Thursday

This morning, I witnessed Louis giving his assailant the brush-off  as he strolled over to the ping-pong table to talk to some other children. The said assailant went and hid his face in his mother's skirt.  I don't know if the ( very nice)  mother has been told about The Incident - she was talking to someone, so  luckily I didn't have to speak to her. I'll leave this to the teacher. We'll think about Christian forgiveness later. Perhaps.

Today, the children won't be staying to school lunch : they have been invited to lunch with Hugo and Adrien. Sacha was quite anxious about how he would tell the teacher (already warned,) that he wouldn't be eating at school, so this morning,  with his teacher, he practiced replying to the daily question of "Est-ce que tu manges à l'école?"  with "Non, je ne mange pas."  (Which of course he was perfectly capable of doing anyway.)

In response to popular request, HERE IS THE CAKE. Those silicone moulds are great, except for the first use. This was the first use, so the cake suffered a little in the unmoulding process. But it tasted fine.

Dance and Water

Nick had left me two Michael Jackson CDs, telling me that the boys were fans, so I played these on my computer last night. No sooner had the opening bars of "Thriller" started, than both boys started dancing around my study, in an intricate routine, each weaving patterns around the other with some very flashy M.J. movements. Sacha was particularly careful to integrate the less delicate ones with panache on several occasions.. I was quite enthralled, as I had never seen them dance like this. Afterwards, I seized the opportunity of showing them a clip of Marcel Marceau doing his original moon-walk.

Over supper, we decided that this had definitely been a WATER day. Swimming lesson (they are now beginning crawl movements)had  started the day, and later, we went to Beaucouzé to buy a swimming cap for Louis' school swimming lesson, and some new "swimmers" for Sacha. On our return, Papy put on the garden spray, so it was back into swimming trunks  for a dash around the garden. Lunch was fish : dorades en papillotte.

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 In the afternoon, we blew up the paddling pool , so off came the tee-shirts once more :

Later in the afternoon, we made a cake (yes, of course it was a yoghourt cake as we are in France!) Washing-up apparently has its charms, long may it stay that way.

We saw little London friends Molly and Lily on Skype this evening: it was lovely to see you, girls!

Fighting, and Diplomacy

Sacha showing a late raspberry he has just found.

Arriving for the music lesson in the Château du Pin

October is nearly here, but it has been almost uncomfortably hot today.  I had to be at the school for 13h45 as I was once again accompanying the class to the Galérie Sonore,  for their second music lesson of the year. The little girls of Louis' class looked lovely and cool in their sundresses or smart shorts. The boys looked great in their colourful shirts. What a shame that in a few years' time it'll be  a uniform of jeans and dark tops, day in, day out.

Today's lesson was in the Brazilian room, with some very unusual instruments to try out: things to scrape, rattle, and slap. Plus a little chanting.

Louis has been in his first fight : the little American gave him a bash "for no reason,"  and he has a red mark on his leg.  The teacher says that Louis was in no way to blame....When François and I went to collect the children at 16h45, François had a word with the child. He apparently told him that the next time that he hurt Louis, he would have HIM to deal with.
"You said that in English, I hope, as he can't speak a word of French" said I.
François looked surprised. "No, I didn't.  But anyway, by the look on his face, I know that he understood."

Games, and Prizes

Nick hadn't been able to get a Sunday afternoon train, so he left at breakfast time this morning. IIt was hard to say goodbye, but when we arrived at school, the boys perked up as there was an outdoor English lesson going on, and the whole school sang an English song that they had been practising.

Sacha's last words as I left were "Remember, you said that we could play that game again tonight," the game we had played last night with his Dad and Papy. He had won, which pleased him enormously. It was a Bingo, of  clothes and colours using the French word order: (some gloves brown, some boots grey, a dress green.) Papy had searched in his secret corner for a bag of old French pre-euro centimes to use as caches. ("But you said that Papy WASN'T rich." )You wouldn't get very far with even a suitcase full of those, dear heart.

This week we are going to play some number Bingos, to get those numbers really fluent.

(Later) When I went to get the children, Louis came out with a little friend who told me "Louis has won a prize! " Louis rummaged in his bag, and brought out a DVD. Little by little, I was able to make out what had happened : when the parents had left the school this morning, Louis had been asked to climb the headmaster's ladder (you can see it on the photo of the first day of school!) and recite the poem, and sing the famous "Pomme de Reinette."  Just Louis, in front of the whole school. Well done, lad, your great-grandmother won't be the only one bursting with pride.

Plants, pool, and Papa

Friday evening was taken up with a very necessary trip to Géant to buy new shoes for Louis. Holes in jeans are cool, holes in shoes less so                                     

                                                                                      But you can't go to Géant with your Dad and not show him the Lego shelves .

The evening was still warm enough for a BBQ in the garden without jumpers..

On Saturday, Nick took the boys out for the day to Terra Botanica, a local theme park with over 40 activities and attractions, concerned with all aspects of plant life.. People come from all over the Anjou region, as it is a good day out for families, especially on sunny days..

This is the English link to the site :  for the French link you just have to click on the appropriate flag at the top of the page : . http://www.uk.terrabotanica.fr  

Ouch, that really hurts.

 They had a good day, even if it wasn't as hair-raisingly dynamic as they would have liked, and they would probably have got much more out of it had their French been better. However, they did get one of the tours all  to themselves, entirely in English.  They enjoyed the trip on bus AND tram to get there, and Louis asked for the tickets in his best French.

Sunday morning brought a trip to the swimming pool, followed by Sunday lunch in the garden.