school life-part two

Ok, so last time I wrote about the school day, but I thought I’d add a bit about how the school calendar is structured here. This year, it looks like this:

Sept. 2-Oct. 21 School in session
Oct. 22-Nov. 2 Toussaint (All saints Day) Break
Nov. 2-Nov. 10 School in session
Nov. 11 No School-Armistice 1918 (like Veteran’s Day)
Nov. 14-Dec. 16 School in session
Dec. 17-Jan. 2 Noël (Christmas) Break
Jan. 3-Feb. 16 School in session
Feb. 17-March 6 Hiver (Winter) Break
March 7-April 16 School in session
April 17-May 2 Printemps (Spring) Break
May 3-July something I think, with a few days off in there somewhere

Basically, classes are in session for 6 weeks, and then there’s a 2-week break. I haven’t figured out how many days total that is, so I’m not sure if it’s more, less, or the same as the 180 days American students have to be in school. It’s a nice system, though, because right about the time you’re ready for a break, there you go. For the first two weeks, all of France is the same, but for the second two, Hiver and Printemps, the country is divided up into three different groups, and their breaks differ by a week or so. So if it seems like I get a lot of time to travel this year, this is why! I actually kind of like this system, though I do miss the random days we have off in America, just to mix things up a bit.

It’s almost movie time, so I’m going to end there.