Pupil's memories

The two best days when we went to France were Wednesday and Thursday.

We started Wednesday with a good breakfast of croissants. After breakfast we started our activities. First was archery or Tir a l’arc. It was right at the end of the forest. Keeping us on our toes for a second assault course, it wasn’t as big as the but we still had to jump over a stream, go down the rocks and across the bridge. Once we were finally at the targets our instructor: Leana, explained the safety rules. Then we started carrying the heavy bows to shoot, we tried to fire with as much accuracy as possible (which wasn’t very much for our first try). Our accuracy grew as we realised how challenging it really was. We started getting points and adding them up but still no bullseyes. Until Leana put balloons on the bullseyes which made it much more competitive. The first few people couldn’t hit it but Evan could! The next set didn’t hit it and then on the last set nobody could hit the balloon apart from me!

Then we had our French lesson. We played a few games in French and described ourselves in French. We played a game where we had to match the French word with the picture. Then we played a game where we had to find out who was the celebrity in the Chateau. But ofcourse they gave clues in French. All these activities helped our French learning a lot.

After our lunch we had Fabrication de pain (bread making). We started out by making our hats, decorating and colouring them. Once that was done we poured mixtures like flour and things to make tough dough. We got to model it into whatever we wanted, like an animal or a person. After that we covered the dough in egg yolk to glaze it. Last we got to stick cereals in it for the last features.

Then it was time for dinner but not just any old dinner, it was a dressing up dinner. We put on berets, moustaches and scarves (well the girls did not out on moustaches!). That was the dinner that was a proper French dinner: snails! I tried one but I didn’t like the rubbery taste! We also got our bread to eat. I loved it since it was very sweet although I found it hard to butter.

Once we had finished our Twix ice-cream we went to the building next door to the climbing where we were put into groups. We were asked question and then got to do activities like spinning the hoop, skipping with a ball in-between our legs, hoopla and drawing. On each activity we chose someone who we thought would be best at it. In the end our team did win!

On Thursday after our breakfast we set out on the coach to the market, using our French eye spy sheets on the way. Once we had got there we went off in our groups looking for good deals. Afterwards we all ended up with something! It was very busy and full up in the market so we found it hard to manoeuvre round ending up with us not being able to look at things for very long.

We then set of to the cemetery playing a bit more of the eye spy on the way. Once we had got there we had a small picnic for lunch including a sandwich and crisps.

Then we entered the cemetery, a man explained to us all about it in a big hall before we got to have a look at all the crosses filling the land. And the stretched out wall, naming thousands of dead soldiers that had lost bodies. We looked around for a bit longer taking photos before we went back to the coach to travel back to the chateau.

Once back we got a barbecue for our dinner! Sausages, chicken, and salad. Once we had filled our tummies we went to watch the talent show, since it was our first trip to the chateu we didn’t know how high the standard was and how much they practiced their routines so in the end after the talent show we did our own one just we our school outside the dormitries!

Over the October half term, almost half of year 9 went on the school trip to Normandy.

If you just looked at pictures, you would presume this was a normal trip, with climbing, bread making and archery. However, this was quite the opposite. In fact, for the full six days we were there, we could only speak French.

All our instructions for the activities were in French, and the coaches only spoke to us en français. Just some of the activities we completed were an assault course, circus skills, aeroball and we even tasted cider which was made on the farm. It is safe to say we were exhausted by the end of each day. 

On the Saturday, we went to visit the French castle Mont-St-Michel. After going on a tour, we could explore the castle ourselves. It was windy and busy, but a thoroughly enjoyable day out. After buying gifts for friends and family and gorging ourselves on crepes, we headed back to our farm. 

Within our stay, we got to try many traditional French foods, including croissants, eclairs and, to as a surprise on the last night, les escargots (there were mixed opinions...)

Every evening we would have a different activity. These ranged from ball games to treasure hunts to quizzes, but the best night of all was the last. We all dressed up and performed in various acts (from comedy to singing to rapping, the talent show had it all), but after all of that, there was a great party for a proper farewell.  

On our way home, we visited the Bayeux Tapestry. In year 7 we had learned about this, so it was interesting to see it in real life.  

The French trip was one to remember, from playing cards on the Eurotunnel, to seeing all the animals at the farm, from the crazy activities all in French, to the fabulous meals with even better people. The trip created long lasting memories for all of us, so merci from us in England!