les bon bons

Salut!!!

I know you will find this shocking, but it is the eve of yet another vacation weekend.  Tomorrow is un jour férié (one day holiday), but this one is rather legitimate.  November 11 is essentially veteran's day here, but the French simply say that it remembers the end of World War I.  And this year it just so happens to fall on a Friday which makes it a 3 day weekend.  I am curious to see if they will have a memorial day relating to World War II…

It caught me off guard how much the two world wars impacted the country.  Obviously I know that battles were fought here and that France had an involvement in both wars; however, I have never actually lived in a country where a World War was fought.  Much as Atlanta does with the Civil War, there are often memorial plaques referencing battles and multiple monuments for those people that were in that war.  Below is one of the monuments in Issoudun:

the monument for the children of the "patrie" (aka France)

The names of the people from Issoudun who were lost during the guerre 1914-1918

Anyway, the kids at school were terrible today…the fact that they know tomorrow is a holiday keeps them from wanting to focus.  Usually, they are generally well behaved and excited about learning English.  However, today the word "chatty" doesn’t even begin to describe the kiddos.  Lets just say, there were quite a few times where I just stood there and waiting for them to realize that I was waiting for them to be quiet.  And it was the same in my three classes.  ALL THREE CLASSES.  Fatiguant (exhausting).

So what do I do after making it through a day like this?  Pastries.  While in France (aka while in Rome, but I just adapted the phrase for me).  Actually, I hadn’t bought myself any pastries yet which I thought was rather impressive.  Don’t worry, that is not to say that I haven’t had a pastry!  Mireille and Laura love the “Paris Brest”…which is like an éclair but yummier.  It is mainly coffee flavored cream that is sandwiched by a very thin pastry.  But I haven't actually gone to the pastry shop and bought myself a pastry until today.

I borrowed this picture from the world wide web, but this is what a Paris Brest looks like.

There is a pastry shop in the centre ville that is known as being the best pastry shop in Issoudun.  Well, today, when I was on my way home from school I happened to pass the patisserie.  Laura had already explained to me the flavors of each of the pastries in the window, and I remembered that there was one that is almond flavored.  I think it is called "un figue."  I’m a sucker for almond flavoring (well, just about anything almond), so needless to say that tonight when I saw these green pastries in the window, I decided that I was going to splurge.  A little treat at the end of a long day.  I also decided to buy a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) for breakfast tomorrow.  Of course, rather than lasting until tomorrow morning, it turned into my pre-dinner snack.  whoops!  But it was delicious!  See below:

I bought an extra figue for if either Mireille or Pascal want one!

Don't worry, I don't look crazed anymore, this was still in my post-crazy students phase.

So I am off tomorrow to profite bien (loosely speaking, spend my time well) during the day off from school.  I’ll be going up to Caen, France to see the D-Day beaches.  I’ll take pictures!

Keep in touch!

P.S. even after a tiring day of teaching that makes me look certifiably nuts, how can this not make you smile?

A picture that one of the CE1 (second graders) drew for me.  I have it on my wall :)