Jeff Steiner's Americans in France.
Resource for people that would like to live or travel in France.

Attractions

Culture

Daily Life

Driving

Links

Moving Planner

Podcast/Hangouts

Q & A

Reading List

Travel Planner

Videos

Expat Store
Currency
Services

Driver's License

Events

Foods

Garbage
Disposal Units


Insurance

Learn French

Tax Services

Telephony



NewsletterSeptember 2013

2CV-by-the-Sea

I thought I'd see many sights in Carmel-by-the-Sea and maybe Clint Eastwood, but never imaged seeing a Citroën 2CV - with French plates!

Flights to Provence

XL Airways has flights to Marseille from New York. Service runs until October 25th 2013. Hopefully service will run again next year. XL also has flights from New York to Paris and had San Francisco to Paris service.

La Rentrée

September means the end of summer vacation for many and back to school for students. What the French call La Rentrée. This k-12 school year runs September 3rd to July 5th. Vincent Peillon, the Minister for Education, last year proposed a change in number of school days for k-5, in France that's Maternelle (Kindergarten) and École élémentaire (Primary school) students. It was four days a week with Wednesday and weekends off. This year starts school on Wednesday mornings for k-5. This is being phased in over the next two years and for this year only about 25% of students will have school on Wednesday mornings. The Minister had hoped for 50% participation. A hundred per cent of k-5 students should be on the new schedule by next year.
The reason for the change: French students average fewer school days, about 140 days of school per year (American students average 180 and UK students 195), but generally a longer school day, usually six hours. The idea is to end the school day an hour earlier, making up the missed time on Wednesday mornings.
Until a few years ago French students had four and a half day school week, with school on Saturday mornings three days a month. The last government changed that, replacing Saturday mornings with after school tutoring during the week. The new plan is for school to let out an hour earlier and classroom time replaced by extra curricular activities. Students would still be supervised and family schedules wouldn't be changed. At present most Maternelles and École élémentaires have before and after school daycare centers for working parents. The sticking point for this change is, who will pay for the supervision of the extra curricular activities? For now it looks like the cities, towns and villages will with, I'm sure some funding help. Paris is one of the few cities to start Wednesday morning schooling this year.
Here is the 2013/14 French school calender.

Home Movie

Found this from the BBC. During WWII a group of French POWs secretly made a short film of their daily life. They used a hollowed out book for the camera body. The movie is called Sous Le Manteau (Clandestinely) and can be seen on DailyMotion.

Events in France

Here are two events coming up in France. The first is Journées européennes du Patrimoine - European Heritage Days taking place September 14-15. Journées européennes du Patrimoine is a great way to see buildings in France normally closed to the public. Last year I discovered the industrial heartland of Burgundy. Another plus, public museums in France are free, and private museums offer reduced admission.
Tous au Restaurant is the other event September 16-22. Similar to Journées européennes du Patrimoine, Tous au Restaurant is celebration of French heritage, this time food with participating restaurants offering a two for one 'Tous au Restaurant' menu - two people can eat for the price of one.

Mail Box

"Its All About Lunch", a journal by Anthony Craig: In paperback and for the kindle. After a 45 year business career Tony and his wife decided to try living in Provence. They also have a farmhouse in Luberon for rent in the summer.
Can you help? From a reader - Danish friend is looking for frames for paintings covered in silver leaf - in Denmark they call them French frames - but every antique dealer
More Than A Year In Provence - Endless Tour de France Travel: Read along as Christopher Strong aka the Bicycle Gourmet, spontaneously cycles French Country backroads. With no fixed itinerary. Tasting the land and the people as well as the food and wine.

Sign-up for the FREE Americans in France newsletter!



cookieassistant.com

HomeBack

Contact

Newsletter

About

Search Site