Another great day. After French class, the littles went off to art class. Although there was only one other child in the class, the teacher has a very adventurous spirit and was happy to make it a fun time for all. They don’t speak much English, so Bennett and Cooper were forced to play along in French. Oh- and apparently there is no indoor plumbing in her studio— sorry I missed that. Bennett told me about going to the bathroom- that is something he won’t forget soon!
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| Boys playing with the light table in the art studio. |
Samuel and I got a chance to do the historic walking tour of Sancerre. I could go on about the history of this fortified city on a hill that overlooks the Loire, but you can look it up yourselves.
We stopped at a local restaurant run by a winery. The hostess was very friendly and helped us learn a little more French. She was excited to hear that we were with the school and happy to help us talk about the weather in French. We compared sayings about the month of March: hers was « May wind and April showers bring May flowers; » we taught her « in like a lion, out like a lamb. »
Some other students arrived at our school this week, which helped create a more festive environment than last week. We have a pretty busy week now that we’ve added the art after school for Monday and Wednesday— oh no! Our French life is starting to look like our American life. Oh— you can take the girl out of America, but you can’t get her to slow down. Or something like that.
Yes it seems the panic that my children weren’t learning enough was taking over. Feeding into that « Race to Nowhere. » I get it. I compromised with myself and only added two extra classes for the days when we had French in the morning. Friday I am taking the kids horseback riding for our last day in the truly rural country of France.
That is something that I am definitely getting in touch with on this trip. One always thinks of Paris, but most of France is farmland and we are here in the heart of it. Not just wine country, but the beautiful Loire Valley. I look forward to our train ride through the country this Saturday to see more of the countryside.
OK — that’s it for today- boring- and I did laundry. But I did it in France!
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