half past five
Everybody who has lived in France knows how good French butter can often be -- and French bread . We triturated each our pat with rock-salt and made a round ball of it , and dug a hole in our hunk to put it in , and ate it in the play-ground with clasp-knives , making it last as long as we could . This , and the half-holiday in the afternoon , made Thursday a day to be marked with a white stone . When you are up at five in summer , at half past five in the winter , and have had an hour and a half or two hours ' preparation before your first meal at 7.30 , French bread-and-butter is not a bad thing to break your fast with . Then , from eight till twelve , class -- Latin , Greek , French , English , German -- and mathematics and geometry -- history , geography , chemistry , Physics -- everything that you must get to know before you can hope to obtain your degree of Bachelor of Letters or Sciences , or be admitted to the Polytechnic School , or the Normal , or the Central , or that of Mines , or that of Roads and Bridges , or the Military School of St. Cyr , or the Naval School of the Borda . All this was fifty years ago ; of course names of schools may have changed , and even the sciences themselves . Then , at twelve , the second breakfast , meat -LRB- or salt fish on Fridays -RRB- , a dish of vegetables , lentils , red or white beans , salad , potatoes , etc. ; a dessert , which consisted of fruit or cheese , or a French pudding .