Le mot du jour : “La rentrée”
This week, in France as in the UK, children are going back to school. This is a huge event called “la rentrée” (returning, going back in).
Schools in France are free (except if you opt for a private school, of course) and children don’t have to wear a uniform, but you have to buy every notebook, pen and pencil that your child is going to use, and the pencil case and backpack to put everything in it, and the special notebook (cahier de textes) to write all the homework in, and so on…
Some teachers are more demanding than others and you can end up with quite a huge bill at the end.
The supermarkets are filled with all this stuff since the beginning of July. As my daughter said : “La rentrée in France is like Christmas in the UK : much too early!” 🙂
On the day, the news on TV will be full of reports from the schools gates, usually showing little ones (school starts at three years old) crying their eyes out while their parents try to unglue them from their legs.With the pandemic going on, this year is going to be different, but I’m sure the media coverage is still going to be huge.
So once again, I’m going to enjoy the quiet back to school here, where collecting all the pieces of the uniform is still so much easier than all the stationery needed in France! 😀
Bonne rentrée à tous!