Students Visit Paris as Part of New French Exchange
by Virginie Mitchell, US French Instructor

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Vive la France!

On Friday, March 3, five CCES students, Upper School Spanish teacher Julie Bullinger, and I boarded a plane that would take us to Paris on Saturday morning. It was the beginning of a wonderful French experience during Spring Break 2006.

The trip was part of an exchange program that I initiated two years ago with my old high school, Le Lycée René Cassin, located south of Paris in a town named Arpajon. During the summer of 2004, while visiting France, I had met with Bénédicte Hamon, an English teacher at the school. We discussed the possibility of creating a student exchange program between CCES and Le Lycée René Cassin. To initiate the exchange, last year our students began communicating by e-mail with some of the French students.

Our first exchange was planned with the sophomore class during spring break. With French students in school at that time, our students had the opportunity to attend a day at Le Lycée, to spend as much time as possible interacting with French students, and to observe the French lifestyle. Five CCES sophomores signed up for "the French experience" during our spring break.

Once we arrived in Paris, a shuttle picked us up at Charles De Gaulle airport and took us to Le Lycée René Cassin. French students have school on Saturday morning, and they were all waiting for us. We received a huge welcome and enjoyed a reception in the cafeteria where we all got to know each other.

Our students spent the rest of the weekend with their host families. Some went to Paris, while others visited Arpajon or went out for entertainment. Mrs. Hamon chose five host families from among the sixty families who wanted to host our students! I was amazed to see how much time the host families made available to be with my students. They all wanted the CCES students to have a wonderful experience in France.

Our students visited Mrs. Hamon's classroom.

On Monday the students took classes all day at Le Lycée. They were able to experience a full day in a French high school, and it is long. French students have class six days a week, and their "lunch hour" is actually an hour and a half. On Wednesdays and Saturdays students attend morning classes only, but their schedules are different every day.

After spending the night with our host families, we all met in front of Le Lycée on Tuesday morning at 8.30 a.m. The students were starting to get pretty tired. Not enough sleep, and too much late-night talking with their pen pals and other new friends was the main cause. But tired or not, we were eager to see Paris, so we boarded a train to the City of Light. Public transportation is well developed in France and almost every single city has a train station, especially around Paris.

My mother, Annyvonne Machut, who hosted me and Ms. Bullinger, accompanied
us to Paris.

On Tuesday, we saw Le quartier Saint Michel and Notre Dame De Paris, and then we ate in a café Parisien. In the afternoon we took a Seine river cruise.

That evening Mrs. Hamon had made reservations for 60 people in a restaurant in Arpajon named Pourquoi Pas. (Why not, indeed?) It was amazing! We had such a wonderful time. There were five tables of ten students each and one table with the host families and teachers. We arrived at the restaurant around 7.30 p.m., and we all left at 11. It was a very successful evening. We had the privilege of experiencing a full French meal with different courses, and everyone enjoyed it. But, once again, we went to bed late and it was getting harder and harder to get up in the morning.

On Wednesday, we managed to meet at 8.30 a.m. and we took the train to Paris. We all wanted to visit Le Louvre, but the students were so exhausted that we only stayed for an hour and a half, not nearly enough time to tour the biggest museum in the world.

The French students and their moms met us at Les Galeries Lafayettes, the famous gorgeous department stores in Paris, and we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. Afterwards, some of our group visited a famous wax museum in Paris, Le Musée Grévin. It was fun!

The students all spent the evening with their host families. I had to change the schedule for Thursday because I knew that the students were exhausted. I decided to start the day later and take it easy on Thursday. We met at 10.30 a.m., which was a refreshing change, and headed off to Le Sacré Coeur and to La Place Montmartre, my favorite place in Paris. It is so romantic!

It looks like a little village inside Paris with little streets and a place des artistes named “la place du Tertre” where people can have their portraits done by street artists. I talked so much about this place that the girls wanted to have their portraits done. It is such fun to watch the artists at work!

We got back to Arpajon by 5 p.m. so that we could get ready for the dance that Le Lycée had organized for that evening. It started at 7.30 p.m. and didn't end till 1:00 a.m.. It went really well and everyone had a great time.

Unfortunately, the next day was our departure. Le Lycée organized a petit déjeuner with croissants, baguettes, and other delicious pastries. Everyone was so sad! The French students made cards for our students. When Mrs. Hamon called each of the CCES students by name to hand them their card, all the students applauded. And when we walked out to the bus, the French students made une haie d’honneur for the five CCES students. It was so emotional. We all said au revoir and got on the shuttle bus for the airport.

This photo, capturing the essence of
the City of Light, was taken from a moving car.

The students left their friends behind, but brought back many great memories. It was the first time that I took a group of students overseas, and I know that I won’t forget this amazing week. I am so happy that some of my students were able to experience another way of life and hang out with people from a different country. I believe that they all learned from each other. I hope that the relationships that they started during that week will last forever.

I am already thinking about my next trip!

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