Deauville Dispatches: Always a spectacle

It's been one Christmas activity after another these last few days, with yesterday being the repas de Noël at Fracasse (an eclectic meal of foie gras salad, carrot sticks, green beans wrapped in bacon, homemade nuggets and oddly shaped French fries, and bûche de Noël), followed by a decadent goûter de Noël (aka Christmas snack) at Breney, where I led my students in singing Jingle Bells and the other Christmas classic, Baa Baa Black Sheep (there's French Christmas song with the same melody, so the teachers wanted me to teach it to the students as the English equivalent) and then watched them eat one pain au chocolat after another. And here's a story to show how ridiculous my students sometimes are: 5 year old Charlotte, after insisting that the Santa who had come to see them sing wasn't the real one (she had a point--this Santa seemed to have been dieting), told me that I should go give him a bisous on his moustache. I declined.

Today many of our students at Fracasse (and some of their younger siblings from Breney) met at the place du marché to sing to Père Noël. We all sang Petit Papa Noël, Petit Garçon, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and All I Want for Christmas Is You (by Mariah Carey) more or less successfully, and then we got a police escort to the Salle des Fêtes for the little play a handful of students had been practicing on their Wednesdays off.

Me, Katherine, Cathya, and Clara (whose rouged cheeks were for the spectacle) after we finished singing

You only see the back of his head here, but there he is, Santa in the flesh!


Katherine, Calysta, Ivan, and the ridiculous but fun Shadé handing out programs before the spectacle

The spectacle itself was pretty cute, barring this one weird song about toys that had been made in Asia (guess China was too specific) that made repeated references to sweatshop labor. The real fun began afterwards, however, when the band came out and the children did fun circle dances. The parents were invited to join in, and Katherine, Cathya and I decided we should as well. The band did an excellent job of facilitating the dances, and it was fun to have different kids run over to invite me to dance with them when we made little circles. I guess I've found my element at the elementary school--I'm never a wallflower! Another high point was when we danced the Boogie Woogie, the French version of the Hokey Pokey. I got some compliments on my dancing from my coworkers who were there, and the parents seemed appreciative that I was playing with their children. All in all, a good time was had by all.