Travel

FRENCH EXCHANGE TO SELONGEY/BROCHON

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, 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.

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.

March 1994

The French arrived on Wednesday 23rd March at 4 p.m. and many were amazed to see Peterites and Olavites in uniform! Many visits were organised for the French. They went on an open top bus tour of the city, visited the Jorvik and Castle Museums and would have gone on a river trip had it not been in flood. They joined us in School on the Thursday morning and the lower sixth were surprised to learn that their correspondents, like most French lyceens, had been on strike the previous week and had even demonstrated in the streets against a government proposal.

Until the disco on Sunday evening (where the English danced more) parties and trips were organised by individual families and the whole group met again on Tuesday for a trip to Alton Towers. This was a trip enjoyed by everyone, by the end of which, even though we did not have as much time as planned because of traffic delays en-route, the French and English were getting on well together.

At departure on Thursday morning there were tears for some and joy from a few at the end of a very profitable and interesting exchange.

Thanks to Mr. Hodsdon for organising the exchange and events in England and to Mr. Kruszynski for organising the events in France.

Liz Stevenson

SKI REPORT CHRISTMAS 1994-5

Travelling across England and France on New Year's Day may not be everyone's idea of fun, and indeed as we spent seven hours stranded at the bottom of a mountain road due to lack of snow chains 'fun' was not a word many Peterite's would have chosen to describe the situation! Nevertheless we arrived at our hotel for supper (at around midnight), grateful that we did not have to spend a second night in the rather unpleasant atmosphere of the coach, and were ready to start skiing the following morning.

The snow was excellent, giving us doorstep skiing daily; the instructors were helpful, patient with our limited French and encouraging with our attempts to perfect(?) our skiing. Having been taught how to ski correctly in the morning we spent the afternoons in groups exploring the resort at varying speeds, down a variety of slopes and through the occasional wood — intentionally or otherwise. That this was not always done in style was evident from the comment of one instructor who was concerned that Moomin and Wes were ruining his reputation! The resort offered a wide variety of runs and we soon became familiar with the lift system which enabled us to reach the next two small villages. Even though fairly low cloud resulted in lifts 'over to the other side' being closed there was plenty of variety in Vallandry, Arcs 1600 and 1800. Fortunately on the last day the weather enabled us to go to the other side of the mountain which afforded us magnificent views, and a glance at some black slopes which some viewed with positive relish and the less adventurous of us with a degree of awe. In spite of many spectacular (and some painful) falls there were no serious injuries, and mention must be made of the 'Beginners' (Claire, Emma and Ryan) who made remarkable progress and showed determination, spirit, and good humour even when faced with red mogely slopes on their third day of skiing (not one of Katy's better detours).

Many of the party spent an enjoyable half day having a snowboarding lesson: those who chose to retain their boards in the afternoon did on the whole regret it (the apres ski was very subdued that night), and the minislalom race on the penultimate day was keenly contested by all (except for Mrs. W. who was happy to save anyone else the indignity of coming last!).

The hotel was very comfortable. Unlike last year there was ample hot water, the rooms were more than adequate and in spite of the inevitable whinges from the Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pud brigade the food was plentiful, varied and thoroughly enjoyed by those of us who expect to eat French food when we are holidaying in France! Courtesy of the Coach company (who did agree that they should have ensured that the snow chains actually fitted the coach when travelling to ski resorts), we enjoyed an evening at a local Creperie — owned by the father of one of our instructors.

It was a good week. Most people felt their skiing had improved; the general good humour, the excellent hotel and certainly good skiing conditions all contributed to a good start to the New Year!

S. M. Watkinson

Sunday

We left York in the morning and travelled all day, arriving at our hotel in Glyfada in the early hours of Monday morning. Glyfada is a suburb of Athens, described in the brochure as a "coastal resort, conveniently situated for the airport''. Travel brochures can sometimes be misleading, so it was a relief to discover that Glyfada lived up to its description. We stayed at the Hotel London, which had its own swimming pool and was near to the beach — a very good base for exploring Athens.

Monday

Drama originated in Greece, and on this, the first full day of the trip, we had a drama of our own: Miranda's acute appendicitis urgently required an operation, which thankfully was carried out in a private clinic at me end of a day spent on a tour of Athens hospitals. Miranda coped very well with this ordeal. Meanwhile the majority of the party went on a coach trip down the coast to Cape Sounion, to visit the temple of Poseidon, which stands majestically in a magnificent location overlooking the sea. Lord Byron carved his name here on one of the columns, an act of self-indulgent vandalism which has unfortunately been copied by mindless morons through the ages. To appreciate this magical place, one did not need to know the ins and outs of Greek architecture or religion: being there, taking in the views and the ambience, was enough. I am sure that many of the classical scholars among the party were reminded of John Keats' poem: On first looking into Chapman's Homer:

"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star'd at the Pacific — and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise — Silent, upon a peak in Darien."

Tuesday

More drama. This time it was (mainly) comedy. The morning started with the bus driver game. The rules were that we had to make it look as though we were genuinely trying to get ready to leave, while actually staging deliberate delays, to allow time for Debbie to get back from visiting Miranda in hospital. We knew that if the driver realised that in fact we were waiting for someone, he would leave anyway. This worked like a dream, until the driver became really angry, at which point we had to leave — at the exact moment Debbie arrived back at the hotel in a taxi, unseen by us! Our grumpy driver dropped us off in the centre of Athens for our visit to the Acropolis, after which we played the museum game. The rules here are that you have to walk through the centre of Athens on a boiling hot day until you reach the national museum which is supposed to be open but is in fact about to shut in ten minutes' time; you then have to speak to a museum official without actually murdering him. We managed it, just, but this was a frustrating afternoon and we were disappointed at the missed opportunity.

