French Trip - October 2017
Mme Butler and Year 7-9 pupils enjoyed a superb linguistic and cultural trip to Normandy this half-term.
Head of Modern Foreign Languages, Mme Butler, told us all about this fantastic trip:
"The start of half term saw our linguists making an unnaturally early 4.30am start, as we headed for the Portsmouth to Caen ferry. After a six hour crossing that went quickly thanks to an array of games, our own lounge and lots of on-board activities, we travelled to le château du Baffy where we received a great welcome and a delicious first dinner.
The next morning brought a cultural day based around French food, in particular, spécialités normandes.
We visited the Boulangerie les Co-pains where the baker treated us to a wonderful workshop and we all got to make some organic sourdough bread, along with learning the corresponding key words in French. After a picnic in a lovely rural setting, we moved on to Les Vergers de Ducy, a family-owned apple farm producing organic apple juice and cider. The visit proved extremely interesting with lots of opportunities to learn new vocabulary and practise listening skills, as well as a chance to sample the delicious apple juice. Our final stop of the day was at an oyster farm where we learnt about the oyster’s life cycle and many of our intrepid travellers tasted this delicacy for themselves, with hilarious results!
Our third day was spent in Bayeux exploring the town’s culture and history. The local market provided the girls with the chance to practise their spoken French with a shopping challenge to purchase all the items on a list. Mr Mean tried to make things trickier by adding the bonus items of a bath plug and a snowball to the list, but the girls even managed to find these! Our visit to the Bayeux museum and its famous tapestry proved fantastic and tied in perfectly with Year 7’s recent study of 1066 in History. Seeing the tapestry which they’d learnt so much about up close was very special. Finally, a town trail provided another great chance to practise both instructions and town vocabulary in French, while our visit to the British War Cemetery was both very sobering and moving for us all. This action-packed day was topped off by an evening of fun, complete with an excellent dinner, disco and an extravagant fashion show!
Next came a visit to la Chocolaterie du Drakkar, giving us the chance to discover more about the history of chocolate and sample these tasty treats. We then continued on to le Mont Saint Michel where the girls were wowed by the beauty of this historic island. We visited the awe-inspiring Abbey before we treated the girls to a crêpe in a lovely crêperie with a great view of the bay.
Our final day in France saw us leaving le château and heading off for Omaha beach, the American War Cemetery and Pegasus Bridge, where Mr Winters’s excellent explanations really brought this important part of our recent history to life. Finally, we stopped by a typical French hypermarket for some last-minute shopping, before heading onto our ferry home, with the voyage’s entertainment seeing Mr Mean roped in to play the main role in a magic show! We arrived back at school at 11.30pm, exhausted but very happy!
My thanks to Mr Winters, Mr Mean and Mrs Harris who all played a huge part in making the trip such a success, as well as to our fantastic pupils who helped make it such fun!"
For all the photos from the trip, please click here.
