Université d’Angers and library volunteer, has been bullet journaling for four years and is excited about sharing with others how to practice this marvelous concept ! All you need to do is to sign up, bring any notebook of your choice (blank, lined, dotted…), some pens or any supplies you like and get ready to create your new next best friend (on paper). This is not a diary or an agenda but creativity unbound to inspire you, to keep track of your past, organize your present and plan for your future. Your bullet journal will become your new safe space to pull everything together : your own bujo, your own rules and the ones you want to break !

Sign up by emailing info@ellia.org Free workshop for all. Max 7.

The Saturday Reading Group is for anyone who loves to read, socialize in English, and meet new people.

The March read for the group is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who’s telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters’ futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers’ advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives – until their own inner crises reveal how much they’ve unknowingly inherited of their mothers’ pasts.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

Meetings are once a month on Saturday afternoons starting at 3 pm. Open to all library members. To sign up please contact the group coordinator at bookgroup@ellia.org.

The March read for the book club is “Daphné” by Justine Picardie.

It is 1957. As Daphne du Maurier wanders alone through her remote mansion on the Cornish coast, she is haunted by thoughts of her failing marriage and the legendary heroine of her most famous novel, “Rebecca”, who now seems close at hand. Seeking distraction, she becomes fascinated by Branwell, the reprobate brother of the Bronte sisters, and begins a correspondence with the enigmatic scholar Alex Symington in which truth and fiction combine. Meanwhile, in present day London, a lonely young woman struggles with her thesis on du Maurier and the Brontes and finds herself retreating from her distant husband into a fifty-year old literary mystery.

To join the book club please send an email to the group coordinator here.

The library is an authorised test center for the TOEIC Listening and Reading Test (the Test of English for International Communication). For more information please visit our TOEIC page or to sign up go to the official ETS website.

Join the library community for a special moment to talk about anything and everything…in English of course! For the time being, we are inviting everyone to come and socialize but will not be serving drinks in order to keep everyone safe! This is Coffee House with a “hold the coffee” protocol! Things will get better but meanwhile no coffee or tea!

Coffee House is free and open to all library members. Just drop by, no need to reserve!

“Books and Tea” is a monthly meeting for bookworms and tea drinkers. Until further notice according to Covid protocol, this activity will be discussion only, sorry no tea! Bring a book you’ve really enjoyed, talk about it and pass it on! The group meets until further notice at the library. No need to sign up, just come and enjoy! 6 participants maximum, first come, first serve!

Sorry to say that this event has been cancelled due to curfew rules.

Treat yourself to an afternoon of a collective reading of one of Shakespeare’s plays. This activity consists of reading relative scenes. This is a great activity for lovers of language and fans of the great wit. Free and open to all library members. During the current sanitary crisis, the number of participants is limited. For more information or to sign-up, please contact the group coordinator here.

Join the library community for a special moment to talk about anything and everything…in English of course! For the time being, we are inviting everyone to come and socialize but will not be serving drinks in order to keep everyone safe! This is Coffee House with a “hold the coffee” protocol! Things will get better but meanwhile no coffee or tea!

Coffee House is free and open to all library members. Just drop by, no need to reserve!

Stop by the library from March 11 to April 29 during opening hours to see Warren Podguszer’s Art Show. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Warren Podguszer or “Wawapod”, is 29 years old and lives in Paris. He has been practicing street photography for 6 years. At the beginning of his artistic journey, he created works of art digitally using images and photos. However, very quickly, he felt the urge to work with canvas. He equates painting to cooking, even if he doesn’t really know how to cook. When he paints, he has the impression that he takes ingredients he loves, here and there, and then mixes them to create a dish that makes him feel good!

Through his art, he aims to share nostalgic memories with the public. He tries, most of the time, with a range of colors, to bring to life characters that made us dream during our childhood. He takes great pleasure in creating worlds that mix references from our past or our present. The idea behind his art is also to provoke different reactions from the public by adding sentences to make people think, laugh or to denounce an issue. Passionate about art, he enjoys integrating iconic works of art into his style.

Like a journey inside his head, through his thoughts, dreams and inspirations.