Our little girl got back on Saturday night! Back from a week with her class in Noirmoutier, a small isle in Brittany. And it's been a wonderful week, that's for sure!
Much too early, we left to the railway station to pick her up - little H. with a three-rose bouquet (one from each of us; the red one, she explained to a lady on the metro, represents "l'amour", the pinkish-yellow one the sunset and I already forgot what the white one was for - but she sure got lyrical!). We were told the kids would be sitting in wagon 16, so all parents were waiting sort of midway "le quai". When the train finally arrived, someone yelled: "ils sont là-devant!". And there she was, my little girl, waiving, with a big, happy smile on her face, a little tanned even - it was just a split second, but I saw she looked great. I felt the tears coming...
Little H. and I started running like crazy not sure if daddy was following at all. It was actually hilarious!! All those parents running down the platform, maneuvering (the French are pretty good at this!!) to get closer to the door, to be the first ones to welcome the fifty-something kids back home.
She looked so happy, so cheerful, ... They've had a fabulous time in Noirmoutier!
As we were waiting for the luggage, the giggling, laughing, hugging and kissing went on... It was hard to say goodbye to all those friends, even though it was only until Monday...
We were home late that night... and there was so much to tell and show us, still - the presents she got us: a butter knife for little sister (H. loves to have just some butter on her "baguette", but has a hard time spreading it with a regular knife - so thoughtful of M. to think of this), a little tortoise shaped jewelry box covered in shells for daddy and me, a little lighthouse globe with sparkles for herself and... salt!! One kilo of the best "Sel marin de Noirmoutier", which we had to taste right away! So good!!
And this wouldn't be France if they wouldn't have exposed the kids to some really good food. Although M. is quite a picky eater, she has been raving about the wonderful food they've had the entire week (some examples: salmon with some kind of shrimp sauce with broccoli puré, moules frites, pasta salad with tuna, yummy desserts - they even got a cooking class on Saturday and made their own sablés cookies to take home...). Together with her daddy, yesterday, she prepared us the tuna pasta salad and one of the deserts. Trop bien! And she learned some good table manners too, she told us (we have to see about that!).
And not only that: although really late she insisted on unpacking her suitcase herself, putting away everything while talking and talking...about all the activities: a boat's trip around the isle, their biking trip, the trip to "les marais salants" from where she got the salt, the olympics and treasure hunt on the beach, the fishing, bird watching, "la boum" ... She even taught us a new expression: "Dites-lui de me lacher les baskets" (tell him/her to leave me alone) - whatever the context might have been...
She's also been very enthusiast about the "surveillant(e)s" and the wonderful songs one of them taught the kids, while playing his guitar. Nice French repertoire songs... She looked them up for us on Youtube and sang along. So cute!
Tomorrow, I'll bring her disposable film camera to the shop, so she can put some memories up in her room, from her first trip alone ...
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