This past week in Le Mans has been somewhat quieter than the previous two; everyone has started getting into a bit of a routine for the school week, people have sorted out flats and friendship groups are forming. This is not to say that I was bored last week, there was still ample going on but it was a tad less manic...
On Friday, Alice and I completed our one hour of teaching before being told that the ‘quatrième’ which we were supposedly teaching for the rest of the afternoon had disappeared...! The class that we did have was super though. Afterwards, I nearly got ran over by a car, having just come out of MGEN where I collected my health insurance papers. Ironic to say the least! That night was Pot Luck night, so armed with my baguette, wine, cheese and apple tart, Alice, Ros and I went around to Lilly and Lisa’s with Olivia, Claire and Jessica. I’ve come to the conclusion that you can never go wrong with this American idea. If you’ve never heard of it before (I hadn’t until2 weeks ago), the idea is that you each take a side dish/accompaniment to the main dish which is prepared by the host. You always end up having an amazing meal, drinking lots and lots of wine, accompanied by bread and cheese. PARFAIT! You probably know the score by now, after this delicious meal and lots of photo taking, we headed into town to our only home for drinking (Mulligans) where usual shenanigans occurred The taxi back that night was seemingly less than last Friday and was a mere €6. Score!
After a late night on Friday, an early start on Saturday followed. I decided to ditch the buses ‘au cause des grèves’ and on my walk into town a creepy thing happened... I was wearing my thick black leggings, brown boots, a polar neck dress jumper thing and my big cream winter coat when a man pulled over in his car and beckoned me over to the window. I ignored him three times but he kept pulling over so I finally gave in and went over to the open window. He asked if I wanted to get in with him and when I replied no he asked if I was okay. I replied ‘yes until you stopped me, GOOD BYE!’ (in French, obvs) and walked off. Seriously, did he really think I‘d want to get in a car with him? Talk about sleazy. It angers me a tad because I had no flesh on show and I even had my hood up. It’s been happening to me ever since I got here and I know the French are more conservative than us Brits but I honestly don’t know how I could be any more conservative than I am being. Oh well, I’ll take it as a compliment I guess!
But with that rant over, our day trip to Nantes on Saturday went well and our trains ran smoothly, despite the strikes. We visited some lovely gardens, the cathedral and the castle before having a galette for lunch at a lovely little café followed by a good old pastry. We also visited Ile de Nantes across the other side of the river, where they have the strangest tourist attraction I have ever seen! There’s this huge, mechanical elephant which does circuits of this hangar and which people ride. It’s a bit bizarre but very funny. There were also some crazy pirates doing some sort of weird drama/dance thing whilst we sat having a coffee/tea.
Sunday and Monday were both chilled days. Claire, Louise, Annie and I met at Liz’s to arrange travel plans for ‘Toussaints’, the half-term holiday which is coming up! So hotels and trains are now booked for Monday 1st Nov- Weds 3rd Nov when we’ll be visiting Rennes, St.Malo, Dinard and Cancale in Brittany- exciting times! On Sunday night, I also managed to get Skype to work without stuttering and therefore had a great conversation with Pedro... it unfortunately didn’t work quite the same with Sam on Monday morning but a great conversation was had nonetheless.
So as I was saying, everything had calmed down here in Le Mans. That was until Monday night...
Emmanuel (my teacher at Val D’Huisne) emailed me on Monday to warn me that I may not have to go to into school on Tuesday because there was going to be a massive strike and the pupils were planning on blockading and protesting at the school. He said he would phone me in the morning to confirm and I’ve got to say, I wasn’t expecting to have to go in. Yesterday was THE major day of striking as Sarkozy is signing the law for increasing the retirement age today. But when Emmanuel phoned yesterday morning, I couldn’t have been any less prepared to hear what he told me: ‘Morning Kate, you won’t need to come into school today because...well, your school has been burnt down...!’ In the one second that it took for me to register what he had said, I experienced so many emotions, but mainly I was just so shocked that the grèves have come to this. Whether it was a complete accident or a criminal offence I’m still to find out but I certainly know that the kids that I have met and taught wouldn’t have wanted this. Things must have got out of hand.
So now I’m left with one school (which as far as I’m aware, has been completely functioning throughout these grèves), and 6 hours on my timetable. Hopefully after Toussaints, they will sort out other schools for the children to go to or provide a temporary shelter for them, but for now all I can do is wait...I have to say, seeing my school and head teacher on the national news was surreal, and I don’t think I’ll quite believe it until I go and take a look at the remains...
One final note, I may not be able to get home to England on Saturday as public transport has taken a hit because of these strikes and now to make it worse fuel strikes mean that some planes aren’t running! Oh France, what a country you are!
And I’ve only been here 4 weeks...
I shall keep you all updated,
Bisous
xxx
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