My First Wednesday

I still can't get pictures off my phone, so here is a google images find of the view I pass every day, that I've already started to ignore like a true Parisian.

Wednesdays, French children do not have school. It's a relic of institutionalized religion (kids used to have to go to Catechism these days) that once upon a time I would have advised America adopt post-haste. But I'm a nanny now, and that means that Wednesdays I spend all day with Le Petit. Yesterday was my first try.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad.

V left at around 10 for her important meeting. He didn't even cry. Then we played cars for an hour and a half. Followed by half an hour of books. Then lunch of peas, carrots and rice. Then a three hour nap. Apparently Le Petit was completely pooped (2 hours of cars is a lot of cars, I promise you) and fell asleep immediately. I have never met a kid who went down for a nap with so little struggle. Also, I should note that the 3 hour nap is scheduled. Then, having thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and his bedroom in about four minutes flat, I also took a three hour nap.

V. then returned home for bath, dinner, and some quality time with Tom and le iPad.

Really, the only bad part about the day was that I am too insecure in my French to order food anywhere. Consequently, I spent half an hour yesterday morning wandering around looking for a likely cafe, into which I could pop for a moment to grab a pastry and coffee and hide away with it somewhere without looking like an American bumpkin. I realize there's no help for it, and I might as well stamp the Star Spangled Banner on my forehead, but I'd like to at least be able to order breakfast without looking like an idiot.

Eventually, I of course ran out of time, and had to be at V's in like ten minutes. I sighed, braced myself, and went into the cafe closest to her apartment (after pulling when I should have pushed of course), and as confidently as I could said to the impossibly Parisian proprietor who was reading a newspaper, "Je voudrais un cafe s'il vous plait!"

"Un cafe, un cafe..." he repeated and wandered off to fill my order. Success! I drank the tiny cup standing up with two minutes to spare. For lunch I ate Tom's leftover rice, and for dinner the leftover pork chops, salad, and fries V made.

I'm going to lose so much weight.