Normandie

EN DIRECT DE NOTRE CORRESPONDANT EN NORMANDIE, HUGUES G.


Today we went to the Caen-Normandie Mémorial de la paix. It is a memorial that helps to remember the soldiers who died in WWII, specifically on D-day. The museum itself was very interesting and contained plenty of information. It was divided into sections; pre-war, the holocaust, and after the war. We briefly viewed the first two of these, and after that, we took a guided tour on a bus to the Normandy American Cemetery and two of the landing beaches (Omaha and Gold). Our homework was a reflection on our visit to the cemetery so we kept that in mind as we were viewing the graves and the story behind them. We saw thousands of graves, including the grave of Theodore Roosevelt Jr. The cemetery was very beautiful, somber, and thought provoking. It made all the students and teachers reflect on what happened on D-Day. It was a very long trip to get to the museum, two hours in fact. The two hours on the way back gave us ample time to talk, sleep, or even do our homework. Today was a very interesting day that provided a lot of time for contemplating, learning, and taking photos. HUGUES G.

St. Malo - a fortified coastal city

Saint Malo is a beautiful fortified city, built from the riches of the swashbuckling "corsaires", the King's privateers, sent to raid the enemy's ships and give the riches back to the King....kind of state sanctioned pirates.

Jacques Cartier was blessed in the Cathedral of St. Malo before setting out to explore Quebec in 1535.

The city was largely destroyed at the end of the Second World War, but was painstakingly restored, and is a pleasure to visit, with narrow cobbled streets full of cute boutiques.

We all met up at 1:30 p.m. and headed to the beach, where we picnicked in the sun, climbed on the rocks and played in the sand. We had the best time - as you can see from the pictures 😃

Le bowling (pronounced "booling" in French)

What a buzz of teenage multi-lingual chatter we heard today, as the students exchanged their first impressions and challenged their French partners to a game of bowling. Tyler was very excited to beat Clement!

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Note the "booling" alley's attempt to figure out Ms. Parrilli's name 😃, Yum.

Go Tyler!!!

Le voyage

What a smooth journey! The students were impeccably behaved. Our flight arrived early so we managed to make the tight connection with ease. We had a wonderful welcome from the families at the airport. After lunch at home with the families, we gathered at school for a tour and a special goûter (aftternon snack of pains au chocolat and delicious apple cake made especially for us by Chef Olivier - whom we will meet later in the week).