Last weekend, Mademoiselle Menegaz took 38 Taverham Hall pupils, 5 South African exchange partners and 3 accompanying parents to France for 4 days packed with fun and opportunities to practise French in real-life situations.
We all stayed in a hostel in Calais called “Centre de Séjour Européen” which was conveniently situated 5 minutes walk from a fantastic sand beach where we spent our evenings paddling in the sea, playing rounders and building sand castles. The near-by ice-cream van provided us with a perfect excuse for a treat: “Je voudrais une glace fraise / pistache, s’il vous plait.”
On Saturday morning, we explored the Boulogne market and its French products after carrying out an exciting Treasure Trail in the old part of the city – we ended up with a lot of béret-wearing French look-alikes as we headed towards Bagatelle theme park.
The rides were great fun and it was a real luxury not to have to queue up for more than 5 minutes! Mr Wood and Mr Hamilton got a little wet after getting on “le Raft” and “Chplouf” but I’m sure they would agree to say it was a fun afternoon. Madame la Consigne (alias Mrs Brand) did a grand job looking after everybody’s bags!
On Sunday morning, we went to Nausicaa Sea Life Centre in Boulogne where we saw sharks and crocodiles and had a chance to touch some friendly stingrays. We had lunch in Le Touquet, and after a touch of shopping and some interviewing of local French people, the afternoon was spent at Aqualud, a most impressive water park which, everyone agreed, was the highlight of the trip!
Finally, we had a very informative Monday morning spent at the snail farm “l’Escargotière du Choquel” where the owner Emmanuel provided us with some amazing facts about the slimy little animals the French are so keen to find on their plates on big occasions. Did you know that snails have 13000 teeth on their tongue and that the mucus they produce is used to make cough syrup and make-up?
Emmanuel only supplies Michelin starred restaurants so our “dégustation” was a real treat: two types of snail pâté on toast followed by a traditional recipe with a snail in a biscuit shell, covered in butter, garlic and parsley sauce… vraiment délicieux! Most of the children were brave enough to challenge their taste buds and seemed impressed with what they ate!
All in all, this was a fantastic trip and I hope we can renew the experience in the future!
SM