Clairefontaine is a pretty little village surrounded by forests, with a population of about 900, situated in the Yvelines department, 55 km Southwest of Paris.

In the center of the village there is city hall with the war memorial, the school and the church.  Behind city hall you can see the stadium where the football (soccer) players train, tennis courts, and the community center where many activities take place: dance, theater, music, stretching, gymnastics, yoga, and sewing. 

In Clairefontaine, there is the FFF (French Football Federation) and they sometimes stay and train the French national team.

There are no stores, only 2 restaurants. 

Our school

We have a small, semi- rural school with 83 students and only four classes:
-a class for the 3 to 5 year olds: 26 students with a teacher
-a split Grade 1 (6 years old) and Grade 5 (10 years old) class: 19 students with a teacher
-a Grade 2 class (7 years old): 17 students with a teacher
-a split Grade 3 (8 years old)/Grade 4 class (9 years old): 21 students with a teacher

We go to school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  The morning, class starts at 9 a.m. and finishes at noon.  The afternoon classes start at 1:30 p.m. and finish at 4:30 p.m.  Before and after school we can stay at the daycare from 7:30 in the morning until 7 at night.  At lunch many students eat at the cafeteria.  Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday there is no school. 

At the end of October we have 12 days of vacation, for Christmas we have 16 days, in February and April we have another 16 days in each month, and then we have 2 months of summer vacation in July and August.  School starts in September. 

We go to the pool with the school for one hour every 2 weeks so we can learn how to swim.  We take a bus because the pool is 8 km from Clairefontaine.  We also have gym class. 

During half the year we learn how to play chess and we have music classes. 

In winter, it is cold and grey?  It also rains quite a lot.  Sometimes, in the morning we need to scrape ice off the windshields and it is cold.  When it snows here we are super excited.  We make snowmen, have snowball fights and go sledding.