TRAVEL
FRENCH EXCHANGE TO SELONGEY/BROCHON
some went ice-skating, swimming or bowling, others went to a confirmation class. Most made shopping trips and some went to a local football match. One lucky person even went skiing for the weekend! Various activities had been organised for all of us, including a morning in the School, where we accompanied our correspondents to lessons (lucky for us!), and an afternoon at a sports centre where we tried judo and handball — a first time experience for most of the Brits. The netball skills of the girls were sufficient to ensure victory in their basketball matches! There was also a disco, very popular with the French although the English were not quite so keen to join in with the dancing — the St. Olave's girls proving a notable exception. The main trip of the week came — a day in Paris. We saw some of the most important sights of the city such as La Tour Eiffel. Those with the time and patience to wait in the queue to go to the top found it a wonderful experience. We also saw the Louvre, Place de la Concorde, Les Champs Elysees and L'Arc de Triomphe. Our main visit was to the Cite des Sciences et de FIndustrie, a modern science museum well worth the visit if you are interested in science.
October 1993 At around 11 p.m. on the 19th October forty pupils from St. Peter's, St. Olave's and The Mount, accompanied by Mr. Hodsdon, Mrs. Whiteley and Mrs. Drysdale set off for Dijon. The coach journey was long, but we managed to entertain ourselves and to find plenty to do to occupy the time! The first English/French meeting took place outside the lycee at Brochon where we dropped off those from the fifth and lower sixth forms. (The boarding house of the lycee was the former chateau of the village and very much impressed those who spent two nights in it.) Then on to the College Champ-Lumiere in Selongey. One by one we gingerly stepped off the coach to meet our correspondents — always an un-nerving experience, in spite of the fact that, for some of us, this was our second, or even third, visit. For the following week-and-a-half, most of our time was spent with our French families. Some struggled to make themselves understood, but, as the week went by, we all found, to our amazement, that this actually became easier. Each one of us found that our time spent with our families was very different. Many people visited relatives,
We had a couple more days with our families before our departure early on Thursday morning. We arrived back in York late that night, exhausted but content, wondering what our French friends would think of us when they returned our visit in five months time. 36
