It is hard to believe that the girls have six weeks of school under their belts. The time has flown by. The school calendar in France follows a regular schedule of six weeks on and two weeks off. It is glorious. The first break, the Toussaint, starts at the end of October.

We thought hard about how to best use the time. With two weeks available we could go anywhere! Should we go to Italy? Croatia? After some thought we realized a few things: one, we are already in Paris and didn’t need to go anywhere exotic in order to have a great holiday; two, school is taxing and the girls needed time to recover and to come back rested and ready to tackle a second semester that is likely to be more challenging than the first; three, Houman can’t really take all the school breaks off work and still accomplish everything he hopes to this year, plus he isn’t allowed to leave France right now; four, the girls have made progress with their French but two weeks of complete English will set them back somewhat and it would be in their interest to keep them exposed to French over the break.

So we settled on a plan that we hoped would accomplish all goals: a four-day art program (in French) at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs for the girls, followed by a four-day escape to île-de-Ré for all of us followed by some unscheduled Paris days to explore the city, rest and catch up on homework. 

To say that the girls were unimpressed with the idea of a programmed activity during the break, a stage as they call them in French, would be an understatement. It was imposed upon them that they pick some activity in French and they decided an art class would be the least hateful of their options. I understand their apprehension: we were proposing they leave the safety of their school and practice their French skills with people who may or may not be understanding or have any English at their disposal. Turns out, it was quite magical: their instructor was lovely; they were inspired by the range of kids doing stages, including the très cool teenagers in the room next door, and; they ended up creating unique art pieces in a medium they had never used before. On the last day they both quietly admitted that they wouldn’t mind doing another stage there, on another vacation. 

We raced from the last art class to the train station where we boarded the TGV for a two-hour journey to La Rochelle, the launch point for our île-de-Ré adventure. I had chosen this particular holiday because the Canadian blogger, Sarah Bancroft, had gone to the same place on her sabbatical year and based on her pictures and descriptions I thought our family would love it too. September was busy planning many things and so instead of reinventing the wheel, I booked everything she recommended: train tickets, hotel, bike rentals, check, check, check. While my family teased me, I was thrilled to have a well-thought-out Toussaint holiday laid out for us and it did not disappoint. 

Our hotel, the Hotel Sénéchal, was magical. Charmingly designed and warm, we had our own lovely home with a room for the girls across the courtyard from the rest of the house. We had a tiny little kitchen, table and couch that allowed us to spend time indoors. Firewood and kindling was kept resupplied so we could build gorgeous fires and I was especially excited about the bathtub as that is something we haven’t enjoyed since leaving Canada. 

Île de Ré is an oasis for bike riding with dedicated pathways all around the island. We cycled to a lighthouse, to quaint little towns for lunch and stopped at beaches along the way. The girls were troopers and one day did 42km of biking. The second day, while en route, we came across a little spot where you could stop for oysters and wine. How could we resist? The girls had zero interest in joining us but were thrilled to have time to search for shells on the beach. It was one of those perfect moments that you cannot plan.

Île-de-Ré is famous for it’s salt production and we cycled by kilometres of salt marshes where they process the sea salt into Fleur-de-sel and Sel-gris. Fleur-de-sel is the very fine white salt you sprinkle on food after cooking. It is removed by hand from the salt marshes and is more expensive than the Sel-gris which comes from the bottom of the marshes and contains some of the minerals and sediment and is used for cooking. The salt producing season had recently ended so we did not see a lot of salt in the marshes but did find a couple of instances of piles of it still resting in place. We loved discovering the small roadside stands where the producers sold bags of their salt by the honour system and we could buy some and put into our bike baskets before continuing onwards.

It was beautiful to see the girls respond to being out of the big city and in nature. The lack of cars meant they could let down their guard. Because it was the end of tourist season even the streets of the small towns were quiet. The girls ran, jumped, spun around with open arms and climbed everything they could. It was like they had opened up out of a shell and they just glowed. They were curious about the salt and less so about the oysters. I think their little bodies craved the activity which is why we did not get an ounce of complaint about the long rides.

We were grateful for the first few days of sun because the weather was less enticing after that. We took the bikes out for a short explore on our third day and decided that the weather was better suited to hot chocolate and a fire. Fortunately the town of Ars-en-Ré also has one of the best games shops I have ever seen and we got ourselves a new family game, Ghost Blitz, and a chessboard that Mavis has been asking for since our arrival in France. After a cozy afternoon, we braved the rain and walked to a lovely crêperie for our final dinner on île-de-Ré. The next day we took the public bus back to La Rochelle to catch our train home. We were again astounded at how much we love train travel and not having a car. 

Our final days of the break were spent in Paris. The girls both had a French book they needed to read over the holidays. We did some times-table practice and the girls rehearsed their scripts they need to have memorized for their American Children’s Theatre production. Houman took each girl out for their own dinner date with him while I stayed home with the other and we practiced making omelets. We did a bit of shopping to ensure we are ready for when the rainy Paris days arrive, anytime soon. We discovered a new, fun, neighbourhood park, played ping pong and I did my first runs in the Bois de Boulogne. We visited the Musée Rodin with our sketchbooks and passed a lovely few hours sketching the sculptures.

It was the right mix for us: time spent enjoying Paris and also getting out of the city to experience a completely different and charming part of France; structured time working on art and French and the complete opposite with open days in our neighbourhood and sleep in days at home. Homework is done and tasks are completed. Going back to the reality of school life and routine will, of course, be a challenge. Some things don’t change. But a family review of the two-week break got a big thumbs up from all. We’ll start the next chapter feeling rewarded, rejuvenated rested and, most importantly, ready to start the cycle over again. Looking forward to the next six weeks of school and work life followed by two weeks for adventures. Onward we go.