Week 2-daily life
I’ve done the shopping for our household two weeks now. It is fun to look at the rows in the grocery store and discover 'gems' amongst all the foreign products. Also to use the favorites we’ve discovered on previous trips. First I go to the market in our village (every Thursday morning with a butcher, fishmonger, cheese guy, 4 produce stands, bread, and my favorite the gal who sells cool European clothes girl with whom I’ve become friendly. And then I hit the traditional grocery store for the rest. It is hard to find organic but I've found one farmer at the market and a few products at the grocery store.
The first week we made our favorite French menus—endive wrapped in ham, a quick quiche using their good pre-made crust and crème fraiche and little pieces of ham they well already cut up, lots of bread and cheese and other dairy products… the second week you’re running through your list of recipes cuz you don’t want to repeat the first week already… so we choose a pork tenderloin with grilled peaches and balsamic vinegar reduction and a side of these perfect frozen potatoes you can get that are so good. I buy eggs, butter and bars of dark chocolate to have on hand for baking cakes. (Sebatien wants to make a batman cake-not sure how I’m going to manage that) And lots of coffee and wine is required for the daily guests that stop by to whom we are obliged to offer one of these to drink, depening on the time of the visit...
OK So from my reading about French rules, I know I’m committing a huge faux pas. But my Berkeley habits are deep. I get up not planning to walk the kids to school but then get asked to come. So what does every Berkeley mom do? Throw on a hat and the nearest jacket and join the family! Only this look is not so French-dirty hair covered by even dirtier hat, oversized husband windbreaker that does NOT match the bright green flip flops… Poor Daly kids-do the kids start teasing in preschool?... I glance at the kids and they are no better. Papa has dressed Anais in striped tights as if they are pants-you can see the seams-and an unmatching t-shirt. With this look and her short hair, people keep calling her a boy. And Sebastien has on wrinkled (another faux pas!) clothes… Wonder what they think of us?... Seriously, my culture education books taught me that French women ALWAYS dress before they leave the house. Make up, hair, matching outfits. It’s just a given and you don’t do anything otherwise because it’s thoughtless to not look nice for the public.
Playdates after school
So the school schedule is interesting. It’s a full time job just to manage. We have to get Sebastien to school between 8:50 and 9:00. Then at 12 we pick him up to bring him home for lunch. Some kids stay and have lunch cooked for them at school. Then if we choose, we can bring him back to school at 1:50 (doors close at 2 sharp, no exceptions!) where the kids nap together in a little room. At 4 they have a snack and play and then we go BACK to school again to pick him up at 5. We do this back and forth, about a 12 minute walk with our 2 neighbors every day! It’s become a ritual that we meet each other along the way and then play from 5-6:30 or so in the cul de sac in front of our house. This is really cute where all the kids ride bikes and kick the spiderman ball and whatever else. One day Sebastien and I decide to make a bat man cake (in preparation for his birthday in March-he’s been asking about it ever since her heard about a batman cake from his friend Jasper in Berkeley) and we invite all the kids for cake. One mother goes out to buy a present because she thinks it’s Sebastien’s birthday-why else would you serve a cake in the middle of the day? And I call her to correct her when I hear about that-mortified!!) Another day, Devin decides to make a game he saw somewhere and sews our old socks into hacky sacks and builds a wooden structure with a hole in it and the kids get into that game. This engrosses the kids on this day. Overall, it’s such a fun tradition and everyone looks forward to our daily meetings with our neighbors. This is what we were hoping for when we chose this lively village. A place to build friendships that we could return to each year and try to give the kids 2 cultures.
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