Arches

Very early start to get TallGirl to her oral exam. This is done by French teachers, but of course you can’t be examined by your own teachers so you have to go to another Lycée. So 100 kids from TallGirl’s lycée travelled to Albi, and presumably 100 kids from Albi went the other way down the A68, instead of a couple of teachers making the trip so the kids could do the exams close to home in a venue they are familiar with. Replicate that over France and imagine how many days of parent work time is lost in ferrying kids to and fro.

Anyway, it was a very early start as you had to be there at 7.30, though I think given the heat it was better that way than being in the afternoon session. Mr B came along too and so while TallGirl was biting her nails in an overheated corridor, we had a wander around Albi before it got too hot (which was at about 9.15 am) finding some beautiful little squares we didn’t know, including this one - which I am going to steal lots of ideas from for my garden.

Coffee in the shade, then just as we got back to the Lycée, TallGirl emerged, shellshocked but liberated.

Back home and not being at school seems to have turned CarbBoy into a chatty fella - who distracted me from work in a very enjoyable way. Later (after I dragged myself away to work) a long call with my Mam, and a very leisurely evening. We’ve managed to keep the house cool, with a very strict shutter protocol, such that our kitchen temperature has only gone up from 19C to 22C. With outdoor temperatures nudging the 40s, that’s pretty good.