Wednesday

After an eventful final night in Glyfada, featuring one unscheduled arrival and one unscheduled departure, we boarded the coach for the transfer to our second resort — Tolon, in the Peloponnese. The journey was broken up by a brief stop at the Corinth canal and visits to ancient Corinth and Mycenae. Corinth was an impressive sight, once inhabited by the dissolute bunch of Christians who received stern letters from St. Paul. Mycenae offers superb views in all directions, capturing the imagination with its massive walls (built by the Cyclopes, according to the ancient Greeks) and shaft-graves. This is where the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the body of a king whose face was covered with a golden mask. That night he sent a telegram to the king of Greece with these words: "I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon." Schliemann may have got carried away with romantic, fanciful notions about the Trojan War, but there is no doubt that this is a place with an atmosphere which stirs the soul. After a pleasant drive we arrived at Tolon in time for dinner, but first we had to play the hotel game. This is where the coach driver drops you off at the hotel you have been booked into, and drives away; you then discover that the hotel is double-booked and the other School party has arrived and checked in half-anhour ago. Here we go again, we thought. But in fact the problem was soon sorted out; we transferred to the excellent Hotel Elektra, and we had no further problems. Tolon is a delightful resort, small, self-contained and with none of the tacky touristic development that you find in some Greek resorts. Judith summed it up well when she remarked that it was even better than Bridlington.

Thursday

This for me was the best day of the trip. First we visited Epidavros, the most impressive ancient theatre in Greece. Here again, the site more than lived up to expectations, proving the point that learning about such places in the classroom is no substitute for actually visiting them. We were even entertained by impromptu performances from the various groups from various nations who had come to test the theatre's acoustics by performing their own particular party-piece. Epidavros had a high "feelgood factor", and I think we would all have been happy to linger there a bit longer. But it was time for us to go onward to Nauplion, another charming resort, not far from Tolon itself. Time did not permit us to see the Venetian fort which overlooks the town, but it was a pleasant and relaxing place to potter around and explore. Then we returned to Tolon for lunch and an afternoon on the beach.

Friday

This was the first schedule-free day, so we allowed ourselves the luxury of a lie-in. We spent the day enjoying the attractions of Tolon; the highlight of the day being a pedalo-race round a small island within easy reach of the beach. The race started with all the smoothness and efficiency of last year's Grand National, and the staff team — who had thoughtfully been allocated a dud boat — soon found themselves fighting a desperate rearguard action, while the team captained by Lucy Robertson surged into the lead. Another boat, skippered by Richard Brown, shot off at a crazy angle. The closing stages of the race were also somewhat confused: the staff boat was boarded at one point, and we arrived back to find three teams claiming the trophy from the match referee, Ed Lindley. Ed stood no nonsense, and awarded the prize to the only team who had not cheated or breached the rules of the competition. The staff team were then thrown into the sea. In short, a fun time was had by all. I was surprised that none of the members of the party remarked upon the similarity between this epic struggle and the boat race described by Virgil in Book 3 of the Aeneid: "Exspectata dies aderat..." (Cut this bit — he's off in his little classical helicopter again. The Editor.).

Saturday

Olympia. Birthplace of the Olympic games. Another site to remind us of "the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome". It's difficult to convey in blackand-white the experience of visiting Olympia; in photographs it looks like a pile of rubble overgrown by grass and weeds. I brought back a large picture of the Olympic stadium and proudly put it over the mantelpiece at home. The first people who came round after our return asked why there was a picture of a disused runway in the room. I know what they meant, and yet as we walked through the tunnel into that arena, I felt a great sense of the past, of being somewhere where great things had happened. I felt like Odysseus in the Underworld, meeting the souls of great heroes from the past... (two pages omitted here. The Editor.)... The only drawback to this day was the amount of time spent on the coach; but we were back in Tolon in time for dinner and a visit to "the Gorilla" — the resort's hottest (only) nightspot. At one point the staff were persuaded to strut their funky stuff — I believe that's what the youngsters of today call it — on the dance floor. Inexplicably, the place emptied in seconds. I can only assume that this was due to the quality of the music, which I personally regard as a ghastly noise.

Sunday

Our last day (About time. The Editor.). We decided to hire a boat for a barbecue on one of the nearby islands. As fate would have it, the School party from South Wales who had also been spending a lot of time in the Gorilla had had the same idea, and were encamped on another island not far from ours. This was the cue for a moving re-enactment of a famous Greek myth, namely the story of love-struck Leander, who swam across the Hellespont to be with his lover, Hero. Sadly, the amorous Celtic suitor who dared to make the journey got short shrift from the object of his affections. After the barbecue there was time for us to do some last minute shopping and send off all die postcards we had been meaning to send on the first day. Then we had supper at the hotel before leaving for die airport, where we met up witii Miranda and her mum.

As we travelled through the night we all had time to reflect on die events of the week. It had been an enriching experience, educational in the fullest sense, and each of die thirty-five people who went on die trip came back with a fund of stories to tell. We all learnt a lot, not only about Greek culture and history, but also about life. D. S. Newman