In which we register Sapphire for summer camp

Last spring, while we were investigating life in Fontenay-sous-Bois from afar, we spent some time looking over the children's information on the town website: schools, cafeteria food, before and after school care, and something called séjour, or vacation. The séjour link led to a bunch of information on summer camps, which we didn't examine too carefully, since we already had summer plans and we weren't yet residents and, furthermore, Sapphire didn't actually speak very much French.

Fast forward to 10 days or so ago. We receive (for free) a number of magazines about our town and region. The Fontenay-sous-Bois events magazine comes biweekly. The FSB city magazine comes monthly. (The Val-de-Marne (départemental) and Paris-Sud (regional) magazines come even less frequently.) Blaise was flipping through the FSB city magazine, which had just arrived, and he came across the pages describing this summer's séjour program. He then showed them to Sapphire, who immediately decided that she wanted to go. Unfortunately, there was a catch. The camp that she most wanted to go to required that she have some sort of a swimming certificate, and it wasn't at all clear how to obtain such a certificate, nor what she would be required to do for one.

The first step, then, was to figure out how to get the certificate. Since the program is run through the caisse de écoles (which handles school registration, before and after care, school lunch payments, etc.), that seemed like the natural place to start. So, magazine in hand, I walked up to the town hall for a visit. They all crowded around the magazine, and told me that they had no clue what it was or what I needed to do to get it, but perhaps the people at the swimming pool would know something.

After that, I wasn't very enthusiastic about asking someone else about it, and so I put off and put off asking at the swimming pool. Sapphire and Blaise, however, continued to nag me, and to assure me that if Sapphire didn't get to go to camp because I was a scaredy-cat, then she would be permanently scarred by the experience. (Laying it on a bit thick, don't you think?) So, Friday evening, while dinner was in the oven, Cherry and I made the trek over to the swimming pool and I asked the woman who was working the cash desk (who was, fortunately, the same person who had helped with the Cartes Fontenaysien and very patient with my halting French) what the attestation de natation was and how one could go about obtaining one. She, of course, had no idea. She did, however, have a phone, and so she called into the lifeguards at the swimming pool and asked them what it was, and what we had to do.

The verdict? Sapphire would need to pay admission to the pool, and bring along her identification (passport for her). They would administer the swimming test (to see if she could swim a little bit or not) and if she could, they would give her the relevant paper.

Saturday, after the valentine's party at the library, we all grabbed swimsuits and caps and goggles and headed over to the swimming pool. Sapphire walked straight up to the lifeguard and told him what she needed. After checking that we were, in fact, residents of FSB, he told her to go play in the pool until the second lifeguard got back from her break, and then they would give her the test. Meanwhile, I could put the passport (stowed in a ziploc) in the office for safekeeping.

We all played in the swimming pool for 30 minutes or so, until the lifeguard came over to get Sapphire and bring her over to the big pool for her swimming test. Evidently, the lifeguard told Sapphire that she needed to dive into the water and swim 2 lengths of the pool without stopping. Then she told her that she could get out and come back to the little pool to play. I saw her nod to the other guard, and he got busy copying stuff out of Sapphire's passport. Sapphire didn't, and spent the rest of our time at the pool wondering when they would tell her whether or not she had passed.

When we got out of the pool, the lifeguard walked over and handed me Sapphire's passport as well as the swimming certificate, and told Sapphire that she had done a very nice job on her test. He wanted to know whether the kids spoke very much English (yes) and to tell us about the time he had visited San Francisco and the Grand Canyon.

The next step was to fill out the registration form and drop it in the mail. Monday afternoon I filled out the form (3 times because I kept making mistakes!) and made a photocopy of the swimming certificate. Into the envelope they went, and Cherry and I headed off to the post office to mail it. Since we mailed it during the preregistration period, which goes until February 27, I expect that we won't hear anything for a couple of weeks at least. Then, we'll find out whether Sapphire is spending 2.5 weeks at the beach (her first choice), in the mountains (her second choice), or in Fontenay with the rest of us (if the camps are oversubscribed). Meanwhile, I have to get used to the idea of sending Sapphire away for 18 days!