31st may; the day when fourteen selected students boarded onto a plane, flying into the land of saltless food, cheese and fashion. That’s right, France. Every moment of this trip had something or the other worth remembering, whether it be the wonderful sights, the gracious hospitality of our wonderful host families, or the school’s students.
Starting off with the first day, our travel had been exhausting. Not one student (nor teacher) had had their beauty sleep, making them all cranky and irritable. Nevertheless, we marched on, and visited the Riiver Seine, where we went on a boat trip, Bateau Monche. After almost 36 hours without any sort of proper rest provided to our soul-sacks, we finally went to the hotel, where we barely had time to change before we scurried off to Chateau de Versailles. The word ‘stunning’ was an understatement for this extraordinary monument. We ended the day with a pizza picnic. The day had (finally) ended.
The second day was one of the most important for us students as we met our host families; the people who had agreed to take care of us for a total of five days. Before doing so, we visited Caen, where we saw the memorial museum and we took time to understand the pain and misery people had to suffer during the world wars. After the museum, we had lunch and went over to Cherbourg, which is where we met our respective host families. The details obviously varied from one individual to another, but overall, we all can definitely say that our hosts were wonderful people with wonderful families and pets; they took great care of us, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
The third day consisted of us visiting Cité De La Mer, a sea museum located near the shore of the British channel. There were three main things there; a museum area reserved to the remains of the titanic, a nuclear submarine, and a very large aquarium. After returning to our houses, our hosts planned a small get together near the beach.
On the fourth day, we visited the American and German cemeteries on French soil, and we saw several veterans in their uniform paying homage to their lost friends. Their bravery and loyalty is commendable, and should be forever remembered throughout generations.
Fast forwarding to the fifth day, where we went to Mont Saint Michel, a stunning church built in the middle of water. We took a round around it, and experienced the effects of quicksand.
With all of that, came our last day in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. At the beginning of the day, we went to the school, where we created glass jars with Indian designs on them. To commemorate our last day in the town, we met the mayor of the region, and also went for a treasure hunt in the downtown area. We didn’t even realise the time flying past us!
The next day, we said goodbye to our gracious hosts, and went on with our voyage, back to Paris. Around lunch time, we stopped for lunch at IKEA, and as expected, we were absolutely awestruck by the place. After spending longer than we should have there, we left to (hopefully) reach Paris’ Primark on time. (Spoiler alert: We did. And we bought a little too much stuff. ) Last stop of the day was Champs Élysées, where we spent till our heart was content.
Our final day in the country consisted of seeing the Eiffel Tower in all of its glory, and taking one final tour of the streets of Paris, buying tourist-y stuff and watching street artists make stunning caricatures and paintings, live.
Overall, the French exchange was a fabulous and enriching experience that helped us see the different cities with a perspective that cannot possibly be achieved through a simplistic tour of the country.
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