1st Grade Trip

The kids will begin their education adventure later this week and will be attending a small Catholic French school. It will be complete immersion for them, though the school has many students who arrive not speaking French. Hopefully, they will pick up the language relatively quickly. As I parent, I know this is an amazing gift (to be bilingual)--I just don't want them to suffer too much early on. I am preparing myself for many challenges and cultural divides along the way. Which brings me to an email I rec'd from the school about my daughter's 1st grade field trip. Not just a trip to the Louvre for the day, but a WEEK-long trip to St. Malo along the Brittany coast. WOW--for a mom whose not big on sleepovers yet, this was a shock! (Parents are not allowed to chaperone.) I forwarded the email to Audrey's 1st grade teacher in the states--could she even imagine? A day trip to the Pacific Science Center downtown Seattle is a big enough adventure for teachers and parents alike. If you couldn't have already guessed, I will politely decline.

Welcome to Paris!

Our adventure in Paris began Friday morning, Jan 29th as we flew into Charles de Gaulle. The weather was not welcoming, though reminiscent of home (Seattle) -- raining but 20 degrees colder. In the taxi line, we waited for a French minivan (a miniature of our home version) and loaded our 8 pieces of luggage and cat. You’d think we were staying for years! Well, two approximately.
Though not a wink of sleep on the transatlantic flight, both kids finally slept on the hour ride to our furnished apartment in the 16th arrondisement. We‘ll live here for the next month until our furniture arrives from the states. The taxi driver had nowhere to park so she stopped in the middle of the street. I couldn’t mouth “desolee” (sorry) enough to the poor drivers behind us with no way around and were forced to wait. We proceeded , in the pouring rain, to unload all of our baggage, dodging numerous dog poo piles on the way to the front entrance. Bienvenue a Paris! (Whose ideas was this anyways?!)
The apt is in an immeuble ancien (100 yr old bldg). Such a surprise to see how modern it was inside with a well-equipped kitchen, two great modern bathrooms, one with a large tub, the other with a shower. I appreciated the two roles of TP kindly left by the property mgmt. since no other paper products or soap, for that matter, could be found. Thankfully, I was armed with a few small bottles of hand sanitizers I had in my carry on.