School

At 7, I started school at the École de l'Académie. From the window, we could see over the wall to the barracks of the 3rd Hussars, and the horses lined up to be groomed. Every week or so, a few horses would escape from the barracks and go running past the guardpost, with grinning soldiers in white ducks and wooden shoes running after them. Everyone would come back to the barracks in a good mood after their little jaunt through the neighbourhood. Next door to the school was the École des Beaux-arts. I was fascinated by the plaster models and by the students I saw strolling by in their smocks, hoping that drawing would be my way to express myself one day.