Louis in the wars

Poor Louis has had a bad day today. He fell over in the playground, and skinned his elbow and his knee (luckily fairly well protected by sports clothes as Thursday afternoon is sports afternoon.)

All was well until after supper. Sacha left the table and gave us a very personal version of the French can-can. Louis was enchanted, and wanted to join in with the high-kicks, so he slipped down from his chair, and somehow managed to do a high-kick directly into the oven door. With no slippers on. OH, the agony.


The poor middle toe does look rather red. We have put some soothing ointment on it, and will wait until tomorrow to see whether it merits a visit to the doctor.

Sacha amazed us by his nursing professionalism. He tenderly helped his brother to his bed, tucked him in, with much smoothing of the duvet and pillow, and then selected clothes for Louis to wear tomorrow. Louis, by this time enjoying his invalid status, loved every minute and was an exemplary patient.

Final month

Just one more month to go. The boys' teachers have started lamenting : "They will be going home just before that wonderful moment in February when it all comes together and they really start chattering in French. "

I have promised that the children won't stop speaking French once they are in England, and that the boys will certainly call in to see them whenever they come over to visit us.

Today the swimming went very well. They are both making great progress. Going swimming with Nick twice during his last stay has been a good  stimulus for them.

This afternoon François took over from 4-6p.m. while I went to my Italian lesson. I left the three of them in the Botanic Gardens, and apparently they played until they dropped. Louis and Sacha, that is.

Slates

Not far from Angers is Trélazé, where the  slate quarry museum, le Musée de l'Ardoise is situated. We went there on Sunday afternoon.




The museum is on the site of an old slate quarry. We were given a short tour, and a potted history of  slate quarrying in the region, dating back to at least the 16th century.


It was very interesting for the adults, but the explanations were rather long for the children. Nobody minded when they left the group to  to  run among the leaves and rummage for chips of slate.

We all enjoyed the demonstration of the traditional methods of splitting the slates. A retired slate-worker  armed with wooden mallets, chisels, and huge wooden clogs to protect his feet, expertly sliced off pieces of slate before our very eyes. Many of the houses of this region have roofs made out of slate even today. Ours certainly does.

He told us about his apprenticeship (5 years,) his obligatory nickname, (his was "Rossignol "= Nightingale, although some were given nicknames that were were far more earthbound,)  and the difficult conditions of work. 

Today, the methods of extraction and cutting are far more industrialised and less arduous for the workers. But the older workers miss the traditional ways and gestures. 

The boys were most impressed with the tree-trunk clogs. We helped them to understand some of the stone worker's anecdotes, and they look at the rooftops of Angers with new eyes.

Roundabout

We have been chasing a roundabout around Angers for a couple of weeks now, but it has always eluded us. It is never in the same place for long. Yesterday morning we tracked it down near to the town centre, and made it an excuse for a wander.

First we went to the central Saturday market, and admired the piles of autumn vegetables. We resisted buying very much as the car was parked a long walk away. You have to get up early, and find a place in the nearby underground carpark if you want to fill your trolley and baskets. 

We walked on to the flea market a short walk away, and to our surprise, there was a clarinet for sale. We had just been discussing the instrument with Louis, who is interested in learning to play it. We had passed a music shop, and admired a new clarinet in the window. And now, a few minutes later, here was one going for a song, or more exactly, for 60 euros.

However, we decided to be prudent and wait for Caroline's cousin Annie to give him an expert demonstration of her own instruments and some advice. He will probably borrow one from the school, at least for his first lessons.

We finally reached the roundabout. It had been worth waiting for.

Armistice Day

Today, Armistice Day, is a National holiday, and so last night homework was not a priority. Selma came as usual, and we invited her to play "Market Day" with us. I don't remember where this game appeared from, and as far as I know it never had any instructions enclosed. After a quick search on Google, all was explained. I am glad now that I saved it from the dustbin when we moved.

We spent a happy time buying and selling farm animals, losing cards when our animals jumped the hedges, and winning them when we landed on the lucky crowing cockerel, or on the farmer playing cards with his cronies. It was good to see both boys playing in French for nearly an hour.

Today the sun re-appeared, and the children helped François to pick up the leaves in the garden.

Who would have thought that one little silver birch tree could go on and on producing so many dead leaves. There are sacks of them waiting in the garage to be taken to the dump.

Caroline arrived this afternoon, and took the boys to the park. We had nems (little Vietnamese spring rolls) for supper, and Louis' tooth fell out, his second in two days! He is very pleased.

Nouns and Worms

Louis has recently discovered the dreaded gender problem in French. All nouns are masculine or feminine, even if they are plainly not girls or boys. Why is a nose masculine and an ear feminine? A knife masculine and a fork feminine? You just have to remember the gender of every new noun that you learn.  François helpfully told him that Mamie still makes mistakes, even after all these years. I hope that this revelation will be a motivation, and not a discouragement.

This afternoon, as it is Wednesday, Louis was invited to play with Timothée. Sacha helped François to pot some chrysanthamums, and was pleased to find a ladybird in the garden as well as various worms.

Praise and Sounds

I heard nice things about both boys today. Sacha's teacher told me that although he is sometimes in a dream, he is smiling and pleasant all the time and very much loved by the other children. It will be hard for the class when he leaves at Christmas.

Louis' class are allowed to spend time in the school library, and choose a book to take home for the week. One of the pupils has a grandmother who comes in to help. She came up to congratulate me on Louis' polite behaviour, (he had apparently remembered to say s'il vous plaît and merci and au revoir Madame, )  and was gratified that Louis had chosen a French book to take home. It seems that other English speaking pupils tend to  choose books from the English section.

We tried a new game this evening, which worked well. It was a Sound Bingo. It is an old game of mine for teaching English to small children, but it works just as well in French. There is a cassette tape of various sounds, and we each had a card with pictures on it. If for example we heard chirping, then the person with a picture of a bird singing could cover it with a counter, as long as he had said what he could hear. Thank goodness that François was with us to tell us the different motor sounds - a lorry, a motor bike, a car, and a tractor (1980s models of course,) all sound extremely similar to me.