The voyage and first days

 

Our trip to Saumur took rather a long time, but I’m sure each stagière would say it was worth it. We had a long layover in Atlanta, then a eight hour and thirty minute flight to Paris.

Things were going pretty well once we arrived. The line at passport control, normally 30 minutes to an hour, was mercifully short. Then Dorothy realized she didn’t have her passport. The airport personnel were very helpful and directed us to the Delta counter. An agent there was very kind and understanding. He radioed for someone to look on the plane around her seat. Within 10 minutes, she had passport in hand.

In the end, it caused us no delays.

Our onsite coordinator and a host mom were there to greet us. We climbed aboard our motor coach with Jeremy driving. There were the typical traffic jams on the ring road outside Paris, but we were finally freed of them and on our way to Saumur.

We stopped after a while to eat our picnic lunch (dinner?) At that point our body clocks and the time on the ground were very different. It was at this stop that the students said good-bye to their smart phones for six weeks!

The last leg of our trip involved a detour, but we got to drive along the shore of the beautiful Loire River. We finally arrived at about 8:45 pm. Students were matched with their host families and were on their way to their new homes and families.

Friday, students met at our school, Institution Saint Louis. This is a very large Catholic school, with students from kindergarten through high school housed in about six different buildings. There are over 10 hectares of grounds. (That’s like 20 football fields.)

The morning involved the placement exam (three parts: grammar, written comprehension and oral comprehension). That was followed by a get-to-know you game, then lunch!

It’s difficult to describe how tumultuous lunch was. Imagine about 500 students of all ages in three large, echoing rooms. The food was very good, with several different choices.

We have an hour and 20 minutes for lunch. Of course, American high school students can eat in about twenty minutes, so there was a long time strolling around the vast grounds.

It was quite a warm day. We occupy the only two air-conditioned classrooms on campus. The French definition of air-conditioned is a bit different from the American one. Suffice it to say, no one will be cold in class.

We had planned to do a photo scavenger hunt around the downtown. However, the students did not have their program cell phones yet. It seemed dangerous to have small groups of American students wandering around the town with no way to communicate. So, we did a walking tour as a group

Before heading out, Monsieur Isaiah did a lesson on how to read a map. Without smart devices, the students will have to rely on good old paper maps! Monsieur Michel lead the tour, explaining how to find out what street one is on.

We saw the theatre, city hall, the court house, and mounted the stairs to go all the way up to the castle.

The castle dominates the town, and the views are extraordinary. After some relaxing in the shade, we headed back to Saint Louis. All in all, we walked over 12,000 steps!

Host families picked up the students to go home for a respite. Friday evening, there was host family/student orientation meeting. Students received their program cell phones and their bus passes.

I think everyone was grateful to get home to a well-deserved rest.

Saturday was spent with host families, with them getting to know one another.

Today, there was a picnic with all of the stagières, teachers, host families and our coordinator, Marie Odile.

It was absolutely wonderful! The French really know how to do a picnic. This was no peanut butter and jelly sandwich picnic. Families brought full meals complete with real plates and silverware.

We did photos with each stagière and their host family. Those photos will be included in the next blog post.