Simone at the Chalet School Trivia Quiz

The story opens as Simone Lecoutier packed her last few belongings before leaving her home and family for the long journey to Austria. She had never been away from them before, and was sure she would be homesick. Her mother's cousin, Elise La Pāttre had arranged for Simone to attend a new school which was being started in the Austrian Tyrol. Her parents were convinced it would be a good thing, since they thought she had not been doing as well as she might at the convent school in Paris, and feared that she was being bullied.

The family accompanied Simone to the Gare de l'Est to meet M. Villiers, a friend of her grandfather, who had to travel to Vienna on business and had offered to escort Simone on the journey. Simone was finding it hard to control her tears over the parting. M. Villiers had seven grandchildren and knew how to cope. First he gave Simone a toffee from a bag in his pocket, since she would find it almost impossible to chew toffee and cry at the same time. Then the pair went to the dining car, where Simone enjoyed a cheese omelette followed by a strawberry ice for her dinner.

Around twenty-four hours after leaving Paris the train finally arrived at Innsbruck, where a weary Simone was relieved to find that she could recognise her cousin. After saying farewell to M. Villiers, Simone and her cousin left the station to go to the nearby Hotel Europe.

Simone spent a few days in Innsbruck with her cousin. Madge Bettany, who would be headmistress and run the school with Elise La Pāttre, had not yet arrived, but her twin brother, Dick Bettany had come out with Elise La Pāttre. The school would be housed in a chalet that used to be a small hotel, so they needed to buy all the furniture for the school. Dick Bettany had already travelled up to the chalet at the Tiernsee to start getting things ready, while Elise La Pāttre had stayed in Innsbruck to arrange for the furniture to be sent up a little at a time.

Simone was puzzled by this, but her cousin explained that it took two trains to reach the Tiernsee, and the second one was very small, so not too many things could be sent at any one time. They had time to see a little of Innsbruck after sorting out the furniture each day. After a few days everything had been sent. Simone and her cousin would be able to leave Innsbruck on the following morning.

First they took a train along the Inn valley to Spärtz. There they had time for a cup of coffee before boarding the little mountain railway train which would take them up to the Tiernsee. On arriving at the terminus, they were met by Eigen who had been employed to help with the jobs around the chalet. He accompanied them on the lake steamer from the station at Seespitz to Briesau, which was nearer to the chalet. Simone was astonished by the deep blue of the lake, and the size of the mountains surrounding it.

NB The cover photo for this quiz has a picture of one of the lake steamers.

Simone and her cousin arrived at the chalet in time for lunch. They were able to spend the afternoon settling into their rooms and unpacking. Simone was pleased to find that, since she was the first of the pupils to arrive, she could have her pick of the eight beds waiting in the dormitory. After unpacking, Simone and her cousin went for a walk and met Herr Braun, owner of the Kron Priz Karl, a big hotel nearby.

Dick Bettany had gone to Innsbruck to meet his sisters, Madge and Joey, and the other new pupil, a friend called Grizel Cochrane. They arrived too late for the last of the mountain trains, so would spend the night in Innsbruck before travelling on the following day. Madge decided to spend the day in Innsbruck with Joey and Grizel, before travelling up on the last train. So Dick returned first, with all the luggage. Simone was able to spend the day exploring all the rooms of the building.

As the party arrived in the early evening, Simone felt her shyness flooding back. Madge realised that and greeted her in fluent French, saying how pleased she was that Simone could come. Then she introduced Simone to the other two girls before they all went into the chalet to eat dinner. After the meal Simone took Joey and Grizel up to the dormitory so that they, too, could unpack and settle in. Simone was happy when Joey chose the bed next to her own, and further pleased that Joey could speak French to her. She thought she would like Joey as a friend.

Everyone was very busy for the next few days. The desks and chairs needed to be set out in the form-rooms, and the pianos un-crated and put into position. There were also several boxes of books to unpack and arrange on the shelves of a little room.

The three girls were able to go out and explore the local area in between the various indoor jobs. They were surprised to find a maypole being set up near the hotel. On asking, the girls were told that the custom is for the young men of the district to climb to the top of it on Mayday.

Word had been spreading locally, and several people came to see Madge and arrange for their daughters to attend the school. The three boarders were expecting four day girls to join them. They were surprised, however, when six arrived instead of four. Gisela, who was the eldest, explained that her little sister had come, so that she didn't get bored at home, and that another girl had come because her mother wanted her to attend an English school. Madge welcomed them all, and school began.

Since the school was to be an English school, the girls were to wear an English school uniform. Madge had decided that they would have brown box-pleated tunics, like the ones Joey and Grizel had worn at their old school in England. However, she decided against having the same brown ties, girdles and hat ribbons that they had used in England. She chose a flame colour, since the colour was associated with joy, creativity and enthusiasm according to biblical symbolism.

