Louise Takes the Children Out to Encourage the Massés to Have Another Child

Louise’s plan to take Mila and Adam out for dinner is an attempt to make Myriam and Paul spend an evening together and, in Louise’s hope, conceive another child. It grows from her conviction that a baby would renew the family’s intimacy and secure her own place in the household. The excursion gives the children an evening away from home, but ends with Louise’s realization that her carefully staged opportunity has not brought the couple together.

The Hope for Another Child

The thought of a baby takes shape for Louise after an evening with Hervé. She imagines an infant who would pass from her arms to Myriam’s and Paul’s, binding them in shared tenderness and smoothing over tensions. In this fantasy, the baby is not only someone to care for: the child would give the household a renewed purpose and restore a sense of closeness among its adults.

The idea alters how Louise reads the family’s future. She assumes that once Adam starts school, the apartment will be empty and she will have less to do; in her view, another child would make her indispensable. She listens closely to Myriam and Paul, noticing that Myriam has begun speaking more quietly and closing the door during phone calls. Unable to know what their private conversations mean, Louise interprets the secrecy through her hope that a pregnancy is coming.

She tries to encourage that future through care. Louise makes dishes she believes might promote fertility and watches Myriam for signs she takes to indicate pregnancy. She asks Mila whether she would like a younger sibling, framing it as a baby the two of them could care for together. When Mila later asks Myriam whether she is pregnant, Myriam laughs and rejects the possibility. Louise reads the answer not as a settled refusal but as a way of warding off the idea, revealing how thoroughly her own desire has begun to shape her interpretation of other people’s words.

Arranging the Evening

Louise’s hope hardens into a plan. She imagines that Myriam and Paul have too little time together, and that the children’s demands keep them from reconnecting. Rather than asking them to try for another child directly, she decides to create an evening alone for them by taking Mila and Adam out to dinner.

When Myriam comes home, Louise is waiting with Mila beside her and presses her proposal: she will take the children to a restaurant so Myriam can dine quietly with her husband. Myriam hesitates, saying they had made no such plan. Mila then asks to go with Louise, helping the nanny overcome her mother’s reluctance. Myriam finally agrees, offering to pay for the meal, but Louise insists that she will treat the children. She has a banknote in her pocket and has already chosen a small bistro where students gather; the gesture of paying is part of her attempt to make the outing happen on her terms.

Dinner and the Walk Through Paris

The restaurant does not match Mila’s expectations. She finds a nearly empty room, dirty shelves, and a greasy table rather than the lively place she had pictured. Louise has Adam on her lap and orders sausages and fries for the children to share, without waiting for Mila to choose. She orders wine for herself and brings paper and crayons, but Mila is uninterested in drawing and barely touches her food. The outing is Louise’s arrangement, yet the children experience it as a long, uncomfortable wait.

Louise, meanwhile, watches the window, her watch, the street, and the counter. Her thoughts move through memories and imagined scenes, including the picture she has formed of Myriam and Paul enjoying the quiet apartment. When the meal is over, she waits before getting up. At last she takes Mila’s hand, settles the blanket over sleeping Adam, and leaves with the children.

Instead of going straight home, Louise walks with Mila through central Paris. They pass the Grands Boulevards and continue along increasingly unfamiliar streets. Mila does not recognize the route and grows anxious, but Louise offers little reassurance beyond urging her to keep walking. At one point Louise stops and asks Mila what flavor of ice cream she wants. Mila chooses strawberry; she eats the cone as they retrace their steps, concentrating on its taste despite the discomfort of the cold dessert.

They take a bus home. Mila asks whether she can put the ticket into the machine as she usually does, but Louise tells her not to worry about a ticket at night. The small exchange belongs to the outing’s larger pattern: Louise controls the evening’s choices and pace, while Mila tries to follow familiar routines in unfamiliar circumstances.

The Plan’s Failure

When Louise returns to the apartment, Paul is lying on the sofa listening to a record. Mila runs to him, and he teases her about having spent the evening out like a grown girl. He tells her that Myriam has taken a bath and gone to bed early, exhausted by work; she has not waited for him. The couple’s evening alone has therefore not produced the reconciliation or renewed intimacy Louise had imagined.

Louise understands the failure in immediate, practical terms as well as emotional ones: she is cold and tired, her legs hurt, and the banknote she had been carrying is gone. Most important, Myriam has gone to bed without Paul, so the outing has not advanced the hope that another baby will arrive. The carefully arranged dinner and walk end not with a new bond among the adults, but with Louise’s disappointment.

Significance

The episode brings together Louise’s care for the children and her desire to secure a lasting place in the Massé family. Her plan uses a familiar act of childcare—taking the children out so their parents can be alone—but it also turns that care into an effort to influence the couple’s private life. She hopes a new child will bring love, fill the household’s future, and ensure that the family continues to need her.

The contrast between Louise’s imagined purpose and the actual evening is central to the action. In her mind, the children’s absence can create a space for Myriam and Paul to reconnect; in practice, Myriam goes to bed alone, Mila finds the restaurant disappointing, and Louise returns having spent her last banknote. The outing thus reveals the limits of the role she has made for herself: she can organize the family’s routines and care for its children, but she cannot control the affection between their parents or make her own imagined future come true.