French Tour 2017 Report
In April, twelve French students left for Paris with a quick stopover in Hong Kong. When we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, we were all exhausted and did not know all the other members of the group. We had a quick bus tour of Paris en route to our hotel, glimpsing the main monuments which we would later get to see. We even got caught up in a traffic jam, thanks to the procession for a visiting dignitary, led by mounted policemen in full dress uniform.
At the hotel we lugged our bags up continuous flights of stairs to our rooms to crash for the the afternoon and night. We had so much sleep to catch up on! The rooms were nice but had very low rooves. We said a quick prayer for Callum Macrae who should never visit Paris!
Our time in Paris was very busy - finding the right metro line, climbing steps, buying cheap snacks from the local Franprix and delicious treats from the bakeries ... we probably visited them a bit too much. It was a combination of historical, cultural, gourmet food and sporting visits, so there was something for everyone:
· Notre-Dame Cathedral with its huge rose stained-glass windows and tall columns and high vaulted ceiling
· Sainte Chapelle, the oldest church in Paris
· The Panthéon, originally a church but now containing the remains of distinguished French citizens
· Montmartre, the artists’ quarter with the white basilica of Sacré-Coeur overlooking the city of love. We respectfully waited for Mrs Dickinson and Mr Richards as we ran up the various stairs.
· The Moulin Rouge, a cabaret in the entertainment quarter, otherwise known as the red light district!
· The Louvre with the glass pyramid, made famous in Dan Brown’s The da Vinci Code
· The Eiffel tower, rising above the Parisian skyline
· The boat ride on the river Seine for a different perspective of the city
· Galeries Lafayette, a huge mall with any shop you can imagine - where you pay megabucks!
· Napoleon’s tomb in the Invalides
· The Arc de Triomphe looking huge at the end of the Champs-Elysées, the main street which is full of all the top brand shops from Audi and Ferrari to Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch … Shopping here was a real experience.
· The Tour Montparnasse, the highest building in Paris, for a panoramic view of the city
· The Stade de France where many a football match has been played. It was great to sit in the changing rooms where our favourite players had sat before matches.
· The historical Palace of Versailles, which greeted us with golden gates, 800 hectares of gardens that take days to explore with lakes, fountains and marble statues.
There was a more leisurely pace when we left for Treigny to visit Guédelon, a 13th century style village and castle, constructed using medieval methods. This castle never existed until 30 years ago and will take another 30 or so to complete. We even met a Kiwi carpenter who worked there!
Our next stop was the Loire Valley, where we visited three beautiful castles: Chenonceau, built over a river connecting the two sides with a blue and white theme, which made you think you were in a Disney movie; Amboise, in a commanding position on the banks of the Loire, where Leonardo da Vinci’s ashes are buried, and Chaumont-sur-Loire, which now houses a modern art gallery.
After staying in Paris, we travelled south to a French town at the foothills of the Pyrénées, called Vic-en-Bigorre, to meet our first homestay families. After settling in and getting to know our hosts, we were able to spend some time learning about their lifestyle and culture, as well as testing out our French linguistic skills, or lack thereof. We had the opportunity to visit the neighbouring city of Toulouse, where we had a guided tour of the Cité de l’Espace space museum and to experience the French school system and the school canteen - three course sit-down meals! A few boys were able to travel into the Pyrénées mountain range, while some went to the beach at San Sebastian. And no, it wasn’t that kind of beach.
After about a week in Vic-en-Bigorre, we said goodbye to our homestays and travelled for almost 11 hours on the TGV fast trains to Hirson, a small town in the north, about 10 kilometres from Belgium. We got up to 299 kms/hr and shared a carriage with off-duty policemen and women.
Lycée Joliot Curie in Hirson is our partner school in the Shared Histories Project, which is a project between France and New Zealand to commemorate World War 1, where French classes share work with students at the school. We were warmly welcomed and spent our time there with our new homestays, seeing French culture from their small-town perspective, as well as visiting historical buildings, including impressive fortified churches and cemeteries for Anzac Day. And, of course, going to school. We saw a famous battlefield of WW1, Chemin des Dames, and the Dragon’s Cave, a position occupied by both the French and Germans at different times. We walked down into the cave to see the underground passages where the troops were holed up. We also saw the old town of Craonne, or at least the bombarded area which is now mainly craters - we had to use our imagination to picture what the town would have looked like. We visited the British, French and German cemeteries and a small chapel where we laid poppies to remember the New Zealanders who fought for peace here and never returned home.
Far too soon, it was time to leave Hirson and spend our last night in Lille, before reluctantly boarding a plane to Hong Kong the next day, and settling in for another 12-hour flight. It was au revoir to delicious bread and pastries, amazing art and culture, fast trains and exotic people. At least with modern technology we can keep in contact with our new foreign friends.
After landing in Hong Kong, we had the opportunity to get a guided tour of the surrounding cityscape and markets, which was still unforgettable despite our jet lag and the torrential rain. Another long flight saw us finally return to New Zealand. Personally, the best part of the tour was not seeing the Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triomphe, but spending time with a great group of lads and homestays, as well as Mrs Dickinson and Mr Richards, whom I would like to thank on behalf of the boys for working so hard to make the trip possible. If anyone in this hall has the chance to go on a tour to another country, I would certainly recommend taking it, as it is a truly life-changing experience.
- Written by Harrison Ward and Alistair Keay-Graham
