In which there is a strike (again)

Perhaps you think of France as the land of the strike. Certainly, in our experience, there are a lot of them, though they seem to be fairly well publicized in advance, and to generally be of predetermined length. (The December strike on the RER A [which messed up our Christmas trip to Disney] was an exception.) In other words, you find out a few days ahead of time that (for example) the Metro will be on strike, how the various lines are involved (2 trains out of 3, 1 out of 2, for example), and how long the strike is supposed to go on.

While our lives are somewhat affected when there is a transport strike, they are affected far more when there is a more general public strike, which typically involves, among other things, public transportation, and the schools to a greater or lesser degree depending on where exactly you live. Since we live in a fairly left leaning suburb, ours seem to generally be affected to a greater degree, so when we heard about the general strike scheduled for Tuesday, we figured that it was only a matter of time until we found out that the schools would be closed. Sure enough, all three kids came home from school on Friday with notes (to be signed and returned) stating that their schools would be closed Tuesday, and that none of the school accompagniments (cafeteria, before/aftercare, study hall) would be running either.

Monday was an ordinary school day, so I did some straightening and was sitting at the computer trying to get some things done, when someone buzzed our interphone. This was somewhat surprising, as normally Blanche is the only person who buzzes (other than Blaise, who was in Spain, and the kids, who were in school). I dutifully got up and answered the phone and had the following conversation (in French, of course).

-- Hello?

-- Hello. It's Blanche. Can Sapphire have lunch with me today?

-- Umm, no. (Why aren't you in school? It's 11:00.)

-- Why not?

-- Because she's at school right now.

-- But there's a strike today.

-- No. The strike is tomorrow.

-- Really?

-- Yes, really.

-- Oh. Goodbye.

Evidently someone's parent didn't read the note very well (or perhaps at all) before signing it and sending it back, so Blanche and her little sister Alexandra (who is Cherry's age) ended up having a extra day off, since, of course, there actually wasn't school on Tuesday. On the plus side, it was gorgeous out and Cherry spent almost a hour and a half playing outside with Alexandra that afternoon while I watched.

Tuesday actually was a strike day, and Blanche rang our buzzer around 10:30, and Sapphire went off to play. She ended up eating lunch at Blanche's house (which sounded like it was probably much better than what we ended up eating here). After lunch, Cherry and Ezio wanted to go outside and play, so we headed outside, where we were quickly joined by Sapphire, Blanche, and Alexandra. At some point, Alexandra decided that she needed to use the bathroom, and so she and Blanche headed back to their apartment, only to discover that their older sister, Rébéca, had left, and that Blanche hadn't thought to bring keys with her. So Sapphire and Blanche took Alexandra upstairs to use the bathroom in our apartment, and then came back down.

It then occurred to Blanche that her sister had said that she would be gone until 7:00, and that her parents were both at work until around then, and so they were locked out of their apartment until then. So I agreed that they could come up to our apartment and stay there until 7, and that I would somehow manage to feed them something for dinner. (I hadn't made it to the grocery store on Monday, and had planned to go Tuesday afternoon. I wasn't going to bring all 5 kids with me though, nor did I feel comfortable leaving some of them home alone [Sapphire and Ezio together I'll do, but not anyone else's kids], so my pantry was pretty sparse.)

In the meantime, Blanche and Sapphire headed back to the kids' room, and Alexandra played with the Duplos and Cherry played with PlayDoh. Ezio sort of moped and felt left out, since Blanche and Sapphire didn't want to play with him, and he didn't want to play with the little girls. At the same time, I was going through the cupboards, hoping I had something I could make to feed 6 people. I had a big can of chickpeas, half a box of whole wheat pasta, most of a kilogram of tomatoes, a bit a feta, half a red onion, some lemons, olive oil, and a lot of red bell peppers. The peppers went into the oven for roasting. Everything else went into a saladish sort of thing. And it was pretty good too, even if Blanche and her sister weren't at all sure that they liked it. (On the other hand, I suspect that they were given a second dinner when they got home, so they probably weren't hungry, and my kids did eat it.)