When you are a French person living abroad–and this is true of all nationalities–you realize pretty quickly that the locals often have a stereotypical image of you. Through cinema, literature, sport, politics, or the economy, everyone already has a clear vision of what it means to be French. For example, French people smoke cigarettes in the street, wrapped in designer scarves, shielding them from the cold. French people complain, philosophize, rationalize, and read books written in tiny font. French men open doors for women while clenching a rose between their teeth (true story: when interviewing a Taiwanese family applying for the Lycée français de Taipei, I asked them why they had chosen a French school. Their answer: so our daughters can marry French men.)
Of course, clichés like baguettes, berets, and romanticism aren’t always true, but we can’t ignore them entirely because, as French people living abroad, they are part of what is expected of us. There is one cliché that is 100% true and undeniable: our special relationship with food. Food is an integral part of who we are. Our days and lives revolve around our meals; we love taking the time to eat and to eat well.
When you are the head of a French school abroad, you are particularly aware of this relationship because parents usually have high expectations of school lunches–the lunch break must be long enough for children to eat without rushing, chat with their classmates, and learn to share these moments spent together. The ideal French school cafeteria looks like this one, delectably filmed by Michael Moore (when I was small, my school lunches were nothing like this!) The expectations are possibly even more pressing here because of the US’s reputation abroad as the original purveyors of what the French call malbouffe (junk food.) And because at The École we have a staggering number of talented restauranteurs among our parents!
Making sure children eat healthy and natural products that guarantee good health, consume balanced meals that provide the energy they need to learn, and enjoy well-presented lunches in a pleasant environment while spending quality time with their friends are the challenges we strive to rise to every day at The École. I want to take a moment to praise the work of our SLAs, TAs*, and teachers who every day don gloves, serve lunch to the childen, keep an eye on those who eat too little or too fast, take the time to talk to the students, and help make lunch a happy and joyful moment from Pre-Nursery to 8th Grade.
Yesterday, an ad hoc committee of parent volunteers came to school to taste-test some of the lunches prepared by our provider, Little Green Gourmets, because, of course, there is always room for improvement. Fawzia and Rebecca, in particular spend a lot of time providing the ever-responsive LGG with feedback on the menu items that are proposed. We hope that thanks to the committee’s invaluable input yesterday we will be able to offer an even better lunch service, better adapted to the needs and tastes of our students, and in keeping with the images and expectations of France and the French!