La Rentrée

"La Rentrée" is the French word that is used to describe going back to school in December. It's an official meaning, with a capital L and a capital R. In America, every school system decides what day is the first day. Not here. The entire country starts on the same day. This leads to, in my opinion, bedlam everywhere you look. But they are used to it so everyone just grumpily plods along that first week, traffic jams and long lines and hyper kids everywhere.

3 weeks after D-Day, I can barely keep it together. Everybody wants to learn English. Now. Everybody wants articles about je ne sais quoi translated. Now. Let's just say there's a reason why I haven't posted since Saturday!

Sunday we had a big American-style brunch with friends Emma and Florent, recently married this summer on the same day as my niece in America thus we couldn't attend their wedding. We enjoyed looking at photos of their ceremony and honeymoon (La Reunion and Ile Maurice - hmm, ring a bell, i.e. where WE were supposed to go before a mosquito epidemic thwarted us). All in all, a great visit over colored pancakes, syrup (bien sur!), bacon and poached eggs on English muffins, and for dessert, lemon meringue pie (I didn't make that, Emma did).

That afternoon Thomas took Estelle to the park and ran into our friends Helen and Jocelyn and their son Mael, who came back for tea and playtime since the weather was ominous. These are our friends who have a boat in Egypt (see the link to their blog on the sidebar).



Before they arrived from the park, I was home alone working on a translation when I heard some music from the street. Here's a video of the rando Spanish trumpet guy. Loved him! The video is so-so but the audio is pretty good. At the start he is picking up the money I had pitched at him from 5 stories up off my balcony. Also please note the dog at the socca restaurant who decides to accompany him. Olé!


In another news, Thomas celebrated his birthday on Monday. Turned the big "31". St. Mike's friends are rolling their eyes saying "she always did like a younger man". Hush up. As my aunt Becky says "Marry older if you marry for money, that way they die before you. Marry younger if you marry for love, then you die at the same time." She was joking because she married an older man whom she loved a lot, but it's a great saying and I whip it out frequently to defend myself. Plus I think one of my sister-in-laws would agree that it has no foundation!

I have no photos of a birthday party because it poured rain, but we did get a sitter that evening and go out to the movies at least! And ate, of all things, mini pots of Ben & Jerry's, which are for sale in the movie theater. I held court at the counter telling everyone within range just exactly where that ice cream came from. I thought they'd give it to us for free. Nope. But did get several extra napkins.
However, here is a video of some happy birthday wishes (to themselves) from the party we had been at on Saturday afternoon. No quiet times with this bunch. Yowza.