La vieille femme - the old woman

Here she is our 95 year old friend. This is exactly what she looks like each time we see her. However today she is sporting her new shoes that the Catholic shelter gave her at their garage sale.
I am sure that the reason she is so alive is because she walks so much. She is German and from the Alasce region. She is all alone and walks around 10k - 20k a day to do her shopping and such.

I wish I spoke German, or French for that matter, to invite her over. We have learned that her name is Ann.
Isn't she cute!!

Buying groceries- L'achat d'épicerie

Grocery shopping here has been an experience. There is the Carrefour which is enormous, or you have the small markets on the corner. I have managed to find a "regular" size grocery store since I took these photos, but I wanted to show you what the stores are like here.

This is the Carrefour

The cheese counter

More cheese- and it can smell funny!
Sometimes the kids have a hard time walking through this section.

Fish or almost things that live in the water No- I have not bought these..yet.I think they eat these because there are so many of them and they cause problems. At night we found a field we can drive past and when our lights scan the ground we can see about 50-60 each time just cruising across the field. This is a highlight for the kids- and then we see them in the store like this

The kids have had rabbit and like it, but I have not yet had the pleasure and unless I eat school lunch I don't know that I will. They sure look appetizing this way huh?

The bakery-Now this section smells delicious and everything looks so good.

Most of the produce is very fresh and delicious.
After you have fought the crowds here and your cart is full, you then get to wait in line for at least 20 minutes, then unload your groceries and then load them back up in your own bags that you hopefully remembered to bring into the store with you. Otherwise you can buy new ones for either 10 centimes or 80 centimes.

L'ecole - school

Annie and Jesse in front of the Mairie. These are the city offices and also the office for the school. This is where you pay for school lunch and where we registered the children for school. The back of the building is part of the square that makes up the school playground. I thought this was the school when we moved here, but we know now that it is not. This is the gate where the kids enter school. Parents are not really allowed in. There is generally a teacher there to greet the children at the beginning of the day and once they return from lunch.
Jesse, Dallas and Logan all attend the same school

Ecole elementaire Julis Renard

These are the gates from inside the playground. It seems a little strange for this to be the entrance of a school. Because the school is made up of small buildings that form a square there is not an official entrance to walk into the school. When you enter through the gates you are in the playground area and you walk from there to your classroom. It is not a typical American school with halls and a lunchroom.

The "playground" yes, this is it! They don't have any playground equipment, bells or drinking fountains. They do at least have restrooms. The school is small and very old. The children are let loose during recess and I am telling you it is anything goes. The children are expected to sit perfectly still for hours at a time in the classroom, but on the playground there is no discipline whatsoever! In the top photo you can see the wall that separates the two playgrounds. One side is for the smaller kids and the other side for the bigger kids. They are not allowed to cross over into the other section.

When it is time to collect the children and head back into class, one of the teachers starts clapping her hands and keeps clapping until the children are all lined up.

Sophie in front of her new school. We have not had the best school experience with Sophie. The Maitresse at the 1st school was pas gentil. (not nice, I even told her so, in French) We are trying the Petit Ecole Bilingue in Fontainebleau. She still has a lot of anxiety when I drop her off but the teachers here could not be more gentil or kind. We hope this will soon be a fun place for Sophie to be.

Sophie standing just outside the gates to her school.

The courtyard and entrance to the school.

This is Pistache, the class pet. Sophie thinks it really great to go to school with a bunny.

Église - Church

Going to church is quite different here than on Browning Circle. We cannot just walk out our door 15 minutes before church starts. It is a good half hour drive to get there. It is in a town called Melun.
The ward is small, but still growning. They have 2 sets of missionaries at the moment who are doing a great job. The kids love them because they speak English, and because they joke and tease them.
The ward recently obtained some headsets so they can translate the meeting for us, on these days we are especially grateful for the missionaries and their language skills.

The church is new and very small but fills the needs for the Melun ward. The chapel has multiple uses. It is used as a chapel, a gym and as the serving area for the many dinners they like to have. At our talent show last Saturday we learned the stand disassembles and can become a stage- very functional.



This is a view of the primary room looking at the front. It has been interesting to see how they do things here. They wait to have the talks and song and prayer until the end. The room can become rather noisy with the wood floors.

This is a look at the back of the room. The small chairs that you can see are arranged in a small circle facing the cabinets for sharing time for the little children and then turned into their current position when they all gather together.

The Relief Society Room. When the sisters are here, the room is full of both people and spirit.

The parking lot, most Sundays I feel lucky to get a spot I can get into, but better one I can get out of.

A little after church activity. Sophie, and Lilly color with a new friend (Sophie). The French children love the new Americans and have been very helpful and friendly. Some weeks after church it takes a bit of time to get our new friends out of the car and in a safe distance to not get run over so that we can pull out. Last week there were so many children hanging around the car when we were trying to leave that when we finally drove away Logan said, "That was awkward."

The Reed and Randall children after church in early October. What a relief to have a buddy that doesn't' understand as much as you don't. Going to school everyday and not understanding a thing and then coming to church to do the same thing is sometimes a little rough.

This is how we all feel when it's over!

Because everyone lives so far away, they treasure their time together, they plan meals after church at least once a month. Everyone is to bring something to share. It's difficult knowing what to bring, but it's even more difficult knowing what we should or shouldn't eat. The kids have been very brave and willing to try almost anything.

De marché de marché- To market to market

When we walk to the market the kids love to take the "short cut" through the alley.

This bunny lives in the yard of one of the houses that backs the alley.

We hope he is a real pet and not dinner someday.

There are about 5 rabbits and 5 chickens who live in the same yard with the brown bunny. The chickens are always happy to greet us and hope we will feed them as we pass.

This is the house next door to the rabbits, there is a beautiful garden full of wonderful vegetables. It reminds me of Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor. I hope Peter stays where he belongs.

This house belongs to the gardener and is always impeccably kept.

Sophie in her own fantasy dancing and singing in the alley as we walk to the market.

Laitue champs- lettuce fields

There are the most beautiful lettuce fields along the roadside. I have loved watching them grow and then harvested. There are at least a dozen different kinds to choose from at the marche.

The crates for harvesting the lettuce.

Hérrison-hedgehog

At dinner last night we looked out the glass doors to the backyard and right in front of us was a hedgehog. The kids were so excited to finally have a pet. It will be the easiest pet we have ever had. We were just glad it was not a wild boar (I have seen one on the side of the road).

We hope to see him again soon!