From the Languages Coordinator

Vive la France!

During our six-week trip to France, we experienced new friendships, and the many differences between French and Australian culture. We soon realised that the winter was much colder in France than it is in Australia and it left us shivering until we arrived at our hotel. Our time in Paris was filled with fun, laughter, tours and a lot of walking, but we found it interesting to learn about the history of France through exploring these landmarks in person. Places like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Versailles and Notre Dame were exciting to see in person, and it left us astonished at the ingenuity of those who created them. Watching the sunset over the city from Montmartre, cheering on a crazy runner trying to beat us up the hill as we rode in the funicular, seeing the artists in Place du Tertre, and then having dinner at the classic Parisian bistro Bouillon were highlights of our last busy day in Paris.

Our second stop of the trip was in Tours, where we discovered many castles of the Loire Valley and enjoyed new foods. The Christmas markets were bright and expensive but allowed for us to splurge on gifts for our host families and our families back in Australia. We visited the final home of Leonardo Da Vinci and a castle belonging to Catherine de’ Medici, two famous Italians that lived out their days in France.

Then, the group went their separate ways, beginning our month-long stays with our host families based either in Paris or Lyon. This meant very long school days, getting up and going home in the dark, being fully immersed in French, and trying to decipher the handwritten notes in cursive on the whiteboards in class.

As Naisha Raj explains,

“My time with my host family was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I became so much closer with my host sister and learnt so much about French culture and school life. French school is extremely different from Australian school. Not only in the hours of school students have in a day but also the way the students are taught and the way they are assessed. It was also interesting to see how different their social lives are and how they spend their weekends, whether that was catching up with their friends for an afternoon snack or going into countryside France just for the weekend – or into another country just for the day!”

After spending Christmas with their host families, with some trying their hands at skiing and snow boarding, and many indulging in different foods like foie gras and escargots, the group reconvened in Lyon before we headed north to Strasbourg. Here we celebrated the New Year watching the random fireworks going off around the city, as well as walking the little streets. After a mild few weeks, we also experienced real winter weather with temperatures going down to –5°C but this was forgotten each time snow began to fall.

While we visited many beautiful, historic and interesting places during our six weeks in France, as les Parisiennes noted, as breathtaking as seeing the Eiffel Tower every day as they went to school was, it is the people they met and the friendships that they have made that they will remember and value forever.