Category: Daily life

You’ve got to love Sundays

Sundays with 3 young children can be difficult. But they are usually privileged days spent together. We can enjoy each other’s company and speak about God and His grace towards us. It doesn’t always work out ideally, and dark, rainy winter Sundays feel endless.

Yesterday was one of those great, relaxed Sundays. I preached in the morning on Judges 2:6-23: the roots of apostasy, its expression, and God’s reaction to it. In the afternoon, after a nap and Bible story we went to see our friends at the campsite. They had a number of visitors from St Brieuc Evangelical church and we spent some time with them catching up on news by the river side. It was hot and sunny.

Back to school

Jean-Baptiste and Maxime went back to school on Tuesday. The first day of school is always interesting. Many parents have taken the day off, or at least have made the effort to be present. You can  feel the tension in the air. Everybody is happy to be there, but they are anxious. I think the parents are often more anxious than the children. People are tanned, smiling. Everyone runs around the courtyard, trying to find the classroom…

There have been works in the school over the summer, and there are 2 new classrooms. They look great. The headmistress has also changed. There’s a new teacher for the little one, the only man on the school staff. The following is an extract from Ouest-France a few days ago:

C’est avec un effectif en hausse, soit 186 élèves, que la rentrée se prépare à l’école du Croissant. La répartition des élèves : 26 en très petite et petite section avec Charles-Edouard Béan ; 30 en moyenne et grande section avec Cathy Morin ; 27 en grande section et CP avec la directrice Élisabeth Déréat ; 26 en CP-CE1 avec Nathalie Plante ; 25 en CE1-CE2 avec Sophie Le Gallic ; 26 en CE2-CM1 avec Nadège Sabouraud ; 26 en CM1-CM2 avec Sonia Le Sauter.

L’équipe enseignante est complétée par 3 Atsem (agent spécialisé des écoles maternelles) : Patricia Pronost, Hélène Le Persan et Sylvie Le Guillou. Une décharge de direction est prévue le jeudi.

It’s a nice school. The children like it, and we are starting to know some people.

From Guingamp to Manchester

Travelling from Guingamp to Manchester was surprisingly straightforward. I left Guingamp for Rennes on the train. From Rennes central station, I took the metro and caught a bus to the airport for € 1,40. Flybe took me to Southampton, and then to Manchester. I had to wait around  for a bit in Rennes and Southampton, but it wasn’t too bad.

Manchester airport is huge. You need to get a bus to get to the “hire village” to get to the car rental companies.

I picked up the car I had booked, a brand new, black Renault Clio. It doesn’t use a key but an electronic card and looks very posh. I then made my way to Cheadle where I stayed with Esther’s sister and her husband. I arrived during rush hour, so the traffic was mad, but once again, I’ve seen worst. I was glad to arrive though.