French Exchange 2011
During Easter a small group of students from Senior School set off for Paris for the annual French Exchange.
Oliver Ainsworth from 9MAT writes.......
On Friday 1st April, 12 students of Birkenhead School left England to visit Paris for the French Exchange. We landed late on Friday night and almost straight away were taken back to our partner’s house or apartment. I found that I bonded with my partner almost straight away and was astonished by how good their English was compared to our French.
On the Saturday, my partner and I met up with 4 or 5 exchange pairs and walked round Paris as the weather was so nice. It was great to talk about how well we got on with our partners and also was great to speak to someone I knew well. We visited many famous brands such as Haagen-Dazs and Toyota. I had already noticed how similar Paris looks in nearly every part. It was a very enjoyable day and I was already excited for the next day.
On the Sunday, we met up with Miss Moore and Mr Turner and visited the Notre Dame with all the French and English pairs. The architecture of the building was amazing!
On Monday we had lessons with our partners in the morning and I found that lessons are very different in France. I had my lessons with Ben Unsworth, Chris Way, George Kirkby and Conor O’Sullivan. In the afternoon we visited the Louvre where we saw famous paintings like the Mona Lisa. I was let down by the size of it though as I thought it would be so much bigger than it was.
On Tuesday we travelled by train to Versailles where we walked round the huge gardens that were so big you needed to get a bus round to see all of it. The gardens included a little village for King Louis XVI’s wife so she could pretend to be a poor peasant with all her friends.
On Wednesday we visited Montmartre where we walked round the church and bought souvenirs for our families. The cathedral was amazing and I learned that the bell only rings once a year at Easter and it can be heard for 25 miles! Then in the afternoon most of the Exchange pairs went to the park where we played a huge football match lasting 2 hours that was English against French. The English actually won for once too!
On Thursday it was our last day and it was sad to say goodbye to the families after an enjoyable week. We got on the Batobus which took us for a tour round Paris on the River Seine. We stopped off at the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Most of the group went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Then in the evening we went to the airport. We arrived home at 10.45 at night and it was nice to see our families again. I can’t wait for them to come over now!
Gabriella Kehoe from 8LDS writes.........
Living with a French family for a week, I was nervous but I looked at it as a big sleepover but it was in another country and it was for a week. I had settled in by Sunday.
The differences from their life to my life was : The house sizes were smaller, they ate later, they went to bed later, they woke up earlier and they did not have a car, most people had to walk or take the metro everywhere which wasn’t that bad.
On Sunday I met Amy and Ingrid as we went shopping then for lunch we ate at MacDonald’s after this we met up with Robin a French boy who was friends with our partners.
I was looking forward to Monday because we all got to see each other and tell everyone what we did over the weekend and we had the morning in school; going to school was good because we saw how their lessons are different to ours.
After Monday at school and the museum I went home with my partner and packed my suitcase and walked around the corner to the mother’s house where I would live until Friday. I met the child minder and then the mother arrived later. Constance and I watched an episode of gossip girl in English with French subtitles before we went to bed. In her father’s apartment I shared a room with Constance and when I was at her mother’s apartment I slept in her brother’s room.
Every night after school most of the students took us to the park because they didn’t have gardens, one night we were planning to eat at the park but it closed so we all ate outside the park gates, the boys played football and the girls talked and in-between we all ate dinner. The park was one of my favourite times in France because even though we spoke a different language we managed to make friends and have a great time!
This was an amazing experience and I hope to go on the French exchange next year.
Photographs taken on the trip
