L'Orchestre de l'Académie de Musique

One of Silke's few regrets (although there are some others) about not being in Calgary this year was not being able to play with the Calgary Youth Orchestra (CYO).  She is on the CYO mailing list, and every time she saw what they are playing, she exclaimed that it wasn't fair, and that she wanted to play that music too!  The Erik Satie conservatory orchestra is a fine level for Jerome, and exciting for him because it is a complete orchestra with woodwinds and brass, but it was not up to Silke's level.  I pulled her out of the conservatory orchestra (which entailed some small amount of drama) and we started looking for other options.   Emmanuel Emerich recommended l'orchestre de l'académie de musique.  He not only recommended it, he also talked to the conductor to arrange an audition.  Which was a good thing, because the minimum age is nominally 18.  L'académie de musique is not for professional musicians, nor even for those who are studying music at the university level.  The conductor, Jean-Philippe Sarcos, founded it to promote classical music in the younger generation, and particularly in the decision-makers of tomorrow.  The orchestra is intended for those university students who have graduated from the conservatory system (roughly equivalent to an ARCT in Canada), but are now pursuing other studies and other careers.  It provides them a chance to keep playing their instrument at a high level, and to stay connected with classical music.  In addition to the orchestra, their are choirs, with over 300 singers altogether.  The choirs welcome all levels, but provide a quite rigorous training, even for beginners.  Anyway, you want to know if Silke got in.  She did!  (Yes Jeff, with the first violins :)   She had a rehearsal tonight (Monday), three and a quarter hours.  (There are also Saturday rehearsals.)  It was midnight before she got home and got to bed.  We will see how she survives the week after that.  But she is incredibly excited about it.

l'orchestre de l'académie de musique au Cirque d'Hiver

Anyway, you can hear the orchestra, and see why Silke is so excited about it.  A few years ago they did a production of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana for French TV, which was also shown on the BBC.  Someone recorded it from TV and put it on youtube, so here it is (the sound quality is decent, except for a slight lag between the picture and the sound)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LzMtqcI-nI

(The shots of Paris in this video are fun for us.  Name the place!)

Here is their fall program: http://www.academie-de-musique.com/-actualite-2008-2009- .  (Yes, I know the link contains "2008-2009" but it does in fact link to this fall's program.)

I don't think we are going to be hearing any more regrets from Silke about not being able to play with the CYO this year.

A picture at the Louvre

Nope, it's not a photo of the Mona Lisa taken by holding a iPhone up above the crowd.  Sorry.  There are several those taken every minute, but sadly we're not posting one here.  Instead, here is a picture of us in front of an advertising banner.  30,000 works of art on display, and we take just one photo of  advertising.  Why?  Because it's kind of humorous, and because it's for Carte Louvre Famille.  And we have one of those.  A year's family pass to the Louvre, which is a 10 minute walk away.  How cool is that?

Thanks to Mrs. Agopian doing a wonderful art history program with Silke last year, Silke recognized a number of works today.  She was pretty much jumping up and down to see them in real life.  (So was Jerome, but he was just trying to get a view over the heads of the crowd.)

If you really want a photograph of the Mona Lisa, you can find really excellent ones on the Louvre site: http://www.louvre.fr/oeuvre-notices/portrait-de-lisa-gherardini-epouse-de-francesco-del-giocondo .

By the way, at the end of the school year, one of the exams that Silke will have is an art history exam.  There is no separate art history course, instead the material is spread across several subjects, French, History, Art and Music classes.  The exam is oral.  She needs over the course of the year to prepare an art history notebook, which she will hand to the examiner, who look through it and then ask her questions about the material that she has prepared, and Silke has to be prepared to answer and to speak intelligently about art history.

Help Jerome pick a statue for art class

Jerome has to take a photo of a statue to art class.  I think they might be drawing the one they bring from the photograph.  Here are some possibilities:

Choice A

This is a monument at place Saint-Michel .  Lucifer is having a bad day.

