La maîtresse

I can't quite believe that "ça y est" - it's done. We have achieved our primary objective in coming to France. Alice has completed a school year here. Today was her last day. The children were allowed to dress up a little bit. Yes, she went as a cat :-) She's been telling me that French children are "never" silly or funny. Hmmm. I think they now believe that all English-speaking children ARE silly and funny. She seems to have been the class clown, and they have loved her for it. She has gained enormously in self-confidence here. She stands out from the crowd, and rather than feel alienated and different, she has revelled in it! I can't imagine where she gets the silly genes from ;-)

I had my last French lesson with Olga this morning. She will see M next Friday while Alice and I are away. We will definitely keep in touch though, and hopefully continue via Skype, although it's starting to look like I'm going to be busier than ever back home.

I went to pick up Alice from school at lunchtime. She had run out with her friends, and eagerly climbed into the car. Then she remembered she was supposed to bring her bag home, so off she went again. A couple of minutes passed before she appeared, bent double with her bag on her back. La maîtresse followed behind with a large box - all Alice's school work! She handed it to me and I said thank you as best I could. She said it had been a pleasure, that "Alice est amusant - Miss Chat!" That seems to support what Alice had told me previously.

When I took her back to school, again she couldn`t wait and wanted to take her "Frustration" game with her. I've not seen it for sale in Brittany, and the children seem to like it when they come to the house. They greeted her enthusiastically for the last time. :-(

I stayed home this afternoon, sorting out the cars a bit and printing stuff off ready for our adventure on Tuesday. Alice knows we're hoping to go and see Le Tour de France, and that we'll drive and stay in a hotel afterwards for a few days. She doesn't know where though :-)

Alice normally comes home on the bus, but I wanted to collect her from her Kerfot school today, so I could see her come out with her friends for the last time. I'm so glad I did. They seemed to be having a party in the préau (covered area of the playground). Loud music, singing, shouting, screaming, laughing etc. They were spilling out into the playground, all dressed up in colourful clothes, all very happy.

Then it was time to go home. The teachers came out to say goodbye to the children - le maître is retiring today, so it was a big day for him too. Both teachers kissed Alice. La maîtresse came out to speak again, and said Alice had been sad. Me too (I said, teary eyed!). Oh boy.

The photo shows la maîtresse with Alice, and Aurelia and Lee-Lou outside the school, standing next to the "CAT" school bus.

When we got home, I looked in the carrier bag she'd brought home. She had 2 presents from la classe. A set of cat stickers for her bedroom walls. Then there was a book. An A4 sized "booklet" put together by the class. What a lovely thing la maîtresse did. She photocopied lots of A4 outlines of cats, then each of the children decorated one and wrote a message to Alice. On the first page, la maîtresse wrote:

"Chère Alice, je suis très contente de t'avoir recontrée. Tu as été une élève très agréable et amusante. Je te souhaite beacoup de joie et de réussite maintenant que tu repars dans tons pays. Nous t'écrirons en septembre. À bientôt, je t'embrasse. La maîtresse."

On their pages, the children all say they will miss Alice and want to see her again etc. What a lovely, lovely souvenir.

In addition to all our memories, that book, the class and school photos, and a year book that I intend having made from all these blips will keep these memories alive for the rest of our lives. Priceless.