Dringgggggggggggggggggg

The school bell has sounded for the first time for Maxime today. As Sandie rightly pointed out, we’ve completed the first of twenty “rentrées scolaires” - it’s not every day that you start something that you know you are going to do for the next two decades!

Over the last week or so Maxime has been wonderfully behaved (not just because we bribe him with chocolate eclairs), and Sandie has started to feel more comfortable about going out and showing her face in public again with him (note: this is completely separate from any discussion about her removing her burka you understand). Thankfully Maxime continued this good run of form today as he happily trundled the 200 metres or so to l’Ecole St. Joseph which is within spitting distance of the stud farm.

The whole event was completed in 4 stages: (1) the walk to the school - top marks; (2) the initial introductions with the headmistress and other teachers and children - 8/10 because he was extremely polite although understandably a touch clingy; (3) the initial exploration of the school (where the total number of pupils is 23) - top marks again because he managed to find all the toy stores, run around screaming without being told off by his mother, find four taps which he took great delight in turning on, and then he even managed to finish this phase of events by finding a mini croissant to stuff into his little face; and (4) the departure of the parents who were summarily dismissed by the headmistress at 9.15AM - 1/10, because he was the only little child who cried (in the other cases it was typically the parents who were crying).

Once he’s eaten the school out of house and home this lunchtime, we’ll pick him up at 1PM before he has his siesta at home. Watch out for further updates - no doubt I will be looking to compare Maxime’s version of the morning’s events with that of his teachers....