Choice B

The above figures are cool, but probably pretty hard to draw.  However on either side are dragons.  These are easier to draw, and they're more exciting for an 11 year old boy.

Choice C

Dragons still too hard to draw?  No problem.  What about this one from les Tuileries?  It's... um... dunno actually what it is.

What's your choice?  (Jerome ended up deciding to take photos of all 3 to art class.)

Vélib

Carolyn has always loved commuting by bike.  It keeps her fit and sane.  -20 and snowing was never enough to stop her riding her bike in Calgary.  Paris has this wonderful bike-sharing program called Vélib, which you've probably heard about.  It's fantastic, with 1900 stations in Paris.  Carolyn even has an app that shows, in real time, how many bikes are available at nearby stations, or, if dropping off a bike, how many free slots.  Carolyn just has to swipe her card, which is the same as her transit pass, and she can take a bike.  There's a small annual fee, but no charge each time to use a bike, as long as it is returned within 30 minutes.  Most of her commute is along the Seine.

Carolyn on a Vélib bicycle

A Vélib station

The view on Carolyn's morning commute

Jerome learns to tie his shoes by watching a TED talk

This is not a post about Paris, except that I mention how dirty the streets are.  I bought Jerome a pair of gym shoes that he needed for gym class.  Dedicated shoes for gym class are required, because the gym floor would get rather disgusting if you wore your outdoor shoes in the gym.  Coincidentally, tonight Silke and I were visiting someone from who is married to a Japanese woman.  He mentioned, while providing us with slippers to wear inside, à la japonaise, that every time he returns from Japan, he forgets to look where he is stepping in the Parisian street.  Yuck.  Anyway, about the shoes for Jerome, I neglected to notice that we picked out running shoes with laces.  This is an important detail, because once, a few years ago, I tried to teach Jerome how to tie shoelaces.  The outcome of which was, we thereafter only bought him only shoes with velcro fasteners.  So the day before Jerome's gym class, Carolyn notices that his gym shoes have laces.  Brief panic, then she then has the flash of genius, to see if there is a TED talk about tying your shoes.  Jerome has nearly perfect retention of anything he has ever seen in a TED talk.  It turns out, there is such a TED talk.  So now Jerome can tie his laces.  By the way, you are probably tying your laces wrong, so you should watch it too:  http://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_how_to_tie_your_shoes.html .

Rue de Rome

In Paris, if you want anything music-related, you go to rue de Rome.  The whole length of the street is stores related to music.  Violin shops, piano shops, stores specializing in saxophones or contrabass, music bookstores, anything!  I have no idea how you choose a luthier.  In Calgary, there are two good luthiers in the city.  Here you stand on the corner of rue de Rome and there are luthiers as far as you can see up the street.

One of many luthiers on rue de Rome

Decoratively carved contrabass bridges

Public drinking fountains with carbonated water

This is a public drinking fountain with chilled carbonated water:

I knew these existed, but we weren't out looking for one.  We were just out for a stroll along la promenade plantée when we came across it.  La promenade plantée is a former metro viaduct, now converted to an elevated garden.  The original metro is now underground.  La promenade plantée is 4.5 km long, and it passed through several gardens along the way.  Gardens are one of the most attractive things about Paris.  There are the large famous ones of course, Jardin du Luxembourg and les Tuileries, but there are countless small charming public gardens, all well-frequented by Parisians.  It wasn't always like this.  In the 17th century there were apparently zero public gardens on the right bank.  So where did they come from?  Former palaces, every one.  Even les Tuileries was formerly a palace and its grounds - must have been a mighty big palace.  And at least part of today's le Jardin du Luxembourg was formerly the grounds of a palace belonging to the de Medicis.  But mostly they were smaller, only half a block size or so.  All of these palaces were destroyed by republicans (mostly burned) sometime during the revolution, or some time during the 19th century, which was a time of continual conflict between monarchists and republicans.  Some were of surpassing beauty it is said, and full of rare art.  But the gardens are better, if you're not aristocracy.  Actually, the central Paris of today is largely 19th century, a little is 18th century, and it is only the rare occasional building that is older.  Such as le cathédral Notre Dame de Paris.  Which is awesome in any case, and stupefying when you know it dates to 1163.

