Four Answers:
1) The school week question has been resolved, to nobody's satisfaction except mine and Pippa's. The public schools in Paris will indeed stop teaching an hour and a half earlier on Tuesdays and Fridays, at which point the children will be obliged to stay for an hour and a half recess (which will be the 4th of their day). The recess will be supervised by the current courtyard monitors, who are spectacularly uninterested in the safety of the children, in general, and are not certified teachers. Then the children will have three hours added on Wed morning. Thereby angering teachers, children, parents, unions, the right wing, and the left wing alike. Way to antagonize with equality!
However, Pippa's private school has some leeway. We have been told that our children will continue next year with the same schedule they have this year: full days on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri. Pippa is thrilled. Gigi is unaffected since middle schoolers have to go to school on Wed morning anyway.
2) Easter Part 1: Yes, it turns out we can hear the bells from our apartment, but generally only with the windows open. Definitely much quieter than before. However, they do sound pretty -- more notes and very melodious. The people who live right next to the cathedral must be happy (and a little deaf, too), and we are wondering if perhaps after 850 years of complaining about the noise level, the French bureaucracy finally took action. 849 years would have been too rushed.
3) Easter Part 2: I did my Easter presentation in Pippa's English class at school. I managed nearly an hour without ever mentioning God or Jesus, but somehow ended up talking about basketball and football (Easter basket led to basket, which is the French word for basketball, and also sneakers that one uses to play basketball. This led to a discussion of how football in America is not soccer, which is played with the foot, but rather American football which is played with the hands).
And speaking of soccer: A French girls' team is currently forming in Saint Mandé, on the outskirts of Paris. Wait -- it's the return of my "twenty years behind" theory. So perhaps it's time that the girls' soccer revolution has finally arrived?
4) Well, it's already time to renew my cartes de séjour, mostly because the last time I renewed my year-long residence card, in August 2013, they somehow put an expiration date of May 15. So now my cards will no longer be in synch with Anthony's contractual schedule, even though my residence is based on Anthony's work contracts. I see endless hours of bureaucratic fun with this one!
And an Admission:
Actually, I have more scarves than pictured, especially if you add in the girls', which I can also wear. Some of them were hidden away at photo time. Also, I have since purchased two more (some of the new and previously unpictured ones in the photo below), and I dreaded telling Anthony so much you would've thought I was having an affair. But knowing that it's not the money that bothers my husband but rather the fact that we will all soon be buried under a mountain of scarves, I did give away five as a result. So, as I see it, if I keep up my policy of getting rid of more than I buy, I will soon whittle my way down to zero scarves. At which point I can start accumulating again.
1) The school week question has been resolved, to nobody's satisfaction except mine and Pippa's. The public schools in Paris will indeed stop teaching an hour and a half earlier on Tuesdays and Fridays, at which point the children will be obliged to stay for an hour and a half recess (which will be the 4th of their day). The recess will be supervised by the current courtyard monitors, who are spectacularly uninterested in the safety of the children, in general, and are not certified teachers. Then the children will have three hours added on Wed morning. Thereby angering teachers, children, parents, unions, the right wing, and the left wing alike. Way to antagonize with equality!
However, Pippa's private school has some leeway. We have been told that our children will continue next year with the same schedule they have this year: full days on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri. Pippa is thrilled. Gigi is unaffected since middle schoolers have to go to school on Wed morning anyway.
2) Easter Part 1: Yes, it turns out we can hear the bells from our apartment, but generally only with the windows open. Definitely much quieter than before. However, they do sound pretty -- more notes and very melodious. The people who live right next to the cathedral must be happy (and a little deaf, too), and we are wondering if perhaps after 850 years of complaining about the noise level, the French bureaucracy finally took action. 849 years would have been too rushed.
Photos by Lew Regelman
And speaking of soccer: A French girls' team is currently forming in Saint Mandé, on the outskirts of Paris. Wait -- it's the return of my "twenty years behind" theory. So perhaps it's time that the girls' soccer revolution has finally arrived?
4) Well, it's already time to renew my cartes de séjour, mostly because the last time I renewed my year-long residence card, in August 2013, they somehow put an expiration date of May 15. So now my cards will no longer be in synch with Anthony's contractual schedule, even though my residence is based on Anthony's work contracts. I see endless hours of bureaucratic fun with this one!
And an Admission:
Actually, I have more scarves than pictured, especially if you add in the girls', which I can also wear. Some of them were hidden away at photo time. Also, I have since purchased two more (some of the new and previously unpictured ones in the photo below), and I dreaded telling Anthony so much you would've thought I was having an affair. But knowing that it's not the money that bothers my husband but rather the fact that we will all soon be buried under a mountain of scarves, I did give away five as a result. So, as I see it, if I keep up my policy of getting rid of more than I buy, I will soon whittle my way down to zero scarves. At which point I can start accumulating again.
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