IGCSE French Trip to Pâtisserie Paul and Micul Paris Museum

by Daniela Momirleanu, French Teacher

On Thursday, December 15, the students studying IGCSE French in both years 10 and 11 celebrated their achievements in Term 1 on a pre-Christmas trip à la Française with a trip to PAUL pâtisserie (15-19, Regina Elisabeta Avenue) to enjoy hot chocolate and French snacks, and to the museum Micul Paris (41, Lipscani Street). We departed the school at 9:00 in high spirits travelling by metro from Piata Iancului to Universitate and back..

The first stop along the wat was PAUL’s Pâtisserie in a Christmas décor, where we enjoyed a delicious brunch, savoring some hot chocolate and different French snacks while discussing life and our upcoming plans for the winter break.

Next up was out visit to the museum, which felt like a voyage into another world, a more peaceful and glamorous lifestyle where the joie de vivre was the life philosophy of our ancestors.

Here are a few accounts of our students in Year 10:

I enjoyed our visit PAUL’s Pâtisserie immensely, after the long walk in the cold. The museum portion of the trip was very nicely arranged, and it told a story of all the people that lived before us, which I liked very much. The colours and the themes of the museum (supposed to be a model of what a house would’ve looked like in 1800) were very interesting, and each room told its own story (the living room Turkish and middle eastern, the bedrooms French). Overall, the trip was very enjoyable.

Ecaterina Bota

Oat the French bakery and cafe, each of us chose the main course and then ate a dessert of our choice. We also had some drinks to accompany the delicious food. After we had finished our meals, we walked for approximately five minutes to the museum, which was filled with historical objects, such as clothes and furniture from a while ago. The guide gave us some information, which we all found truly interesting and then we went to explore the museum. It was a very successful trip as we all had a lot of fun and learnt many new things.

Sophia Constantinescu

At Paul’s Bakery, we all had breakfast, which was really good and got some an idea of what the people from France eat when they have breakfast, and took a lot of pictures of us enjoying the moment. We got a little lost trying to find the street on which the museum was, but after a few minutes reached the museum safely. The museum was a trading house from the 1930s. It was an amazing experience, so I hope we will have more trips like this in the future.

Horia Nitu

On the trip, we ate a lot of delicious French food, such as sandwiches, éclairs, pains au chocolat and hot chocolate. We stayed there for almost 1 hour enjoying breakfast before we moved on to the “Micul Paris” museum, located in the old centre. Inside the museum, there were many interesting objects of the time, such as an old gramophone. We visited the museum for about 30 minutes in total before heading back to Piata Unirii to get on the metro back to school. The trip back to school was very fun as well. Overall, the trip was a very fun and an interesting experience and I’m looking forward to having other days like this in the future.

Tommaso Bianchi

The French trip was an exciting experience, traveling to the old town by metro to Paul’s Bakery, a charming French cafe located near Cismigiu Park. We got to choose a meal of our choice, and had time to talk with our friends just hanging out. It was really relaxing. The staircase to eh museum was old and wooden, and covered with black-and-white photos of people from that time. Surprisingly, most of them are still alive to this day. The museum itself was the best part. It’s small and cozy, filled with many artifacts from the past. The rooms are kept in pristine condition, yet feel so inviting, like there are still people living there. You can just imagine the people of the 1920’s sitting around the fancy tea table, playing a game of chess and sipping tea from their china cups. The tour guide was very welcoming, and told us a lot of interesting facts about the history of life before and during the interwar period. He was extremely passionate about his work - he traveled all the way to Paris just to search for stuff for his museum, which he also runs independently. He is truly dedicated to his job, and loves the museum with all his heart. Overall, this trip was very enjoyable, and I hope that we can have another one like this someday soon.

Rucsandra Curtis