We're BACK!! But more on that later. :) While transitioning and traveling at the end of July, we were without internet for the better part of two weeks. In that "in between" space, I wrote up several final France reflections that I'll be posting here over the coming days.
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Repeatedly we’ve been asked this past month, “What are you going to miss most about France?” Sooo much! Some things are particularly French, others are simply related to my being away from work for the year. Here are the first five of a top ten list of things we loved and will miss. (I'll elaborate on the other five tomorrow.)
Family time and margin: More than anything else, time is what I will miss when we get back into normal life at home. The past year away was a massive gift to our family from start to finish. We spent so much time together, which we all benefited from and needed more than perhaps we’d realized. Jesse frequently said that although it was different, he generally felt no less productive working remotely than when he’s in person in the office in Lancaster—yet we all saw so much more of him. And I loved being away from the stresses and long hours of my job. It was so nice not going to bed each night in the knowledge that morning would too soon dawn, yet again, to a frantic ordeal of getting all four of us out the door…and for what? In order to be separated from one another for 8-10 busy hours? In contrast, our mornings in France started later than in the U.S., and although the days stayed amply busy and full, they were pleasantly occupied, not frantically or stressfully so. Since the four of us were together so much of the time, even when working we could take advantage of five-minute games with the kids between jobs or a cup of tea together. The days passed in a way that felt productive and satisfying instead of draining. Jesse and I would love to figure out how to transfer some of that pace and feeling back to “regular” life in Lancaster, but we fear much of it was context dependent.
Time...to patiently build card towers. William made the back one and Josiah the forward one.
Time...to play Uno with Daddy before getting ready for school in the morning
Time...to be home when the boys finished school and provide afternoon snacks.
Time...to linger over the dishes and all the other daily household tasks...
School schedule: I’ve already written plenty about the boys’ experience at their elementary school/maternelle. I have to reiterate how much we valued the rhythms of the school day and school year for elementary children. Having a lengthy daily break at home (90 minutes each lunchtime), a break each midweek (no school Wednesday afternoons), and a substantial vacation every seven weeks (two weeks off) helped the boys feel as though they could cope with the stresses and intensity of regular school in a foreign language. Most kids stayed for lunch and there were good options for childcare during other off-times for working parents, but we had no need to push the boys into those. Thus instead of being stressed by school, Josiah and William thrived there, and it was such a gift for our family to eat every meal together around the table all year, breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Here are the boys with all of their accumulated worksheets, exams, artwork, reports, and writing from the year. They obviously got something done despite lots of time off!
Walking lifestyle: Of course walking to and from school four times per day—for 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 1:30 p.m., and 4 p.m.—felt a little excessive and even invasive at times, each round trip requiring ~25 minutes and preventing me from doing nearly as much focused reading/writing/work as I’d imagined before arriving in France. Yet we generally enjoyed the to-and-fro (especially when Jesse and I both had time to walk together). And although it was mundane and “normal,” I never fully got over the somewhat magical sense of trotting through the narrow roads, in the shadow of the ancient Saint Medard church, straight through the nearly 1000-year-old fortification tower. Some days the boys would fight or be grumpy or it would rain, but often we’d be giggling and chatting and running or skipping along…and frankly, it often hit me like a scene from a movie. Walking to market once or twice per week, to the bank, to the local shops, and so on, felt like a pleasant privilege...bumping into people we knew, getting a little exercise, supporting the local economy, taking time to “stop and smell the roses” so to speak, and running the car only rarely. I’ll be sad to go back to a place and pace and lifestyle that can only be sustained by daily (and often extensive) car use.
On the walk to school...
At the bottom of our street...
One walk I especially loved (and hated!) taking was on the Rue des Soixante Quinze Marches, or the Seventy-Five Steps road.
It was a good workout, but...
one was rewarded with beautiful views along the way!
Language progress: We all made great strides with the language. None of us is anywhere close to fluent, but we at least got to the point where we managed without panic! I’m especially pleased to report that Josiah took his standardized school exams at the end of the year, all in French of course, and passed handily. The exams included items such as reading a paragraph in French and then creatively writing an ending to the story. Both Josiah and William were promoted despite the language gap, so if we’d stayed on, William would have moved to CP (1st grade) and Josiah to CE2 (3rd grade). It’s such a shame to see the language learning come to a screeching halt, especially for the boys; I’m sure with a second year they’d have become fully fluent.
Our wonderful language tutor, Maeva.
Ziza and Marcello
Last surprise "reunion des femmes," the afternoon before we left. Usually we were comprised of several French women, one Brazilian, and of course an American!
Tomorrow I'll follow up with five more things...one of which is FOOD of course. :)
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