Don't believe me that Paris has fountains with sparkling water?  http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2013/09/11/sparking_water_fountains_italian_and_french_cities_have_them_can_we.html

Biology in le Jardin du Luxembourg

When Jerome has biology class, they don't stay in the classroom, they cross the street to le Jardin du Luxembourg.  The Jardin du Luxembourg is very large.  Parts of it are very elegant (jardin à la française) and much frequented by tourists and visitors.  Another part of the garden, not as visited, has a scientific arrangement of trees and plants, all labelled.  This is the part Jerome's class visits, as they are studying trees.

Fruit tree specimens in le jardin du Luxembourg

This part of the garden also has many beehives.  The bees pollinate the fruit trees and flowers.  Signs warn of the presence of bees.

Beehives in le jardin du Luxembourg

By chance, this afternoon I happened to be in the jardin du Luxembourg and found that the beekeepers were giving talks and presentations about the bees.  They were also selling jars of the honey.  Of course I bought one (the limit was one jar per person).  The honey is wonderfully dark and complex in taste.

Honey from the beehives in jardin du Luxembourg

School Books and Bookstores

Here are some of the books that Silke will be studying this year in French.

Silke did animal farm with Mrs. Agopian last year.  That will allow her to concentrate on expressing her thoughts in French this year.

For anyone who laments the demise of the bookstore in Canada, Paris is quite a revelation.  I had a list of books to buy, and the first place we tried was Les Halles, which is a pretty huge and posh underground mall in the centre of Paris.  We went there because I had noticed previously that the department store Fnac has a whole floor which is a bookstore.  It was huge, and crowded, but not quite right.  A little too fancy - it didn't seem like there were a lot of families looking for school books.  But I had remembered a Librarie d'Education on Boulevard Saint-Michel, so we left Les Halles and crossed Pont au Change to rive gauche.  We hadn't gone a block from the Seine when just came across a bookstore, Gilbert Joseph.  They even had what were obviously school books in their sidewalk display.  We went in and the place was huge.  6 floors and a basement!  Further, the books were packed in tight, more like a library, with shelving everywhere and all the books spine out, rather than cover out.  It took us a little while, and some asking, to figure out how to find anything, but I'm sure they must have pretty much anything there.  That's so amazing, that you just walk down a street almost at random and find a bookstore like that!

La Tour Saint-Jacques-de-la-Bourcherie

Today we visited, and climbed up, la tour Saint-Jacques-de-la-Bourcherie.  This is a tower of legend.  Originally the bell tower of a church in the very oldest centre of Paris, the tower now stands alone.  The church itself was destroyed in the aftermath of the French revolution.  The tower however was persevered, perhaps due to its usefulness as a watch tower for fires or for military purposes.  One of the famous early characters associated with the church was Nicholas Flamel, a personage famous enough to have made an appearance in recent children's literature.  He was an alchemist alleged to have commuted lead to gold.  Certainly he was wealthy, and a patron of the church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Bourcherie.  His house faced directly onto the church.  After his death his house was taken apart stone by stone, in a futile search for the secret to his wealth.

Blaise Pascal is said to have performed experiments on atmospheric pressure in the tower, observing a slight change in pressure from the base to the summit of the tower.  His statute now stands in the arches of the tower.

And Léon Foucault is said to have used the tower for his initial experiments with a long pendulum demonstrating the rotation of the earth, before his famous public demonstration in the Paris Observatory.  In the 1820s, the tower was privately owned, and used to produce lead shot.  Molten lead was dripped from a copper sieve at the top of the tower into a pool of water at the base, producing perfectly round lead shot.  This also lead to a couple of fires that gutted the interior of the tower.