Naturally, Joey and Grizel had brought their old tunics from England. Simone had brought a brown coat and blazer with her from Paris. Madge was arranging with a local seamstress to have tunics made for the other girls, as required. Simone's was the first of those to be ready, and she put it on for the first time on the second Monday of term. She was feeling rather self conscious, but pleased to be wearing the same clothes as Joey.

The number of pupils at the school doubled within a week. There were nine on Monday, by Friday there were seventeen, and on Saturday an eighteenth was entered to start on the following Monday. To the original one French, two English and six Austrian girls were added two more French girls, three more English girls and four more Austrians. Their ages ranged from eight to sixteen, and their fluency in English was mixed, too.

Madge Bettany and Elise La Pāttre decided that they would need to engage another mistress to help with the spread of teaching required. While relaxing over a cup of coffee at the hotel they were introduced to a pair of English visitors, who had been asking about the school. Brother and sister, Jack and Mollie Maynard, are a newly qualified doctor and a currently unemployed school teacher. It seems fortuitous that Mollie's subjects should be maths and geography. They arranged a formal interview for the beginning of the second week which proved very satisfactory all round. Mollie arranged for her belongings to be sent out from England, and was due to join the school at the start of its third week.

Madge had said nothing to any of the pupils about the new mistress, so it was a great surprise to the girls when not two but three mistresses arrived in the big classroom for morning prayers.

Many of the girls were having piano lessons from Madge Bettany and Elise La Pāttre, but three of them preferred the violin. It took a couple of weeks, but Madge found a teacher in Spärtz who was willing to take them on. Gisela and Gertrud were two of the older pupils at the school, so they, and Simone, travelled together down on the mountain railway one afternoon. They were met at the station by Herr Helfen's housekeeper, Grete.

Herr Helfen already knew Gisela and Gertrud, so he asked Simone about her previous teaching. She had been having violin lessons for two years in Paris, although her father always made sure he was out of their apartment when she was practising. Seeing how nervous his new pupil was, Herr Helfen took her for the first lesson, and was very encouraging, reminding her about tuning the violin properly, and explaining things in French when he realised how little German she understood.

On the train back to school the three girls were discussing their lessons. Simone said she had been scared of her teacher in Paris, but thought she would get on much better with Herr Helfen. The others agreed, saying that they had never seen him cross with anyone.

Joey was enthusiastically reporting to the other girls about some new pupils expected in September. They already knew about an American girl whose father was a business acquaintance of Grizel Cochrane's father. Now Joey told that two of their friends from England would also be coming in September. One was about the same age as Joey herself and a few of the others, and the other was a couple of years older, but they were both really nice girls. Joey couldn't understand why Simone seemed unhappy at the prospect.

When Simone couldn't get any of her work right in the morning's lessons the other girls thought she must be unwell and had gone to bed. However, when Simone was missing at lunchtime, the staff asked if the girls knew where she was. None of them had any idea, but Joey thought she might be able to find her. When Joey found Simone hiding in the pinewoods, she was very upset. She had cut her long hair off, so that it would be short like Joey's, and now she looked a mess, and everyone would laugh at her.

She explained, when Joey asked, that she thought Joey would like her better with short hair, and she didn't want Joey to have all these new friends, she just wanted Joey to be friends with her. Joey said that was very selfish, and she was happy to be friends with Simone, but she would have any other friends she wanted, too. Simone was eventually persuaded to go back to school, where she was taken to have her hair trimmed tidily, and made to write a letter to her mother explaining what she had done.

One Saturday morning, Joey and Grizel had been invited out, leaving Simone at the chalet with the other two English girls, Margia and Amy. The three girls had decided to go into the woods because it might be a bit cooler in the shade. Simone was horrified when eight year old Amy decided to climb one of the trees there, but then could not work out how to get back down. Eleven year old Margia was too big to go up to Amy in the tree and was not sure what to do.

Simone decided that they needed help. She told Margia to stay with her sister, while she herself would fetch someone to help them. She ran to the school and told the three mistresses what had happened, then she showed them where Amy and Margia were. Eigen had brought a ladder and Mollie Maynard helped Amy down the tree. As they walked back to school, Madge Bettany praised Simone for her sense in going for help when it was needed.

As the term came to an end, Simone was looking forward to going home again. Her cousin would take her, with the other two French girls as well as Amy and Margia, on the long journey to Paris. They left first thing in the morning, taking the boat to Seespitz to catch the mountain railway down to Spärtz, where they changed to a train for Innsbruck. In Innsbruck they boarded the express train to Paris.

The following afternoon they finally reached Paris, where Simone was overjoyed to see her family waiting for her on the platform. She was able to tell them that school was not as bad as she had feared and she was looking forward to going back in September. But it was lovely to be home with her family again.