July 2020

July, usually the start of the long summer holidays, where we have to prepare ourselves for having the kids at home all the time… This year, we slid into the summer months like pros.

Neither Tana nor India went back to school and both will be starting new schools in September. The brevet exams were cancelled and marks attributed on continuous assessment. This was a real result for Tana, who failed his brevet blanc, as he managed a Mention Assez Bien. We couldn’t go to any of the lycée open days so he chose to go to our local lycée in Vic-en-Bigorre and applied successfully for the highly competitive Option Sport. We made a ‘demande de derogation’ to move India to the Collège Aretha Franklin in Marciac for 4ième and 3ième. She’s in but we don’t yet know whether she’ll be able to do the jazz option…

Other big July moments: the floor going down in the barn, thanks to Chris and workaway Elliot, so I could teach the first yoga sessions in my own space; and Happy Coulson Pools welcomed Egon onto the team.

Following on from our hedonistic June, July has been an orgy of fun, with our Arabian Nights mini-festival, India’s 13th birthday (complete with piercings), band practices and bromance aplenty for Tana.