Recently the tower underwent a multi-year renovation.  Depending on who you ask or what you read, this is either the first year in a couple of decades that the tower can be publicly visited, or the first time ever.  And today was the very last day that it was open.  Due to the extreme narrowness of the stairs, only 19 people per hour can visit the tower.   I had happened to spot a sign advertising this, and so yesterday mid-morning we went to see if we could sign up for one of the tours.  No, all booked.  A very friendly Parisian woman who had just visited the tower noticed our interest, and told us it was not to be missed - the very best view of Paris.  She had lined up yesterday for a tour spot at 5:30am - they start taking bookings for the day at 8am.  So we had an early start today.  Here are Silke and Jerome, on the very dark very early morning walk from our apartment.

And in the queue at 6am....

I did find some chocolate croissant for us.  Where can you find chocolate croissants at 6am on a Sunday morning in Paris?  The train station of course!

And here is the view,

The sanction for chewing gum in class

In addition to the school rules, which are lengthy, teachers have their own class rules.  Rules are invariably listed with specific consequences and procedures in case of non-adherence.  Here for example is the rule in Silke's French class regarding chewing gum,

Chewing gum is not permitted in class.  Verbs to be conjugated will be given to all those violating this rule.  If the punishment is not completed in time, the verbs will be doubled and completed in detention.

Another interesting rule in French class is that titles of cited works must not be put in quotation marks, but rather must be underlined using a ruler.  Not observing this convention results in an automatic deduction of 2 points on the assignment.  (Everything is out of 20, so that amounts to a not-insignificant 10% deduction.)  Further, borrowing a classmate's ruler also results in an automatic deduction of 2 points.  One really doesn't want to forget one's ruler for French class!

Montaigne is a very large school.  It is a combined lycée and collège with 1900 students, two thirds of whom are in the lycée (which is the approximate equivalent of high school).  On the second day, Silke's class (which is the last year of collège) had a class in the lycée wing.  Despite having a map of the school - everyone is issued with one - she was unable to find the classroom, and so had to ask for some help from a tall but friendly-looking lycéen.  You can't get there from here was the response, other, that is, than by descending to the main hall and taking a different staircase up again.  Once in the right section of the right wing of the school, she ran into two of her classmates, who despite attended the school 3 years already, were also unable to locate this particular classroom.  After further wandering around for some time, they finally looked out a window into a courtyard and saw some other classmates waving at them.  Turns out, they had the wrong floor.

My own theory, admittedly far-fetched, for the confusing and illogical room designation (some rooms have numbers, some letters), is that it is of historical origin.  Namely, that it was a cunning plan by the French resistance to confound the Germans, as the building of Lycée Montaigne was commandeered for the use of the Luftwaffe during the second world war.

Silke of course makes friends quickly, and this makes it easier for her, as there is always someone volunteering to help her find classrooms and generally explain how things work.  Jerome has also made friends faster than we had feared might be the case, and we were pleased to hear from him that yesterday he and a friend went to lunch together.  Silke also had lunch with a new friend, but the details are different.  At the lunch break, which varies depending on the schedule, but is typically one and a half hours long, one of the boys in the class offered to give her a tour of the entire school.  I assume that they stayed out of proscribed areas, such as the gardens, but perhaps that is assuming too much.  Then they went to the school restaurant.   At 15 minutes before the start of class, Silke suggested they perhaps ought to go to class, but he was relaxed about it.  At 10 minutes to, she again mentioned it, but his response, as she told us, was something like, we are enjoying ourselves, why rush?  Finally at 5 minutes they left for class.  As Silke was relating this to us, she couldn't understand why Carolyn and I burst ought laughing simultaneously at certain things she said.  Well, there are French rules, and then there are French men.

It is a good thing they made it on time though.  Being late for class is a serious infraction.  The class doors are locked at the start of class, and if you are locked out, you have to report to the assistant director's office.  If you don't have a very good reason for your tardiness, you get a note entered into your carnet de correspondance, which is a booklet, which they must have at all times, that serves many purposes, including as an on-going record of the academic year.  You then have to serve a detention to make up the material missed due to being locked out.

Considering the number of scenarios for which a detention may be issued, we are proud to report, that in the first three days of school, neither Silke nor Jerome has yet had to serve a detention.

