An incredibly busy week

Waiting outside the bowling center, Davia proves she still has
an inner child, playing with Valentine.

There's a lot of bleu, blanc and rouge here.

Mama Olivia

Pas mal!

Crazy selfies

Oui! Fait!

Everyone on the lanes!

A style all her own

Semi-pro!

Personne ne me touche!

Amandine isn't happy

Tall bowling tales?

MAT (BFF in French)

Clique!

Oh, what's going on...

Victoria scores!

Choreography

Choreographer

Intensité

Invitation

Lamballezec

Ceremony at the American Memorial, Brest, France 4 July 2018 (This is the link to the video.)

First – apologies for not posting for a week. Once you see all that we have done since then, you will understand. And there will be a couple of posts because the website can’t handle all that we have done at once.

Last Friday, June 29 (which seems more than a week ago), we had our annual stagiaires/familles françaises bowling outing. This is always so much fun. Everyone give me a hard time because I am bowling coach back home. In France, I don’t have my own equipment, so I am not much better than anyone else.

But it is great fun. We take over several lanes of Le Master and wreak havoc for a couple of hours. Everyone tries their own style. I try to help. Let’s just say that I am glad most of these people are not on my team. They don’t take coaching well.

The last two years, Phillippe Talarmin, one of the French dads has won, with me being second. I’m tempted to ship one of my balls over ahead of time and bring my shoes, just so I can win.

The early week was taken up with classes and preparing for the family spectacular on the 13^th. The choreography group will be handling the finale. They are inviting the entire group on stage to accompany them. There are some growing pains there.

And I think the group will have something special at the very end.

There was a lot of hard work leading up to the July 4 celebration. This year was much more involved than it ever has been. There is a group in Brest that is working to commemorate American involvement in Brest during WWI.

Brest was the embarkation and disembarkation point for literally every American soldier who fought in Europe in World War I. There were vast camps set up for American soldiers in and around Brest.

Wednesday, we witnessed the placing of a commemorative plaque at the gates of the police headquarters and training facility for the state of Finistère, which is the site of the largest of those American camps. Some of the buildings built at that time are still extant, though mostly as museum pieces.

We also witnessed the placing of a plaque at the cemetery at Lambellzec, a suburb of Brest. There, hundreds of American soldiers who died of the “Spanish flu” of 1918 were interred. This epidemic spread like wildfire through the American camps. The dead were quickly buried to stop the spread of the disease.

Then we went to the American Memorial for the July 4 ceremony. This Memorial is a huge tower in pink granite that honors the American soldiers who died for liberty on French soil during World War I. It was destroyed during World War II, and rebuilt. It is a really beautiful area with flower beds all over, a pedestrian walkway, and spectacular views of the commercial port.

There was an honor guard with representatives of all branches of the French military and the U.S. Navy. A band played. The Prefect of Finistère (imagine a district judge with a military rank) and the Admiral of the Atlantic Fleet accepted floral tributes from our students, then presented them at the memorial. Colors were presented by French veterans.

Then our students sang both the Marseillaise, the French national anthem, and the Star Spangled Banner for the assembled dignitaries. Afterward, we were treated to a reception in the grand meeting hall of the city hall.

All of our transportation from place to place was provided by the mayor’s office. So our students traveled with and had some interaction with French veterans.

It was a really wonderful experience for the students.

Oh, and as promised, if you requested photographic portraits of your student, I have begun to post them online: http://www.michaelheitz.PhotoReflect.com. This is my e-commerce site. If you would like me to produce your prints and products for you, you can order directly from this site. I will also share all of the images via my Google drive. I will post that address as soon as I have set it up.

You can choose up to five images that I will retouch for free. I will need the number that begins with “dsc_****”. For the free work, it may take me a month or so to complete. I am a teacher first. I'll provide my email address when we return.