Le Musée en Herbe

OhBoy and friend contemplate Chagall's oeuvre before consuming art supplies

As part of our spring action plan to get into town more and enjoy some culture without having to leave the children behind,  OhBoy and I went to a Wednesday afternoon atelier at the Musée en Herbe. I had been looking for reasons to say "atelier" a lot, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  As he was be-smocked and the teacher whisked out some reproductions of Chagall paintings, I felt so so very smug. There I was, taking pictures of my two year old in a smock while he modeled clay and painted Chagall's blue house in a musée near the Palais Royal. How do you like me now, Mummy and Me yoga in Queen's Park?!

OhBoy looked so adorable with his classmates and seemed to understand the gist of what was going on, although I think we do have some work to do on some basic French vocabulary before he starts school or he will be lost in the classroom in full immersion mode.

The novelty of the new setting and the unknown authority figure lasted about 20 minutes which was certainly more than I expected. It did however leave another 25 minutes of increasing restlessness, a lot of shouting "WAT?" (rhymes with "bat") after each instruction and finally, ingestion of the beads that were supposed to be decorating Chagalls's chicken man. (I think that's what that was). I was also thinking "WAT" for much of the time.

The session ended with OhBoy running full tilt through a beaded curtain into the gallery, trailing gluey feathers and chicken feet. The teacher was very patient. I was inspired to try and be a bit more relaxed about messy projects at home, the most I've allowed so far is colouring with washable crayons and some occasional "bean play" which is probably why he went to town when the glue came out. I so want to be the mother who dons overalls and a kerchief and is blasé about paint on the carpet and felt-tip up the walls, but really my comfort zone seems to be a nicely organised atelier in the 1er arrondissement and a laundry room to hose down in before home time.

All in all, it was good value at 10 euros for an afternoon's education, and surprisingly stress-free apart from the million and one stairs to hike up and down on the metro to get there.
I feel atelier fever coming on,  especially with school looming and all those free Wednesdays to fill with productive activities, somewhere other than chez nous.