Thursday, 27 September 2012
La rentrée
It's that
time of year again, 'La rentrée', this French expression hangs over
us like a black cloud. In essence it refers to the start of the
school year, but it symbolises much more than this. The French
live for their long summer break and 'La rentrée' marks the end. The
long, hot days at the beach or pool are over, no more BBQs or
picnics. The days are getting shorter, mornings are colder and everyone
knows we'll soon be scrapping ice of our windscreens. One
ritual of 'La rentrée' is the trip to the supermarket to buy the
school essentials. Parents can be seen clutching the lists of
stationary demanded by different teachers. Each subject teacher
has there preferences and woe betides the parent who doesn't buy the
graph paper required by the maths teacher. Their child will
undoubtedly fail their Baccalaureate. Another feature of this
time of year is the 'Forum d'associations'. Here parents
desperately sign their children up for after school activities, that
will see them running a taxi service between clubs the rest of the
school year. Meanwhile on the work front, the French return to their
offices and factories and compare holidays with colleagues who they
haven't seen since July. Now it's heads down until the next holiday
at Christmas.
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