As an aside, the carnet de correspondance is required for entry to the school.  The school doors, which are massive, are only opened at specific times, typically once every hour between 20 minutes after the hour and 25 minutes after the hour.  The door warden checks every student's photo and class schedule, both of which are printed on the back cover of their carnet de correspondance.  Should your first class of the day happen to start on the hour rather than at half past - rare, but Silke has such a class one day - then you have to arrive a half an hour early to gain admittance, as the doors are not opened on the hour.

P.S. If you are very interested in such things, the school rules can be found on-line here: http://www.montaigne-paris.fr/files/607/Reglement_interieur_lycee.pdf .

Intimacy in Paris

Typical Paris parking

First day at school

All those months (including all summer) of French and math exercises, all the paperwork and planning and bureaucracy and research and interviews and waiting rooms, end here.  This is Jerome going in, but you can't see him, because he's pretty small amongst the older students.

Collège Montaigne

We have a school!  Coincidently, it is the school which I posted a photo of already earlier, when we were looking around looking at collèges, Collège Montaigne.  Here is the website: http://www.montaigne-paris.fr .  Even if you don't read French, the website has photos.  Collège Montaigne faces directly onto Jardin du Luxembourg.

But to back up a bit, yesterday, which seems like an eternity ago already, Silke and Jerome had French (spoken and written) exams and Math exams at the rectorate starting at 8am, specifically at the department which handles non-francophone students (specifically "centre académique pour la scholarisation des élèves allphones nouvellement arrivés et des enfants issus de familles itinérants et de voyageurs", which is quite a department name - it is shortened to CASNAV) .  Meanwhile, I was interviewed, and I provided quite a pile of requested papers.  This was a most interesting experience, for Silke and Jerome, who observed a lot, as well as for me.  We were together going through the same process with people from every part of the globe, and at every level of French and education.  Some people I guess must have been refugees.  Although it feels terribly bureaucratic, this department has the noble goal of classifying every foreign student, identifying their particular needs, and placing them in a school with the required resources.  Some arrivals will have a strong educational background, but weak or no French, and be placed in a appropriate class ("classe d'acceuil").  Others, for example many from North Africa, will be fluent French speakers, but may lack a formal education.  The math exam, which is given in one's native tongue, is a general proxy for assesses the level of formal education.  In other cases, arrivals may lack both French and formal education, and may come from a society in some distress, for example a country in a state of civil war.  In those cases, they ensure that there is a school with an entire dedicated team, including teachers, a psychologist, translators, and assistants in place.

Of the group going through the process that morning, Jerome finished the exams first, and appeared in the waiting room with his certificate in hand.  Result: "francophone" with highest possible score in every category.  In other words, the department was deciding against any special classes or aid for Jerome, and in fact sending him back to the regular registration department for French students.  Surprisingly, Silke did not also come out soon.  In fact, it was another hour and a half before Silke appeared, and I was really beginning to wonder what could have possibly happened.  I could only surmise that when asked to write a paragraph in French, she had embarked on writing a dissertation.  It turned out that she scored so high on the evaluation, that they decided to start her over on the tests for the next grade level. Her final result was not only "francophone", but advanced a year.  Of course this does match her schooling in Canada, but we had neither mentioned nor requested this, figuring that a French school at her age level would be challenge enough.  It would seem that their evaluation is quite acute.  With these important certificates in hand, we were sent back to the registration department.  There, after a 3 hour wait in yet another waiting room, and the production and examination of more quantities of paperwork, they regretfully informed us that the two schools in our neighborhood were completely full.  They would contact us within a week to let us know which school they would be attending.  I was not entirely happy with this, as we chose the apartment specifically to be near those two schools, which besides having a very high academic standard, seemed particularly welcoming of foreign students.  (Also both offered German as an LV2 language, which Silke particularly wanted.  More on that later.)  But then, what can you do?  We had to surrender the CASNAV certificates to complete the dossiers in the registration department, but before doing so, I photographed them with my iphone.  This bemused Silke and Jerome, who couldn't guess why I would do such a thing.  I could only tell them I didn't know yet why.  But in fact, it did turn out to be a bit of fortuitous foresight.

