Ecole Maternelle- woo hoo!

Etienne had his first day of "ecole maternelle" on Friday. He goes 4 days a week m/tu/th/f from 8:30-11:30 then a 2 hour break to come home for lunch (I need to adjust to this!) and then goes back from 1:30-4:30. At the risk of repeating myself the greatest part is....it's FREE preschool for 3 year-olds. His teacher is young and pretty. Her name is Stephanie. Etienne makes the 29th student in the class, so Stephanie and her assistant Veronique have their hands full I'm sure. He was so excited about all of the trucks and cars in the classroom and the scooters and bikes to use on the playground. He was very confused though that he didn't eat peanut-butter and jelly out of his lunch bag at school and doesn't get why he has to come home and go back (hmmmm me either- it's tradition and the French are SLOW at losing old traditions).

Denis and I had to laugh this morning dropping him off because it is so funny to see all of the different types of parents and cars bringing their kids to school in the village of Sergy, a shiny new BMW with Swiss plates, a mom with her stroller and house slippers, really all kinds of people. I guess this is what school is all about- exposure to the world.

After we dropped Etienne off, Xavier and I dropped Denis off at CERN and then headed home for morning nap. Xavier had started napping just once in the afternoon, but now that I have to pick Etienne up at lunch and bring him back, it kind of cut right in the middle, so today he's having 2 naps. On the way to CERN, however, Denis was almost in tears laughing as we listenend to Virgin radio and a program they have called "weekend de merde" literally "shitty weekend" where listeners call in trying to best each other with stories of why their weekend was so bad. I can't mention all of the stories, but the one that won was a guy who proposed to his girlfriend down on one knee in a suit and tie in a fancy restaurant and she said "no" and the whole room applauded because they didn't hear the answer- awww- poor guy.