Did the most beautiful hike yesterday to a little refuge called Chalet La Floria - and the name didn't mislead. The chalet was covered with the most gorgeous flowers - all the way up the path and around the refuge - and it was a beautiful spot to sit and enjoy the view with a cold drink in hand (after a pretty stiff uphill climb). It was very nice to do a hike with such a pleasant destination - they do lunch, I noted, for another day...
Floria by name...
This is also the week of school meetings, where we get to go and meet the girls' teachers properly and hear a bit more about the system and classroom structure etc. It was Indie's teacher last night, who seems very kind, and it was interesting to see the resources they use to teach the reading and writing. The girls have only been at school for five days, but there was already work on the desk for us to see (clearly they waste no time here) and Indie is already writing in cursive! I was impressed. I think Indie is going to get on fine. It's a large, bright classroom, just renovated, and here is the picture of the view from her desk - I'm not sure if the picture does the mountains and the view of Mont Blanc justice, but it's pretty fabulous!
Tonight is the meeting with Anna's teacher, who, I'm afraid, continues to be very shout-y (in fact, Anna tells me that her nickname in the schoolyard is 'The Screamer', so clearly she's exceptional even for French standards). Oh well, hopefully the amount of sports they do (I was told last night that in ski season they even take a whole week of school time and ski for the whole week!) will soften the blow a bit for Anna.
The other thing that is preoccupying us is trying to get 'medical certificates' for the whole family. It seems you cannot join in any sporting activity here without a certificate from a French doctor proclaiming that you're healthy enough to do the sport. So now we're in a mad scramble to get registered with a doctor, and get our physicals (otherwise, the girls won't be able to join in all these lovely activities we've been signing them up for). So in Montreal the challenge is actually finding a family doctor who will take you on - there is such a severe shortage. Here, they seem to get round the problem by allowing anyone to register with a doctor - no problem - the challenge is actually getting an appointment. (Maybe Quebec should wake up to this approach - on paper everyone could actually HAVE a doctor, they just wouldn't ever get to see them...) So tomorrow we're all going to go when the doctor's office opens, without appointments, and camp there until we can actually get seen. I'm going to treat it like a major expedition, and come equipped with a few meals, lots of entertainment, maybe a movie or two, and settle in for the day. We'll do what we have to do... wonder if we should bring a tent? I'll report back, hopefully when we return victorious.
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