We didn't have to wait a week.  This very morning I received a phone call that they had been assigned to Collège Montaigne.  This college is only slightly further away than the two actually in our arrondissement.  4 metro stops, as we measure it.  This is an elite college, which hadn't been high on my list, because in my research, it was frankly rather intimating.  They have no class d'accueil, and gave the impression of simply expecting everyone to be up to speed immediately, rather than providing any additional help.  Well, this is where they would be going.  So we reported there is morning, and were shown to the office of the councillor for 3ème (Silke's grade) and 6ème (Jerome's).  When we arrived, sometime before noon, the letters from the rectorate to the collège regarding Silke and Jerome were already on her desk.  Although things sometimes seem to move slowly in France, at other times the speed is quite astonishing.  She was quite friendly, although giving the impression of being overworked.  She talked to us awhile, and then she picked up the phone and called the director of the college.  After explaining the situation, and the origin and level of French of Silke and Jerome (which despite the evaluation of CASNAV is not yet truly francophone), the conversation went something like this (my approximate translation),

"They were sent here by the rectorate."

(Something indistinct but clearly at elevated voice on the other end of the telephone.)

"It is the decision of the rectorate.  What can you do?"

She then told us that the director would like to see the evaluation done by CASNAV, as well as any documentation from the schools in Canada, and that we should return at 14:30 with the requested documents.  Good thing I had thought to photograph those certificates!

Here we are, waiting for the director:

In the garden of college Montaigne

Doesn't look much like a Canadian school, does it?  Besides the garden, there are courtyards, columns, incredibly high ceilings, statues and, in many places, lions carved into the walls.  I told Jerome the lions would eat him if he didn't do his homework.  What you don't see in the photograph are other students, because one of the many rules we learned is, no students permitted in the garden, unless specially requested to be there (we were).

There was some difficulty in resolving the issue of languages.  At Montaigne, the following modern languages are taught: English, German, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Polish.  For an LV1 language (LV being langue vivante), which is a foreign language learned from an early age, Silke and Jerome were put down for English.  Not too exciting perhaps, but it satisfies requirements.  Silke also requires an LV2 language, which would be another foreign language started in 4ème, in other words in the grade preceding the one she in entering.  She would have loved to do German, but it is offered only as LV1 here.  Instead, she chose Spanish.  Actually, it went something like this, "As you are in this college, you will write the Lycée entrance exam at the end of the year.  An LV2 language is required for this exam.  Therefore, you will be placed in a second year Spanish course, and you will catch up quickly with the others, who have already had a year of Spanish."  Latin is also normally required of all students at Montaigne, but in this case they decided that she would be simply too far behind, and, it not being a requirement of the Lycée entrance exams, they struck it from her schedule.  As for Jerome, they had some difficulty in finding any class in 6ème with space, and finally decided on an English-Portugese bilingual class.  A bilingual class in France doesn't mean the same thing as it does in Canada.  Here it means two LV1 languages, in addition to French.  But they then struck the Portuguese classes from his standard schedule.  They told him that he will get to know well the children in the school of Portuguese and Brazilian families.

They start school tomorrow.  Some days start as early as 8:30, and may end as late as 18:00.  But as they both have a class struck from their standard schedules, it should be manageable.  In fact, they are quite excited about it.

The difference between Violinists and Violists

Silke's audition at le Conservatoire Erik Satie was in front of a jury of five.  Every violinist auditioning was in a waiting room, until they were called and asked what they would be playing.  Then they played until interrupted, thanked tersely, and asked to leave.  Results are announced tomorrow.

