School lunch menu!

EJM, the kids school,  charges a 400 euro fee per trimester for each child who wants to buy lunch. When I first saw this option I thought that the kids would have enough change without being forced to try new food everyday.  Then I read the fine print that there is a 250 Euro charge if a child BRINGS his or her lunch.  Suddenly I was sure the kids would adjust.  I don't enjoy making lunches and I didn't really like the idea that I would be charged 250 Euro for the privilege.

I did a little research and while the official reason for the charge for bringing lunch is for the cost of the lunchroom space, etc. the real basis for getting away with this seems to be the enormous emphasis on the importance of the meal in French culture.  I've traveled in France several times, and loved the food, but I had the tourist's perspective.  Now as a shopper, I realize the food everywhere,  in the grocery store, restaurants, markets, and yes, school cafeteria is really, really good.   An article in the Intern. NY Times about school lunches in Italy quoted a principal: "Lunchtime is part of the school experience, its not just a moment of nutrition but one of sharing and verbal exchange." (27 January 2016, INYT "Cafeteria Crackdown in Italy")

 I was worried about Bobby, who insisted on the same lunch every single day at TES (Chicken sandwich with olives) and Amelia,  who is relatively adventurous but not much of a meat eater.  Or at least she wasn't before.   Here is the menu the first week of school.






 And to my surprise and joy, they love it,, and say, every day "it was great!"  They are however, pretty much unable to explain what they ate:  "Some kind of meat, some kind of vegetables..."  I look it up and google to figure out what it is then quiz them.   The only disappointment was the day Amelia spotted what she thought was spaghetti and reported that it turned out to be  "vegetables in vinegar" (per the menu  choucroute, or sauerkraut).  Last Wednesday, when they were home for lunch on the half day of school, Amelia said around noon "Mom, when is lunch?...  I am usually eating something delicious by now!"

The menu does not reflect the dessert variety.  They usually have about 5 choices of mousse, puddings, pies, etc.   You cannot get a desert unless you finish your entree, so occasionally my slow-eater misses out.  I'll let you guess which twin that is.

I've never had a problem with pudding but here it is a big deal and it's really really good. The amount of space dedicated to yogurt in Kroger?  Double that and it covers the puddings, creme brules and flans that come either in yoghurt containers or in pretty little glass jars.  The yougurt aisle is even bigger.   This is where I spend a lot of my day.  I wish I were kidding.  I am sure I am the joke of the store  "the lady who buys all the dessert."

Then I drive home the narrow streets worrying that it won't fit in the fridge.  Here is a picture of the inside of our refrigerator.





The top shelves are pudding, vanilla mousse and ile flottante, the middle is yogurt (coconut and rhubarb are showing).  The bottom, eggs, humus pasta and several layers of cheese.  I promise that there are veggies in the drawer and fruit on the shelf. :)



Bon Appetit!

Saturday in Northern France (23 January 2016)

The Somme river area, where the trench warfare of WWI occurred, lies about 1/2 way between Lille and Paris.  On Saturday, which was cold and overcast, we drove down the A1 (130 kmh speed limit, pretty farmland scattered with church steeples and windmills)  and  arrived in the area in less than an hour.  Drivers in France (except Paris) are very good, law-abiding and polite.

We planned to visit a few WWI museums but learned (on arrival) that they re-opened Monday the 25th after the tradition winter break. We walked around the Saturday morning market in the very pretty town of Peronne.  Kat, Kay Tom, I was wishing you were there to see, buy and cook with everything!  And then serve me :)

endives, radishes, artichokes, persimmons



Olives
 

the blue and green cheeses below are gouda




We then walked up to the very pretty square and walked into the gorgeous church there, consecrated in the 16th century but pretty much destroyed in WWI.  The Germans occupied it and then the Allies bombed it.  It was restored in the 70s and 80s.  (Thank you wikipedia for the picture below) It was the first cathedral-like place we have taken the kids and they were very impressed.  The stained glass was gorgeous, but we didn't stay long as it was freezing!






We had lunch at a brasserie on the square, omelettes for A and S, pizza for B and a salad of chicken, potatoes, corn for me.  Belgian beer for the grown ups, too.  I had promised the kids a macaroon from the bakery after lunch, but oops again,  the square was closed down for mid-day by the time we finished our leisurely lunch.


This is one end of the square in Peronne- the vans were there for the market.









After lunch we headed to another museum near a large memorial to WWI soldiers.  It was in the countryside, all by itself, and closed for the winter until Monday.  We made one last trip down very narrow country roads, very pleased to not have any oncoming traffic each time we crested a hill.  Every few kilometers there is a  small town and  near every town a memorial to a specific company of soldiers.  We saw English, Australian and South African memorials.  We also drove by several graveyards with hundreds and hundreds of soldiers' graves near these tiny towns.  The memorialized dead far outnumber the locals.

Our target was the Lochnagar crater, a large hole created by the British burrowing under the German front line and blasting a large number of explosives.   There is a small cross memorializing a Scottish soldier missing in WWI whose remains were found at the edge of the crater in 1998.  The bright blue spot is Amelia, near Scott and Bobby (no jacket).




