French Work Experience Exchange
Over the half term break, a group of ten Sixth Form linguists spent a week in Paris. Two of the girls report back on their adventure.
“As we stepped off the Eurostar with Mrs Hugh – lugging our oversized bags – the realisation dawned that we would be here for a week, completely independent. The crowd parted to reveal a group of ten smiling Parisian teenagers. We greeted them with ‘bisous’ and were hurried onto the Metro, diving, head first, into our whirlwind week of French culture. The conversations began in our (somewhat hesitant) A Level French, as we made our way to our exchanges’ apartments. On the first weekend we explored the tourist locations, from the Marais to the Champs-Elysées, with our French partners.
Monday signalled the start of our five-day work experience and adapting to a scene we had never encountered before – commuting and working like young adults in Paris. In our various placements of art galleries, primary schools and restaurants, the difference between French and English culture soon became apparent. The mid-morning espresso, the long lunch times and the dependence on a daily patisserie treat were just some examples. On Tuesday, we went to see a production of Victor Hugo’s Lucrèce Borgia at the Comédie Française. The length of the applause almost exceeded that of the play! After the theatre, we wandered back through the streets, taking in the laid-back ambiance of the Parisian night. On Thursday, we reunited for dinner in a brasserie, after which we explored more new areas, such as the beautifully illuminated Notre Dame and the banks of the Seine (alongside a few rats!) On Friday, we took advantage of some extra time to visit exhibitions in the Centre Pompidou and the Musée d’Orsay to boost our French cultural knowledge. Friday being our last night, we and our French partners all met in a café to soak up the last of the surprisingly warm autumn weather, sipping virgin mojitos, as the smell of rare-cooked beef drifted around the Quartier Latin: a perfect last night!
The final day brought a rushed tour round the Hogwarts-esque winding staircases and medieval towers of our partners’ school, the Lycée Henri IV, before we had to take the train back home. It was with sadness that we gave our final ‘bisous’ and boarded the Eurostar back to London, much more confident in our spoken French and proud of our newly-acquired ‘argot’ (slang). A truly memorable trip!”
Written by Sixth Form students, Nadia and Sophie.