In the U.S., I always felt like back-to-school season starts weeks early with a flood of prep. In France, the whole country simply wakes up together on September 1st and that’s it. Back to work. Back to school.
No staggered start, no weeks of build-up. Just: summer ends, life resumes.
We’re already a week into la rentrée — “the return.” and I’ve decide I like this approach, even though it made me feel a little panicked and unprepared the first couple years.
The American approach: prep starts before summer ends
In Texas, even when school didn’t start until mid or late August, the preparation began weeks earlier. Meet the Teacher Night. Sign-ups for after-school activities were done in advance to make sure you secure a spot.
There’s a flood of emails with logins for computer programs. Older kids in sports back at practice before everyone else even started classes sometimes. By the time the first day arrived, you’d already been in back-to-school mode for a month.
I didn’t realize it until we lived here, but there’s an unspoken expectation in American culture that you show up to the first session already prepped and ready to hit the ground running, at least to some degree.
The French approach: nothing starts before it starts
France takes the opposite approach entirely. Almost nothing, aside from picking up a few school supplies, happens before the official first day.
Sign-ups for activities and local associations often don’t open until a week or two into September. Many classes don’t actually begin until the third or even fourth week of the month. You might not meet your child’s teacher until the very first day of school, or even later at a parent-teacher meeting.
The same goes for adults. If you register for yoga or art classes at the local mairie, don’t expect them to start immediately in Sept.
And if you’ve signed up for something that begins in early September but haven’t heard a word by late August — don’t worry. In our experience, the French treat the first session as the true start: introductions, housekeeping, logistics all handled on the spot, together, in the room. That’s what the first class is for.
Why I’ve come to love it
There’s genuine relief in not feeling that end-of-summer pressure to “get ahead” before the school even starts. No panic. No guilt about being behind before day one has arrived.
To me, it feels like yet another way the French protect the present moment, refusing to let the next season colonize the one you’re still in. Summer is summer until it isn’t. And then, all together, life begins again.
Baguettes and butter 4eva — Raina❤️
