Jill ne sais quoi

Today was an excellent day. Sam and I went out to lunch with Monica and then Mary picked us up and brought us to a little path in the mountains near her house with gorgeous views. We only walked for 45 minutes because she had an appointment to run to, but it was nice.

While Mary was at her appointment, Sam and I walked through the village and bought some groceries that were needed for dinner. 20 minutes later, Mary was finished and we went to pick the kids up from school.

The school system is so cute here! The parents go and they watch the kids play in the playground until the bell rings and the gates open, and the kids come running out. It was heart-warming, seeing all the kids talking to their parents (in French!) about what they did that day and showing them their drawings, etc.

Back at the house, we ate snack with the kids and then Mary asked if we could watch them while she went to a meeting with Edward's teacher. This was not a problem, and we played a game William invented for a while, and then played football (soccer) for a good hour or so, until it got too chilly and we went inside to watch TV and play video games. I played Star Wars Battlefront Deux with William, and I died approximately a thousand times. But I am getting better! Since this seems to be William's favorite game I think I might get quite good at it by the end of the semester.

Christophe and Mary got home later than expected and so we ended up eating pretty late (even for a French family), but it was absolutely delicious. We had crepes with ham and cheese and then for dessert we had crepes with butter and sugar (or nutella, if you wanted, which Amelia DEFINITELY did). It was wonderful. After eating the ham and cheese crepes, the kids all disappeared to watch Camp Rock (which has just come out in France) and so we were able to have a nice conversation with Mary and Christophe while we ate our dessert for a good 40 minutes or so before the kids came running back for theirs. Christophe said, "Mary always says that we need to have family dinners where we sit down as a family. But then after we have a dinner like this, she says 'We'll never do this again!'" Haha, but it was so much fun. The kids are great.

We didn't end up leaving until 11 o'clock at night! We couldn't believe it was so late. But it was gorgeous, being in the mountains at night, seeing the hazy light of Grenoble in the distance, and being able to look at a million stars that we can't see from here in the city. It was absolutely beautiful.