Of Lice and Mice

had coffee with an American whose daughter is in Audrey's class. We exchanged many pleasantries about life in this fabulous city and then she delved into a not-so-lovely topic--- LICE! Apparently, it is rampant among the children here and is a constant part of life. Her daughter has had multiple infestations just since September. This information was enough to send me and my children on the next plane back to the states.

Why is lice such an ongoing problem in Paris? There are many contributing factors I've seen in this short time here. There is the co-mingling of coats, scarves, hats at school along with the crowded methods of public transportation. Living in such a dense, urban area leads to close contact with everyone's parasites.

And to rid your household of an infestation involves much work and disciple. Daily washing of bedding is required. This alone, is daunting. The European washer/dryers are of much smaller capacity, take 3-4 hrs for a cycle and everything still has to hang dry for hours. It took me all day, from early morning to bedtime to wash and dry one set of sheets. I can't imagine doing this each day for a week. I'm sure that part of the problem here is that people never completely get rid of lice so it continues to return.

On a lighter note, Audrey lost a tooth at school and was visited by the 'tooth mouse' last night, who left her 2 euros. This version of the 'tooth fairy' comes from an 18th century French fairy tale. A mouse changes into a fairy to help a good queen defeat an evil king by hiding under his pillow,and tortures him by knocking out all his teeth. How sweet!