FRENCH EXCHANGE  TRIP TO PARIS & CHARTRES

Our Paris tourists have deepened ties with our French exchange school in Chartres by their ambassadorial demeanour and their enthusiasm for making new links with students at Institution Notre Dame.
 
One of the reasons for the trip was to renew links lost during lockdown after two successful foreign exchanges. One boy commented that ‘the (French) students were so kind and I felt very welcomed. I also made friends and got to show off my French skills’. Another said the time spent at the French school was his best experience, ‘meeting so many new people and having such a wonderful day.’ A third boy thought the best day was the guided tour of Chartres Cathedral because ‘it was interesting to find information that you never knew’. 80 per cent of the stained glass is original unlike many French cathedrals ransacked during the French Revolution and all the glass was stored securely during World War II.
 
Notre Dame looked forlorn but defiant in the evening sun when the boys eventually got there on the last evening after a long tour on foot from the Bastille food market via the Musée Carnavalet, the Centre Pompidou and the art gallery in the Musée d’Orsay. The day before they had climbed up 600 steps to the second platform of the Eiffel Tower and then marched eight miles to visit Napoleon’s Tomb at the Hotel des Invalides, crossed the Place de la Concorde, braved the busy metro to a restaurant at the foot of Montmartre and ended up lighting a candle in the quiet sanctity of the Sacré Coeur.
 
One of the highlights was being in Paris with such a brilliant group of boys who were allowed several opportunities to explore shopping areas and various sites like Chartres town centre in small groups because they always came back on time. Many thanks to Ms Thompstone and Mr Drax and to all seventeen ‘tourists’.