snow day in sevres

we had our first snow day in sevres this past week. there were snow flurries wednesday night but nothing stuck so the snow forecast for thursday seemed a little unrealistic. I spent the night in the city thursday and had to wake up at 6:30 to make the trip home to get the girls ready for school. I was super out of it and forgot to put my glasses and am lazy enough that even though I was still in sara’s building, I was not willing to climb back up the stairs to fetch them. I was expecting pouring rain outside and mentally preparing myself for the sprint to the metro when I opened the door and realized it was snowing! unfortunately I had to squint to see it since I’m so blind! by the time I got out of the metro and to the bus stop the snow had stopped. the bus stop was complete chaos and for some reason people were waiting the 69 minutes for the next bus instead of walking. silly, silly people. the walk home was peaceful and nice. it was still dark outside and early enough that not too many people were out and about so lots of the snow was still fresh. it was exciting that the higher up the hill I went, the more snow there was and I was thrilled when I realized in the daylight it had snowed a few inches. I got home before the girls had looked outside and wanted it to be a surprise for them when they looked out the window. they were screaming my name and jumping up and down when they finally did look and emile kept saying “woooooow” because it was the first time he’d ever seen it. 

lucy and I absolutely loved the snow. if I had it my way I would have let her skip school so the two of us could go sledding and spend the day together. on the drive to school I couldn’t stop squealing with excitement and lucy told me I was the weirdest adult she’s ever met. thanks loo, I’ll take that as a compliment! I had originally planned to go back to sleep after I dropped the girls off, but the morning was just too enticing so I grabbed my camera and went for a super long walk. the rising sun was a beautiful reddish-pink and was making the snow look even prettier. I listened to a podcast with a sweet message and had the best morning. 

I met this man on my walk and he had his cannon camera out capturing how beautiful the snow looked in the morning light. he got my attention and wanted to show me a view of a snowy rooftop in muedon with la defense buildings in the background. it was beautiful and then he wanted me to shoot the same thing. we spent a little time there together and then realized we were each walking home the same way so we sort of stayed together and kept shooting and then showing one another a good place or angle. he didn’t understand any english and we all know I can say very little in french so we just sort of walked together. we kept bumping into each other and laughing about it and there was one point where he was crouched on the ground and I considered pushing him over. I felt like we were best friends at this point, but I have a tendency to think this too soon and get myself in trouble. we both kept shouting to one another, la lumiere, la lumiere!!!  because the light was absolutely gorgeous. he showed me to a beautiful garden that reminded me of notting hill that I never would have known I could go inside because there is a big gate around it. it was the perfect little hour and a half photography session. 

I then went to josephine’s school to teach 28 four year olds the words to jingle bells. I had to write them out for the teacher and confidently wrote, one horsed open sleigh, on the paper. whoops! I’ll blame it on the fact that they were all jumping up and down around me. they were adorable, though none of them are going to remember the words because they don’t even speak english to begin with. then lucy, josephine and I had a huge snow ball fight and played and danced in the snow until we were shivering. it was snowing at this point and I’d forgotten how pretty the snow looks as it falls onto your scarf and forgotten how soaked you can get from freshly falling snow. josephine kindly reminded me as she was screaming crying wanting to go inside. I’d also forgotten one of the best parts about snow days--getting warm again. coming inside we stripped off layers, making puddles across the hard woods and made a picnic on the floor near the heater, but also as close to the window as possible to be able to look at the snowfall. I told the girls that if we had enough time after lunch we could put on snow pants and go back out, which they didn’t quite understand and asking them what they wore when they went skiing, josephine said that when she goes skiing she takes off her clothes and goes in her pants. but being half english she calls her underwear pants so all I could imagine was her going down the ski slopes in her underwear. lucy and I were dying laughing. annie came to visit me and go on another long walk in the melting snow. it was such a good day!