Field trip

This Thursday I took on a task that would have been challenging even in my maternal tongue - I accompanied Ella's kindergarten class on a field trip to the Chateau de Vincennes. I had a group of 5 kids - Ella, Clara (a very sweet little girl who liked to stay with me by putting her hand into my pocket), Sophie (a distracted kid who repeatedly demonstrated to me her English vocabulary [yes, no, hello, goodbye, and the numbers 1 - 10]), Matteo (a high energy, but generally kind boy), and Myron (easily the most difficult kid I have ever met). I directed Matteo's energy into helping me pull the caddie (with the lunches), and held tightly to Myron's hand, while the 3 girls held hands with one another a few steps ahead of us.

The trip was by metro, so we set off on foot for the number 8. Unfortunately, when we got there, we learned that the #8 was not running and would not be back up for about half an hour, so our rambunctous parade headed back out onto the street to walk to Bastille. At Bastille, we boarded the #1 to the Chateau. Supervising 5 children (4 of whom belong to other families and speak French) on the Metro is easily the most stressful thing I have done all year. Thank goodness I knew the captivating game of guessing what color the seats in the next metro station would be, as it kept my group, and several others deeply engrosed for the whole ride. Upon arriving, we settled down in a grasy field outside the chateau for a picnic (boxed lunches from the school) and the kids were able to run off a little energy.

By the time the tour of the chateau began, the kids were already tired. The teacher (who suddenly noticed I had 5 kids while the other parents had 4) took Myron in her charge, which made my job a lot easier, but it was still tough to keep the kids focused on the tour guide. The guide took us outside the walls and showed the kids all of the defenses of the chateau. She pointed out the drawbridge, the slits through which arrows could be launched, and the holes in the ceiling through which boiling water or stones could be dropped on the heads of anyone who made it past the first two defenses. She explained that they didn't drop boiling oil, because oil was expensive. She asked the kids what they used oil for in those days and Matteo offered "to run their cars."

We toured the watch tower and lookout ramparts around the "dungeon" (which in French is the part of the chateau where the king and queen live), heard a story in the kings library (which was quite small owing to the rarity of books in those days), and the chapel. Inside the chapel, the tour guide knighted each of the children in a solemn ceremony. We ended the day with an art atelier where the kids made their own sheilds (decorated with either fleur de lys or castles).

The return ride was somewhat easier - helped by the fact that the trains were running normally, and the kids were all exhausted. I must have been crazy to volunteer to do this all again next week when the class goes to the Dapper Museum of African Art!

On a completely different note, we made an offer this week to a potential summer au pair candidate and she accepted. We decided that a summer au pair would be the best way to reinforce the language skills that the kids have learned and to help us all ease the transition back to Ohio (if we can't stay in Paris, we'll bring a little bit of Paris back home with us!) We had talked to several wonderful young women and it was hard to choose from among them (if anyone else wants a French summer au pair, we have some to recommend!). Sarah, who we hired is from our neighborhood, is an architecture student, and was very sweet with the kids. We're all excited about the idea of having her live with us for 8 weeks this summer.