The weather was chilly as you can see.  We have had 3 freezes at night, but generally it's been milder than Richmond, and milder than is usual here.  The normal low for the entire month of Jan and Feb is 33 and the high in the low 40s, but most of our nights have been in the 40s and the highs in the 50s.  That would be the normal March and April weather here, so we are grateful.  The sun was out yesterday, and today is partly cloudy. Usually it is mostly cloudy, or overcast.  The weatherlady on the radio uses the the word "gris" a lot!  (Check your crayola for translation.)

Next posting must be on food!

Our village center, Annappes, has a church, a bar/cafe, a pharmacy, two restaurants open only for lunch, a grocery store, a take-out pizza place, a cobbler, two bakeries, a hair salon and eight, yes eight, banks.

The town, Villeneuve d'Ascq,  contains three villages, including Annappes and Asqc.  The villages were combined in 1977 and re-named in memory of of 88 men and boys from Ascq who were executed by the Germans in 1944 after the Resistance blew up a train near the village.  No German soldiers had been killed in the explosion.

In our two weeks here, we have visited the bar, the pizzeria, the bakeries, the grocery store, the hair salon (see the new french me above), and five of the eight banks.  Each of these, excepting the pizzeria, are worth a post, but today I focus on on "l'horreur" of trying to open a checking account in France.  Has anyone applied for a mortgage since 2008?  You may have experienced similar hurdles.

Scott's Fulbright information had warned us that opening an account would be difficult, but we didn't expect that the process would bring two middle aged people with advanced degrees and high-school french to our knees. We need an account to pay our rent, and the children's school bills, and most importantly for Scott to be paid his stipend from the Fulbright folks.

First, of course we made the classic mistake of heading for town mid-day, forgetting that stores are closed for 2 hours at lunch.  Later, after Scott headed to work,  I tried to  visit a few banks but couldn't figure out how to the open the doors.  You might think that a confident person would forge through this problem, or perhaps ask for help, but no, I slunk away toward the next bank trying to not to show how embarrassed I felt.

I finally snuck into a bank by closely following a woman as she entered.  I stumbled through my request in french and was told no, they could not help as no one spoke english.  I tried one more bank where again no one spoke english, so I gave up for the day.  The next day I found a receptionist at a bank who was willing to make me an appointment to discuss an account.  She looked really reluctant and I felt particularly unwelcome when she opened a completely blank calendar and suggested a date and time 10 days in the future,  But I was not about to argue.

Meanwhile Scott was trying to work the problem as well.  His Fulbright contact told him that a previous Fulbright fellow had opened an account with a certain bank in Lille.  He called the bank but was told the person would call him back in 4 days.  So a few days later I went to the branch of that bank in Annappes, feeling a little more confident, and hoping we could have a better option than the appointment in 10 days.  "A bank account for someone who doesn't speak French??" they asked me, as if I had asked if I could enter their vault and play with the euros.  "It's not allowed, since you would not understand the terms."  Now back in Richmond, I would not have taken this sitting down, but there is something about not being good at something that really saps your confidence.

 But then I remembered that the Fulbright guy had opened an account with this very bank in Lille.  "Perhaps in Lille?" I asked politely and in french.  "No, impossible." they answered, less politely.

Scott and I argue over who has suffered the greatest humiliation in the past few weeks.  I think being being told to my face, essentially, that my french stinks is worse than his experience later that day when the minute he started speaking to the contact at the bank  she hung up on him.  But then I have to admit he wins for his visit to the police station to follow up on our license plate loss, when he learned people are not allowed in the police stattion without an appointment and he was escorted to the door.

We eventually had the appointment with the bank in town, which also had various embarrassing moments.  We have provided our passports, Scott's proof of work, and much more.  But we won't have an account approved until our landlady provides her identity card, a letter attesting to the fact we are renting from her, and Scott provides proof we paid our taxes in the US.

So for now, we stop at every ATM we see, take out the maximum amount of cash and give the school and the landlady fat envelopes of euros.

The word of the day:  "plaques d'immatriculation."  Or lack thereof.  Our first misadventure occurred Saturday night when someone stole our leased car's license plates from where the car was parked on the street in front of the house.   The kids investigated the rest of the street, and confirmed that we were the only victims.  We are in a very nice neighborhood on a semi-busy street.  We wonder if it's because our car had red plates (which indicate something about the short term character of our registration).

Scott called Peugeot,  who has leased us the car, thankfully with full insurance coverage.  Peugeot had never heard of this happening before. (Reminds me of a call to Amica about my Prelude years ago...)  They sent a tow-truck Sunday morning to take it to a near-by shop to have to the plates replaced.  Monday morning we discovered that while almost anyone can make most license plates in France, the red ones have to come from Paris.

Scott takes the metro to work, but public transportation to the kids' school is an hour each way, so Peugeot (pronounced "pooh- gee- ot" by 9 year olds) said they'd provide a rental car.  Unfortunately, the rental car place was on strike.  But somehow we now have a VW rental, to the joy of Bobby, and we will retrieve our Pooh-gee-ot tomorrow.

