My first experience of the French school system was, of course, when my babies started at nursery school. Inevitably I compared to the system I had known in the UK. Many things were different, some I liked , some not. This happens when you travel, you end up wanting the best of all worlds!!
A detail that I always found charming was on the list of items required by the child starting a new school year was a 'porte-serviette'. A napkin holder. At our local nursery and primary school, every child had to bring their own napkin for use at lunch time in the school canteen.
Each Monday morning, the child was sent off to school with a clean napkin (complete with sewn on name label) in their -also labelled - napkin bag. Each Friday afternoon, the napkin was returned home in the school bag to be laundered over the weekend. During the week the bags were kept in a basket in the classroom and distributed to each pupil after they washed their hands, on their way to lunch.
I soon discovered that there was a sort of pride and tenderness put into the confection of the napkin bags. They had to be pretty, easily identifiable, a little lunch-time reminder to our offspring that someone at home was thinking about them.
I found some of these old napkin bags at a brocante this weekend, not really antique, but nicely vintage. You can find them in my shop, inexpensive little 'souvenirs de France'.
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That is one of the sweetest things I have heard in a long time! And they are beautiful to boot..I rest my case, the French have us trumped in even toddler etiquette!
ReplyDeleteReminds me of when I attended K and 1st grade in Japan, and we had three uniforms, a play uniform, a classroom smock and yet another one for our extra curriculuars (non academic) every one had our initials stitched on them..it was such a precise and organized system. So interesting how things are done in other countries.
Oh! The sweetest of sweet. Your story reminds me of all of the little "necessities" my kids needed when they went to Japanese school. The "bento" boxes were each very unique with lots of motherly touches. The little bags, the children carried the boxes in, the towels they used, the cups they brought were all delights to my children! The beauty of discovering a different culture.
ReplyDeleteOh, how sweet!! I remember, as a kid in the US--probably about age 5 or so--my mother sent me for French lessons. We couldn't enter the classroom without properly addressing the teacher with a correct salutation. I spent more time in another room, reading Dr. Seuss books, than I did in the classroom because I just could NOT remember what to say each week!
ReplyDeleteOh, how perfectly sweet and civilized! I long to go back to a world with better manners. People are so self-entitled nowadays, I don't know how many times I've held the door open for strangers and they just walk through without saying a word, as if I was there to serve them. (I usually say: "You're welcome!". You'd be surprised at the number of people who just stare back blankly, totally unaware. Ok, so that's my rant for the day.) Thank you for such a lovely post!
ReplyDeleteI am love with this notion Sharon...a napkin bag, personalised no less and inside.. a napkin. What a collection you have here. A great sentiment :)
ReplyDeleteJeanne xx
So sweet. So much better than watching some kids use their sleeves! Yuck! These napkin wallets are so sweet. The thought and effort in each stitch turns them into little treasures
ReplyDeleteWhat a warm and tender idea. Thank you for the information. You found a great collection.
ReplyDeleteLinda
How lovely! How green!
ReplyDeleteAlthough we home school, Gracie has her own napkins so that she feels special while learning the very important rules of etiquette!
Lovely post, as usual!
Andie
As I read your post .. the most wonderful memories came flooding back !! I was one of those children who had such a thing ... though I lived in Portugal ... it was the same at our boarding school.. thanks for the memory visit!! xo HHL
ReplyDeleteSo lovely! I didn't know that! My grandmma had lots of them in a antique wardrobe and I love them, very charming! but nowadays we only use paper napkins (it requieres no maintenance at all) so we don't need napking holders. In special ocasions, when we use tissue napkins we use silver rings to identify each one.
ReplyDeleteHey! You've solved a bit of a mystery for me, as I bought some of these at a vide-grenier last year, and though I knew they were for napkins, I didn't know about the taking them to school bit. How lovely and civilised!
ReplyDeleteI discovered this charming habit after I married into my husband's French family. We all have different envelopes that hold our napkins and they rest on lower shelf of the tea cart in-between meals. We roll the tea cart out for petit déjeuner, lunch or dinner. We also head to the tablecloth drawer for EACH meal (not customary to leave the tablecloth between meals). These porte-serviette are easy to make and are wonderful gifts!
ReplyDeleteMy youngest went skiing with the centre aéré (and organised by a professional company) a couple of weeks ago, and on the list of stuff to take was a serviette de table.
ReplyDeleteDuring the meeting beforehand, the guy in charge went through the list, got to the serviette de table, laughed, rolled his eyes and said the list was a very old one, hadn't been changed since the Ark and we should not worry about sending a dainty napkin as they had kitchen paper.
As we don't use such things (only paper ones) I was very relieved.
Those napkin bags are definitely from a by-gone era!
How lovely. What a wonderful little way of life. And how nice to have a pretty napkin from home during the school day, rather than a rough paper one that would just end up in the garbage. So very civilized!
ReplyDeleteHow civilized and delightful. I've stopped using paper napkins and have gone to cloth all the time, not just for special dinners. These porte-serviettes would be fun for when the children come home for the weekend.
ReplyDeletewhat a charming idea! clearly the French start their children young on the concept of "dining" rather than "eating".
ReplyDeleteIt is a charming idea indeed. Sadly in today's American schools so many regulations about sanitation etc would prohibit this idea. The list parents receive at the beginning of the school year of what they can and cannot do, in addition to required items to provide to the school is monumental.
ReplyDeleteI am often saying- we have lost our ability to reason with common sense. I recently overhead a conversation between parents discussing how to ban all nut products from all lunches brought from home not just provided by the school. Granted food allergies are dangerous, however an allergic person will always have to endure exposure everywhere all their lives.
Oh to be able to return to a life of simplicity and common sense. Of course those having lived it will tell of hardship and inequality.
sigh
I am much too reflective today ...lol
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What a lovely custom. The napkin holders are lovely, each telling its own little story.
ReplyDeleteShirl x
how endearing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely idea. It keeps alive something quite wonderful.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful idea! Much better than the standard Handi-Wipe!
ReplyDeleteSharon,
ReplyDeleteMerci pour ton mot sur mon blog.
Ils sont amusant ces portes-serviettes brodés...
J'aime beaucoup la nouvelle photo de votre maison à travers les feuillages printaniers... inspiration d'aquarelle...
à bientôt !
Céline.
These napkin wallets are so sweet! What a very nice idea!
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