The kids' day of reckoning

Today David took an entrance exam for grade 5 at a public school. In a day or two we hear if he passes. If so, we have to visit the "mairie" (mayor's office) to get official permission for him to attend (an out-of-area school).

When we got to the school they led us up to a classroom with 2 other families. At first everyone was very quiet and seemed to be wondering or even worried that we were all competing for one or two spots. But to break the icy feel I started chatting with one family, and then the other. We discovered that all 3 families were "from" San Jose CA (Grenoble is a tech town). One family was originally from France but had lived in SJ for the past 5 years, the other was from SJ and is just here for one year. And I grew up (well...) there. One family is staying at our same hotel and also has a 5th grader (girl). The other family has a boy in grade 5 and trying to switch from the other school we considered for David). Small world, non?
[P.S. the other two families were also accepted, started school at the same time, and we see them every day when we drop off and pick up the kids].

On the way to David's school and back we passed a small outdoor market a block from David's school.
I'm guessing it's a weekly thing. I took some pictures (my research). Amazing cheese for such a small market!
And on the way home we had to buy some wine and cheese, bien sûr (of course).


A bottle of Cote de Rhone was E 4.50 ($5.50).  This made for a great lunch...


This afternoon Lisa met with the directress of her private school. She found out in the Cite Internationale with both a "Collège" (junior high) and "Lycée" (high school) of more than 1,500 students she would be only 1 of 8 eighth-graders in the American school. She also got to select an elective -- science or book club.

Meanwhile Dave and I looked at an apartment in the center of town that was right across from the cathedral. The apartment was probably 200 years old. It was very atmospheric (funky). Too funky. The plumbing was probably 100 years old! We were just about ready to give up on "House Hunting International meets Candid Camera" when a new ad to sublet another professor's place in a modern building in the same area popped up that looks very promising.