Balancing

M and I went into Paimpol market after taking Alice to school this morning. We browsed a bit, and bought our usual Breton sausages, and a nice big bag of peas in the pod for me! The second-hand bookshop allowed me to add to my growing collection of French books to bring back!

I took the photo while waiting in the queue for my "petit pois" in the "biologique" section of the market. The gentleman on the next stall was using some lovely and very old scales with individual weights, in what looks like small washing-up bowls.

After balancing all the pros and cons, we've finally made a decision about when to return to Guernsey, so after telling family last night, this afternoon was spent organising things and letting other people know, then mowing the lawn. I had my Skype French lesson earlier today, as we have a parents meeting at school this evening.

After all this time, I believe I may be saying "bonjour" in a slightly more authentic way! I can manage the "r"s at the end of a word but not the start, whilst M can do them at the start but not the end. Alice of course, just does it all effortlessly. Oddly, I seem to understand women's speech better than men. A few possibilities, but I'm not sure why that is.

I'm going to be attending a 3 day professional conference and workshop from Thursday - all in French of course. I'm dreading it - mostly because I'm worrying others might might speak to me and expect a reasonably intelligent response! I'm wondering now why on earth I signed up for it. It seemed such a good idea 6 months ago!

The parents' evening went well. There are only 9 pupils in her age group, so it was a small group of parents. We learned about the curriculum and how the children have been getting on. She singled Alice out a couple of times. One occasion she was talking about French grammar, specifically verb endings, and "même Alice" (even Alice) learned it quickly! She also pointed out that Alice is getting on very well in spite of not having as rich a vocabulary as the other children. And she is very good at maths!

The children have to take a written test this month "évaluation nationale" - a SATs equivalent I guess - which is marked independently. I've just been looking at the 2012 version, and it looks very tough!

La maîtresse said there will only be 22 children in the class next year, well, 21 actually. We spoke to la maîtresse at the end and told her we were leaving during the summer. I'm very happy that she suggested that the class keeps in contact with Alice via email so they can improve their English, and Alice can continue to improve her French. Parfait !