Time for au revoir

Abu Dhabi Alliance Francaise's outgoing director reflects on her tenure in the UAE

For Sophie Wroblewski, the last four years have been lively, exciting and unforgettable. It is a sad time for the outgoing director of Alliance Francaise – the French language and cultural centre in Abu Dhabi.

Wroblewski always viewed Alliance Francaise "not just as a language centre", but a place where students could "experience" French culture. She was at the forefront organising high-profile, memorable and, sometimes, off-beat cultural and social events in the emirate.

The Pablo Cassals concert at the annual Al Ain musical show, the free-spirited Music Day at the Abu Dhabi Hilton, avant garde ballet shows and French plays are some of the events held during her tenure. She was also responsible for bringing photo exhibition by feminist Sophie de la Baz, artists such as Eric Alibert and prominent writers to the UAE.

For the Gulf News interview, Wrobleswski, short-haired and clad in a magenta chiffon skirt and blouse topped with a silver-lined scarf, is seated in the Caravan restaurant of Sheraton Residence. She reminisces about her stint in the emirates – her second.

The first time she came to the UAE was in 1981, accompanying her husband, the then director of Alliance Francaise in Abu Dhabi. Wroblewski was pregnant with her third child and found the city, which was still being developed, difficult to cope with at first. "Nothing prepared us for the heat and I fell sick on the very first day," she says.

She left the UAE in 1986, with her family, for Kenya and Nigeria. All along she was a personal assistant to her husband, helping him manage Alliance Francaise centres in the different places.

"In Kenya we had to cope with nearly 3,000 students by adopting new special teaching methods, while in Nigeria I ended up taking charge of six Alliance Francaise centres," she recounts.

In 1998, the Alliance Francaise head office offered her a job as director of the Abu Dhabi centre. Sophie Wroblewski returned to the UAE 12 years later. By now she was divorced and had attended a university in France for a year. In between she had also worked with children from broken homes, a job close to her heart.