School is Nearly Over

Fête d'Ecole Signals Summer Arrival; Weather Not Informed

One of the authors looking over 'La Dispiration de Soupir' - the story of a lost marmot, a sort of mountain mouse.

School in France is confusing to adults, even French ones. There is no school on Wednesdays. Some Saturdays are school days; but if they are not, Wednesday can be substituted. Holidays can begin on a Tuesday - you lose a weekend - and some holidays can end on a Thursday - you lose a weekend.

Low-tech bowling, on asphalt, uphill; probably inspired by 'petanque'

So, if it is the Fete d'Ecole today, last Saturday, and who knows? maybe next Saturday in a neighbouring community, you can be pretty sure the annual summer school holidays are going to start soon in France.

One thing you can be absolutely certain of - your holidays will not start the same day, the same week, or even the same month.

If you are lucky enough to be French, then you can send your kids to the grandparent's farm in the country until your turn comes up to go too. This is a fiction of course. There are no grandparents in the country - they moved long ago.

So everybody that can afford it, sends their kids to 'Centers of Activity' or to camps or to the mountains or to the seaside or to foreign countries to learn other languages. There are several industries engaged in this activity - of shuffling kids around the countryside. The main thing is, you had better do this in July, because if you can't afford to have your kids minded, there will be nobody but you to do it in August.

But that little problem is still in the future today. Today is the Fete d'Ecole.

The first thing about it that you will notice is that you have to get up as early as usual. Even if you don't get your eyes open before going out the door, the second thing you will - have - noticed this morning, just outside Paris, it that it feels like... March. Fresh, as the French say.

When you get to the school, another thing you notice - pardon, don't notice - your neighbours, are missing; possibily still in bed! There's just all these kids batting around, presumeably with pocket money to buy 'carnets' of tickets that enable them to play games.

How quaint. All the games appear to have been hand-crafted. After a year's worth of plastic garbage foisted on adults by the toy industry, you belatedly learn that the kids may actually... prefer... these, what? artisanal little passtimes - because there's a line-up at every site.

Did you ever do the egg and spoon race? How about substituting the egg for a correctly-sized potato - watch that Quayle spelling there - and instead of holding the spoon in your hand you hold it in your mouth? With this setup, you have to go through one of these 'jungle-gyms,' which includes a bit of suspension bridge - hey, this could be challenging - even if not on the Olympic program.

Did you do this when you were in school? Propell half a walnut shell, with chewing gum for balast, by blowing through a straw?

Well, if you even complete this thing, you win. When you win you get new tickets, and you save them up and... and there's part of a classroom that have been turned into a shop... selling plastic toys. I forgot to look to see if they were all the toys your kid has 'lost' at school this last year, or what they are - what they are is incentive. You give them to your kids as an incentive to... leave you alone... do better in school... or whatever. And they lose them at school, then work like devils to win them back. So next Christmas, why don't you just put a couple of the tickets in the stocking? Save bother all round.

So, on to the breakfast. Turns out you have to buy tickets too. Turns out there's no cafe, only tea. Tea, in France? You don't see the French drink tea often, but you do see it offered in bars. It has odd names; makes you think of obscure weeds. Why isn't there tea made out of tea? Do the French know it exists? Not like weeds at all. Usually comes in handy little replusive bags. A close relative of instant coffee. Instant coffee has not, by the way, any relationship with cafe.

By now, your neighbours are showing up, with their really little kids, and suddenly there is really a lot of humanity batting around, and things are getting really lively. This alone will not warm you up.

Salle de "Motricite" - movement room - was dedicated to an illustrated exposition, 'La Renaissance'.

Luckily, I have to write this thing for you; so I can go home. But the Fete d'Ecole more or less continues all day - you know, to sort of give parents an idea of what kids do when they are in kid heaven - they get on a roll and go... all day long, until the fireworks up by the stadium sometime this evening.

Really, what the Fete d'Ecole is, is a foretaste of what August - that whole glorious four weeks - is going to be like.

Return to Richard Erickson's Paris Journal

Updated 04/95