LA FETE DE L’ECOLE

Ok, this is so politically incorrect. But if you’ve ever wondered why French men carry purses, well, I think I’ve found the reason. It’s the things they make them do as children.

We went to the end of the year school celebration today. La Fete de l’Ecole. The school’s portion consisted of a show (it wasn’t really a play or a concert) that acted out the “theme” of what they’ve been studying this year: air, water, land. I think. All I knew is that Kaitlyn’s teacher told me a few days ago that she would be a mermaid and, thankfully, the school had the costume. All we had to do was show up wearing teacher-approved shoes. (to be more mermaid-like I suppose)

The show started with the little kids acting out the sea. Kaitlyn and the three other mermaids were first on stage. They held up a blue net like material and waved it up and down… to make the ocean. Some fish swam around. There were some sunbathers. A kid pretending to be the guy at the beach who sells water (nice to know some things are the same everywhere) and a kid who walked along the beach talking on his cell phone. Obviously, the whole sea theme was the best part.

There were some issues with wardrobe malfunctions.  Kaitlyn’s little top kept falling down around her belly.  Finally, another mermaid got so frustrated by it she tried to help fix it.  Later at home when we saw the pictures, Kaitlyn said “look, you can see my boobies!”
Next came older kids with some sort of song about soup. Six kids were on stage wearing vegetables around their necks and slapping veggie halves together to make music. Some other kids came on stage wearing chef hats and aprons. They put the veggie kids into their soup.

That was followed by an act set to “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”… sung in French. The kids (boys and girls) had on rain coats and boots and carried umbrellas. They danced around and ended by squirting the audience with squirt guns. We were so lucky to be in the third row!

The strangest act had to be the next one. There were about a dozen boys and girls on the stage. The costumes were bare feet, jeans, a solid colored t-shirt and a white mask on the back of their heads. They sort of danced around in sub-groups according to the color of their shirts. Honestly, I have no idea what that had to do with air, water or land. I have no idea what that had to do with anything.

The grand finale was the ribbon twirlers. The oldest kids, dressed head to toe in black (good thing it was a relatively cool day… black wool hats and gloves had to be hot) carried ribbons on sticks that they twirled around. Like those lame rhythmic gymnastics. And there were boys in the act, too.

After the show the part of the day organized by the parents started. We joined the other Americans at a table and we all downed nearly three bottles of wine waiting for the food to come out. The salad was shredded carrots and sliced tomatoes. Yuck. The main dish was paella. Complete with seafood. I’d have rather had the one meant for kids – it only had chicken. Dessert was some fruit cakes. No chocolate! It wasn’t exactly worth the 50 Euros we’d paid. (I didn’t tell Bill till we got there how much it cost) But like we all kept saying, it’s a fund raiser.

After eating there were some games set up for the kids. Most were for the older ones. There was one game that Kaitlyn could play… fish for a prize. But Bill got really mad waiting because there was no line or organization to it. The teenage girls running the game kept passing over Bill to give the “fishing pole” to someone else. I finally went over and said something to them… no idea if I said something that even made sense. I don’t know the word for “wait” but a word that seemed right popped into my head so I used it. I can’t even tell you now what the word was. Just to not hear me try to speak anymore French they gave Bill and Kaitlyn the next available fishing pole.

This end of the year party is a big deal for the kids. All the schools have one. It’s a little something to look forward to again next year.

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