Everyone loves painting!

French children start school quite young, at 3 years old and when Iona and Joe were in the 'Maternelle' class (from 3 - 7 years old) throughout the year there would be numerous events that bought the youngest and the oldest people of the commune together. 

The Mardi Gras 'carnival' was always a great afternoon!. The children would dress up and walk round the village whilst the older members of the village would prepare crepes and hot chocolate and wait for the children to barge into the village hall!. Everyone would then sit at long tables eating crepes and drinking hot chocolate (I seem to remember that the older folk would also knock back a fair bit of Rosé !!) The elderly would admire the childrens' costumes and the children would speak so easily and freely to the older people. Everyone benefited from these occasions.

A retirement home in Brittany has taken this idea one step further. When the commune could not meet the parents demand for a crèche the retirement home offered part of its building to be used as a crèche. Within the building there are some communal areas where the elderly residents and the children and meet and share stories!. They also enjoy joint workshops on cookery, arts and crafts, and music.

Care home residents find the children give them back their joie de vivre and the crèche workers have seen that the children are a lot calmer and gentler when they are with the elderly residents.