France This Way...the blog!!

In France, until a certain age, children have no school on Wednesdays. Instead they are supposed to pursue creative and sporting activities of their own choice. Horse-riding, saxophone playing and pottery classes are some of the choices our children have made. Some children seem to get away with choosing computer games, or watching DVD’s, but Mrs B won’t let ours get away with that.

So they have passed a year being dragged with varying amounts of enthusiasm to various classes, and now is the time that we find out whether it has all been worth the time and effort (and money)…

To justify themselves, or rather to show us what a good job they have done with our children, every course, class or activity has an end of year display or event of some kind. That’s nice, and the least we’d expect I suppose.

Problem is, these can last a little bit too long, start a bit too late in the evening, and generally become quite a wearing experience. Last night was the dance display. Started at 9.30pm and finished at 1.00 am. As you can imagine, three and a half hours of watching 10 year-olds dancing is, well, plenty. Sadly, I had to stay at home because this weeks holidaymakers had not arrived by 9.00pm (they are staying in our holiday rental house), and I needed to be here to let them in. Ah well, Mrs B had a lovely time, even without me being there with her.

But that is just the start, and I can’t find enough excuses for all of them. So in the next week or so I am looking forward to seeing, among others, a pottery exhibition and a concert by a group of saxophonists. And the same group of parents at each, looking progressively worn down by the experience.

Strictly it is the English parents who look worn-out, becayuse the French parents are used to eating late and going out late, whereas the English (when over 35 years old) prefer to eat at 7.30 and go to bed by 11.00.

This has the amusing side-effect that people on holiday here always think the area is over-run with English, because all the voices around them in the restaurants are English speaking. In reality, it is because the English book a table for 7.30, and finish eating and leave by 9.00, which is before the French have even arrived at the restaurant. Americans, I believe, prefer to eat at 5.00pm. If it is true, and not just a cunning plan by the French to mock the Americans for their poor eating habits, they must need to ask the restaurant to open specially. Or perhaps they can just arrive very late for lunch, and call it an early tea.

Anyway, you will see that my entries here get less coherent over the next week or two as I fight off fatigue from my nocturnal adventures, so please excuse me in advance.

Editors note: the phrase in French ‘certain age’ refers to women who have reached middle-age, rather than school children, but as you will have noticed this is written in English. So the first paragraph doesn’t mean the courses continue until the children are 50 years old.