Broken French and loud birds

Yesterday, on my first day alone with them, the kids grandmother came. She brought with her a very jet lagged four year old cousin of theirs. E, the kids grandmother speaks absolutely no English. Though I understand a bit of french my ability to speak and respond coherently is pretty low. Plus there's no guarantee I'll get what was said to me in the first place. However, all my efforts to get these kids under control are well supported by their grandmother. She gave me lots of advice and from familiar words I understood it to mean she thought they could use a little more firmness. I replied with the ubiquitous smile, nod, and "ouais, okay". I also brought the twins to a school prep activity. After they ran straight into the house yelling and to the hostess I half shouted across the room, "Bonjour, je m'appelle Angela. Je suis le nouvel au pair." She replaid with an "ah, Bonjour"......chirp, chirp. Geez lady, can't you tell when you've exhausted a girls vocabulary?

After dropping the twins off, Ag went with me to open a bank account. That wasn't too bad because I know the words for passport, visa, work contract and ID card. But it didn't happen becuase I didn't have everything I needed so I had to set an appointment with monsieur someone or other. All I hope is that he's a really good guesser or he speaks English otherwise it might be a really short meeting. "Vous comprennez?", "....uh, non."

After picking up the twins I deduced that they were to be brought back every afternoon this week. N got very upset insisting that it was mornings and afternoons. In an affort to make peace I said, "Don't you think she would have said 'tous les jour' if it was morning and afternoons instead of 'tous l'apres-midi'?" He looked at me blankly for a minute and then said "Tous LES apres-midi." Touche.

And today was my first time on the Metro. Ag and I went to her orthodontist appointment on the Champs elysees. We went up in the worlds smallest elevator. I'm not kidding, I have pictures it was probably not even two square feet. The waiting area was kind of odd. It was separated and the nurse kept coming in, opening the door to the tiny room, calling patients and then closing the door behind her. All I could think of was how the families with more than one kid coped with the elevator.

So for pictures it's a Normandie house in Deauville and N working on the castle turned pond.