The bell.

I am not going to arrive at the hundred post mark before tomorrow. The 23rd of February is going to mark my one year anniversary in Paris! I should write some kind of resumé about how this period has changed and moulded me. All the lessons I have learned and the genelral life-enrichingness of it all...but I'm not going to.
Let me just say that it has absolutely flown by; that I feel I have matured a lot and learnt a lot about who I am and how I operate. I have also developed my French side and have comfortably integreted into French culture.
But enough of that. Today is the start of the school holidays!!!! Yaya! 2 weeks of free time and travel. Today wil be the 'profond' tidy-up of the playroom, a task I detest and will thankfully only have to do 3 more times EVER. Then I will have the kids tomorrow while their parents do the once a semester gallery crawl and then I am freeeeeeee. My first 3 days I will be vegetating in my studio with some dark chocolate and 20th century French poetry. I have a stack of books and can't wait to just blob and read and read. And the weather might even be nice enough to spend a little time outdoors....if I am walking briskly.
Then I fly to Vienna and take a train to Schladming, my home away from home in the Austrian alps. I am so excited to see my family again and do some skiing! From Austria I take a 4 hour train ride down to Venice where I will stay for 3 nights. And the month of March I will be staying firmly in Neuilly and eating rice.
Oh yes, I called this post the bell, quick explanation: I have picked up a tutoring job, just one lunchtime a week speaking english with a 9 year old boy. He is an only child who lives in the 16th (chic) with his parents and the Spanish nanny. I have only met with him once but it was both hilarious and a little disconcerting. He speaks practically no english, but understands me quite well, replying either in french or spanish. We sat face to face at the enormous dining table where our grated carrot and vinaigrette was waiting for us; nanny was in the kitchen preparing the lamb cutlets. I couldn't help but noticing the paper napkin beside my plate and the linen one beside his (in a silver napkin ring), and then the little silver bell. Surely, I thought, this is some little trinket that just happens to be lying around. Mais non, 'tring tring' and nanny apprears with an orange juice, 'tring tring', the entrée is finished and we would like our main. Unbeleivable.
I hold an interesting position of being very much part of the working class here but also somewhat reverred as an educated foreigner who has chosen to learn french and will presently retire to my exotic homeland to start a 'real job'. I have been allowed into two very different worlds, which is another thing I appreciate about this experience.