Meanwhile we filed a police report on-line, and Scott followed up with a visit to the police department on Monday morning.   "What are you doing here?" he was asked, and then shooed away with a "We will call YOU when we want you to come in."  We are thankful that we were were able to file the report on-line and have a copy of it in case our license plate is off breaking the law some-where.

I am also incredibly thankful for the following:
1.  Having resources to cope with being in a foreign country -we are constantly thinking of the refugees.  Specific resources:  GPS!!!   (In cars and on phones) Google translate!!!  Free texting to the US!!! ( T-mobile)  High school French!!! (Merci beaucoup, Mmes. Hodges and Paul)
2.  Having kids that enjoy each other's company all day long, and cheerfully adjust to dramatic changes in life-style.

That's all for today.  Off to brave the post-office after I google translate "registered mail."

Lille.  Saturday we ventured out to the city of Lille.  Our house is a 15 minute walk to the metro, but the metro arrives every minute, so there is no time pressure!  The ride took only a few minutes, and we had wondered whether to try driving in.  Once we saw the "old Lille" area  we knew we had made the right decision.  I think we need to be better at European driving/threading needles and parking before we try big cities



Here is a typical street scene.



A highlight was taking a ride on a ferris wheel in the Grand Place.  I was planning to sit it out to save the 5 euro but at the last minute realized how penny-foolish that would be.  It was wonderful!  I liked it much better than the slow, closed ride on the London Eye, although Cliff Claven-Bobby reminded me the Eye is much higher.
  

It hailed a little at the top, but that was kind of fun.



I will close with one more picture of Bobby, eating the lunch special of the day -L'hotdog"!at a bar where we stopped for lunch.  Yes, he ate the whole thing. Scott had a seasonal beer but was disappointed  to discover it was cherry flavored. I had a Stella.  :)

What I see on my jog

School News: 

To my enormous relief, the kids love their school Ecole Jeannine Manuel ("EJM")  

Each day I interrogate them but don't learn much other than it was good, they have friends and they REALLY liked lunch.  (More on that later, I promise)  Amelia estimated her french class has about 19, but they are split into a smaller group of 7 or so when they take English.  We had a quick tour of the school on Monday and met their two (male) teachers briefly (shook hands)

The morning is in french.  They are able to follow math in french since the teacher writes the numbers on the board. but they are separated out to be tutored while the other kids learn other things during the french hours.   The three hours in English seem to be dedicated to writing (dictation!) and math (again).  They have the RAZ reading program so they fit right in with that!   They have geography once a week, I think!  I can't figure out when science and history occur but I think it might be during French.

They have 15 minute recesses in the morning and afternoon, and a half hour after lunch.  The rec area has two foosball tables so  B splits his time between foosball and soccer.  Amelia plays tag with her new friends.  To Bobby and Amelia's relief they don't have to use cursive, as long as they can read it.
From what I can tell, they have art, PE and music once a week.

They came home happily the first day having each made three "EMT" friends.  No, not emergency medical technicians (my first thought) but "English Mother Tongue."   My cross examination resulted in learning that one of Bobby's friends is Canadian, and one of Amelia's is Croatian, while another was born in Paris and raised in Spain.  The more I press, the more Bobby gets annoyed "Mooommmm!  You don't ask someone where they are from!!"  They claim no one in their class is from the U.S.

Every Wednesday is a halfday (8:30 - 11:30)  There is an after-school program each of the other 4 afternoons.  The second semester starts Feb 1.  They are sending out an email today at 3PM, and it is first come, first served by email response.  (The kids are still in school so I have to guess what they want to sign up for)  Last semester they offered chorus, study hall, crafts, soccer, fencing, chess, climbing, pingpong/badminton and some things I haven't been able to translate yet.  Amelia is hoping to do climbing and Bobby is hoping there will be rugby.  It costs 140 euro a semester, per weekday, and lasts from 3:30- 5:30.

While we don't get MLK day off, the school has a 2 week winter break in February and a 2 week spring break in April.

The school drop-off occurs in the pitch black, which is worse in the rain.  The sun rises at 8:45 and sets at 5.  I am comforted by the fact we will gain an hour and 1/2 of day light each month until June. We have a manual transmission car which adds to the fun, because the drop off area circle ends in a steep hill, at the top of which is a busy road, which  innocent pedestrians  are trying to cross coming into school.   This morning, I failed to yield to a man crossing a cross walk because I didn't see him (TESers, people actually STOP at crosswalks here!)  He glared right into the car and Bobby and Amelia shouted "That's our English teacher!"  Gulp.

OK, sorry this was so long and I have no pictures of the school.  I am heading out for a walk so I'll send a picture of one of our walking paths instead.

   

First Post

 

Welcome to my first try at blogging.  I am hoping to set up this site so that those without facebook who are curious about our adventures can check in on us.  This is my test, but hopefully the next post will be more interesting!