"Almost" a Year in Provence: The "Rentree"...

Well, truth be told, it's way past "rentree" time in France, but I am just now getting around to writing about it! When we first arrived last year, there was talk of "the rentree"; there were even billboards with the word on it and they were advertising school supplies. Despite things like this, we really had no idea of what it was. Maybe you are wondering the same thing? Basically, "rentree"(and there should be an accent on the first 'e' but my computer doesn't know any French) means "return" and it is used much as we speak of 'back to school'. But the word seems to have a broader meaning in this culture referring to rentree to "school, church, even just one's routine life after summer.

So, with that in mind, here are a few "rentree" things we experienced in our first several weeks back in Aix. The first of course was the store ads and we needed that so we could go get Sarah's back to school/rentree supplies. The second, and much more fun, was an invitation to a Rentree cookout at friends' house near Aix. The Andersons have a wonderful house with a pool and big piece of property and they opened all of it up to a huge group of friends and acquaintances for a day of music, barbecuing,swimming and fellowship. Here are some photos from the day:
As you can see, it was lovely as was the view of Mt. Saint Victoire...

We were treated to great live music from an all volunteer band newly formed during the summer...

Everyone lining up for the feast of grilled chicken, roasted potatoes and lots of terrific pot luck!

Enjoying the meal with Kristina and Karsten...

The third rentree experience, was a Rentree Women's Luncheon I hosted at our new home. Our new rental house has much more space than last year's did so we want to be able to use it and share it! Over 35 women from the Aix area came to the Sucree/Salee luncheon. For anyone who's missed an earlier description of sucree/salee it's kind of a pot luck where you bring something to contribute to the meal. That might mean a quiche, salad, bread, protein dish for the salee or a dessert for the sucree. It's always a bit of an unknown what the balance of the meal will be; if you'll have too much sucree or salee but somehow it always works out and we definitely had many yummy things to try. The guests were women from the school Sarah attends, The International Bilingual School of Provence, from our church, The International Christian Community of Provence, from a hiking group I've joined as well as other friends from the area. The idea behind the lunch was to bring all these wonderful women together to meet, share ideas and get to know each other. It was a gorgeous day and judging from how long many lingered into the afternoon, it was a success!