Today I don't have much to write so I dredged up my diary for my first year in Paris. It was a pretty tough year, tempered by having cute little kids in the house. By the time of this entry, I'd been here almost ten months and the children were starting to feel at home in Paris.
L went to a really large birthday party (55 children!) at her friend Margot's house -- incidentally I think that's where she picked up the second lice infestation (took less time to get rid of, anyway). It was a very glamorous event in a Paris apartment that would have caused me to think, "Wow, are they ever rich!" if I'd seen it in New York.... L arrived in a costume that she wore last Halloween [in the States]. I saw none of the other children who were going to the party in anything but ordinary (Paris) party clothes so I felt a little uncomfortable, but L assured me that Margot had said, "On peut se déguiser!" In fact there were 2 or 3 other little girls in costume (long dresses all). M's little brother was sharing the party. When we came in, I could see a group of children sitting in a big circle on the floor around a clown (glimpsed through tall doors to a room on the other side of the entrance hall). L walked in and the young man cried out, "Mais QUI est cette superbe fille!"
Margot's mother had lived for eight years in New York and speaks English very well. When I came to pick L up (in the pouring rain at 6 p.m.), she told me that she doesn't do this kind of party every year. I should hope not! A sofa at the end of the hall was piled high with so many birthday presents it looked like one of those charity donation points at big New York companies at Christmas.
Tonight we were planning L and J's goûter and I asked L which entertainment was the best of all the parties she'd been to. She said that Margot's was-- "There were five clowns!" "Did Margot's mama help?" "Oh no, Mommy! We didn't even see her!"
