Technical Difficulties...

In the first few weeks of our arrival, I grew to appreciate many simple things that I take for granted when I'm at home! Like...the ease of doing something like returning a purchased item at a department store. Did I say ease? I meant to say, the relative ease, smile. Not that making a return at a French department store is more difficult than American ones, but when you add in the language factor, all bets are off!!! Despite years and years of French, my French goes and comes--as in, goes when ever I am in a pressured situation, and comes to mind later when I'm home and have no need of the expression I frantically wished to remember, LOL! 


At any rate, the weather changed and suddenly it was winter--real winter. 


Colin started attending a French elementary school and immediately fell in love with his teachers. The French elementary system provides language immersion for any and all children entering school. So, Colin got his first taste of French (besides the once a week course he took in California at Lango Kids).

The first thing that I noticed when we arrived at Colin's school, was the elaborate door. Just over the entry the words "L'École des J'nes Garçons," (School for Young Boys). Next to it was another door exactly like it but with the stone engraving above it reading: "L'École des J'nes Filles" (School for Young Girls). The doors were a reminder of the former French educational policy that separated boys from girls.

The second unmistakable marker at the entrance of Colin's school was reminder of another sort: a black marble plaque with stark gold lettering. Impossible to miss, the plaque is a memorial to the children deported from the school and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Thousands of Jewish children from all over the city, in neighborhoods like ours, were victims of the Nazis and the Vichy goverment. They lost their lives for no other reason than their Jewish identity. The plaque reads:

A LA MÉMOIRE DES ÉLÈVES DE CETTE ÉCOLE

DÉPORTÉS DE 1942 A 1944 PARCE QUE NÉS JUIFS,

VICTIMES INNOCENTES DE LA BARBARIE NAZIE

ET DU GOVERNMENT DE VICHY

ILS FURENT EXTERMINÉS DANS LES CAMPS DE LA MORT.

PLUS DE 700 DE CES ENFANTS VIVAIENT DANS LE 18^ÈME

                                                NE LES OUBLIONS JAMAIS

In memory of the students of this school

Deported from 1942 to 1944 because born jews,

Innocent victims of Nazi barbarism

and the Vichy government 

They were exterminated in the Death Camps

More than 700 children living in the 18th 

Never forget them.

History is truly all around us--and cannot be forgotten.