First days at Lycée Racine

So school has started! So far, so good. Lycée Racine is turning out to be a wonderful institution for Silke. Silke said it is somewhat strange to be in a class where instead of being asked where do you come from, or what are your hobbies, the very first question asked of anyone is, what instrument do you play? Naturally she already has some good friends, for example Andrea, who plays the piano; they have already made plans to play some Beethoven violin sonatas together. (Actually, Beethoven didn't write violin sonatas: he wrote "Sonatas for piano with obligatory violin; apparently he didn't really like violinists, whom he found to be arrogant.) They can do this right at Racine when they have a break in their schedules, since Racine has pianos in several rooms. It even has dedicated practice rooms! And of course, a secure room for people to leave their instruments in during class.

Silke says that the principal teacher for her class, M. Duflo, is very funny; when handing out their schedules he said, "Shall I just tell you now who are the good teachers and the bad teachers?" Of course he was only joking. Or maybe not, but in any case he didn't actually tell them. He said it would take a month for them to be able to find their way around Racine. Lycée Racine is actually in two locations about 4 blocks apart, and sometimes they have to run from one to the other between classes. The main location also has hallways which meet at funny angles, and floors that are at different levels in different wings. The first time that Silke had a class on the 5th floor, she was heading up a staircase with stone steps, when she reached a point where the stone steps ended, and were followed by wooden steps: at that point there was a small sign, "Please do no use this staircase". (I think they don't want to hordes of students wearing out the wooden steps. Otherwise they would probably have to replace them every 50 years.) So she had to find another staircase! One hall she came across had skulls in glass cases along the walls. Animal skulls - she doesn't think that any were human.

One thing that struck us about her schedule (6 mornings a week, since she has school on Saturdays), is that she has music class. At first this seems odd, because her entire class are music students at the conservatory, mostly at the CRR, where they would get taking in any case the following topics: musical analysis, physics/mechanics of music instruments, history of music, chamber music, orchestra, and options such as composition, vocal ensemble, and jazz. What could could they do at their school they is not already covered at the conservatory? But of course, music is infinitely rich, and you never run out of things to do. As the music teacher was taking attendance, he had people say what instrument they played, and every time, he would name a chamber music piece that could be played by the previous 3, 4 or 5 people. Silke found this impressive, because randomness ensured there were some unusual instrument combinations. It turns out,  he is no ordinary Lycée music teacher. His name is Vincent Warnier; he is a famous organist, had made over 20 recordings (which you can find on iTunes for example), and he is a regular host, critic and guest on the radio station France Musique. Here is an excerpt of Vincent Warnier playing the Poulenc concerto for organ:

Of course he also plays the piano decently, and said that he is always available to accompany any students if they have something they are working on and want to practice with piano - remember that Racine has many rooms with pianos. So I don't have to mention really that music class at the Lycée is something that Silke more excited about than she probably expected to be.

There are also choir and orchestra options. Again, everyone will be doing those things at the conservatory in any case, but nevertheless, everyone is very highly encouraged to sign up for one or the other at the Lycée. They explained that the reason is that the high-up poobahs in the educational administration don't really understand about the double cursus program, and the association with the conservatory and all that. So the lycée orchestra and choir makes sure to perform at each least one event yearly where all the administrators of the school system will be present (and ideally the Minister of Education as well), and this does as much as anything to ensure continued support for the double cursus educational program .

Finally, it is not all music all the time: Silke is also excited about the association sportive at Racine; they do a number of different sports all year, including archery and swimming, which two Silke is most enthusiastic about. We have to see if we can keep Wednesday afternoons mostly free of other commitments so she can join the association sportive.

The best thing about Lycée Racine? There is an Eric Kayser bakery close by, and they have our favourite chocolate ice cream (which is something like 40% dark chocolate), that we like to have while watching a movie once a week. Silke can stop by on her way home and get some!