Don't try on the corsets in French museums!

Today I went back to St. Etienne's school to observe a P.E. class taught by my next hostess here, Michele. I was amazed today to realize how little supervision there is for these students and how well behaved they are in spite of that. They have sometimes up to an hour of unsupervised play on their "playground" which is an asphalt lot enclosed by the school building. I did not see one problem among the students with my acute eagle eyes. During P.E., the teacher was called away several times to handle issues and the students continued on as instructed in their game. Quite amazing, and very unlikely to occur in the United States without a lawsuit. Speaking of P.E. teachers, in this school of 1500, they have 10 P.E. teachers. After this, I ate lunch of tarte flambee at an outdoor cafe. This was a delicious thin crusted, fire cooked, cream cheese, onion and ham concoction. (In the picture, the beautiful sky and architecture are far more noteworthy than my cheesy grin!) After this, I went to a museum with Michele (teachers can leave school whenever they do not have a class to teach, so often they will leave several hours in the middle of the day) that explained the history of Strasbourg. Aside from the fact that I got yelled at in French by a curator, I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the museum with a headset that explained all of the exhibits to me. See, throughout the museum, there were several "hands-on" activities--like, as pictured, trying on medieval armor. Well one exhibit had French women's fashion--the ruffled collar, the hat and, of course, a corset. Apparently, the collar and hat were allowed to be handled, but the corset on a hanger right underneath was not to be touched. I learned this the hard way! "Non! Non! Vous n'avez pas le droit!" Ooooppppssssss. It was a little embarrassing especially since several people were standing near me and slightly snickered at my misfortune. The picture of me in this getup will come later. However, I have included helmet pictures for your viewing pleasure. I ended the day by meeting many of the parents of the French students that will travel to the U.S. They graciously bestowed upon me a beautiful book, written in French, of the Alsace region (which contains Strasbourg) and a stork (a common bird in these parts). I also ate kugelhopf, a French cake with yeast so it rises into this dome shape. Delicious!