Jerome, by contrast, only had to audition for one friendly woman.  This wasn't a matter of age.  Every violinist, even the most young, had to play for the jury.  But the violist was very friendly.  She had only 3 candidates auditioning in the hour that Jerome was booked, and so she spent 20 minutes with each of them.  She even invited me to come in with Jerome.  And then she chatted quite a bit before asking to hear him play.  Of course Jerome only managed a few words.  Not from lack of French, but from his usual timidity.  But she was very friendly and tried to draw him out a bit and make him feel comfortable, and reassured him that she understood perfectly - that it was a bit intimidating, especially in a second language.  Jerome played very well, and she told him so afterwards, repeatedly.  And she said immediately that she will be happy to have him as a student.  The only question is whether the administration will let her take another student.  A question to which she herself has no idea of the answer.  This seems so typically French.  That a highly regarded musician at the conservatory, in the process of giving auditions, has no power to decide how many students to accept, nor even any idea whether that number might be greater than zero.  Also she said, as she plays with l'orchestre national de France, she often has to reschedule lessons due to concerts, so we must prepared to be flexible.  In entering the audition results in her form, she told Jerome that she had to select an official level for him, but that the level has no meaning.  What they will do together depends only on him.

The audition was in two parts.  The second part of the audition, in front of two professors, involved sight reading, rhythm, sight singing and so on.  Unfortunately, Jerome was nearly last on that list, so had to wait well over an hour between the parts of his audition.  Of course he got very nervous during the wait.  Afterwards they asked me to come in.  They were very friendly.  They pointed out some obvious areas that Jerome needs some work, said not to worry about it at all, because he would be provided with instruction in these areas.  They said that in any case that part of the audition has practically no bearing on whether one is accepted or not.  It is simply a matter of finding out the appropriate group classes.  Finally they said that he has a lovely singing voice, and they were quite pleased with him.

Jerome didn't quite see it quite that way.  After the stressful experience, and the long wait, his nerves, and his French, were beginning to fail him.   "At the end I didn't even know what they were asking me!"  No doubt he didn't.  No doubt either that it didn't matter.  He did well what he could do well and needed to do well.  He attempted with good attitude - almost right to the end - what he couldn't do well.    Assuming the administration doesn't cause difficulties, and I am optimistic, Jerome will be taught viola by a member of l'orchestre national de France.  An opportunity of which he has no idea how rare it is.  It seems almost unfair to note that there is only a very nominal fee for the conservatoire.

In leaving, we noticed the posted official results for yesterday.  Auditioned, 20 singers.  Accepted, 3.

To celebrate, and to restore Jerome's spirits, which were pretty low - I doubt that he will ever feel good about an audition or a performance, no matter how good he becomes - especially if it is a long audition that goes well past his usual dinner time - we went to a restaurant and ordered moules marinières.  Strange to say, it is the first dinner we have eaten in a restaurant in Paris.  Jerome loves mussels, so that was a big hit.  They were perfectly cooked and delicious.  Also, it was beginning to dawn on him that despite not having done everything perfectly, he had in fact been accepted.  So by the time we left he was in pretty high spirits indeed.

Jerome and Silke were all for walking home, despite the distance, which measured in metro stations, metro stations being the unit of distance we use for everything, was 5 stops.  It was a lovely warm evening in Paris, and what could be more pleasant than an evening stroll in Paris?

Audition at the Conservatoire

Today at 17:00, Silke and Jerome have an audition at the Conservatoire Municipal Erik Satie.  It seems to be quite renowned.  We have been warned that it is difficult to get in.  We'll see.  Jerome is playing on his viola of course, and is not yet entirely fluent reading alto clef.  Also, sight-singing is part of the audition!  They've never done sight-singing.  Or much singing at all for that matter.  Oh well, they might make up for it on the other aspects of the audition.  We'll see.

Tomorrow morning at 8:00 they are writing French and Math exams at the Paris rectorate, which will determine how they are placed in the schools.  The most likely outcome I think, is that they will be able to do many normal classes in the collège, but also be in a "class d'accueil", which is a class of intensive French preparation for non-francophones.

In our apartment

Jerome doing homework

School hasn't actually started yet, but Silke and Jerome are preparing for their placement exam on Wednesday.

Carolyn sitting in the sunshine of the open door