Fête de la musique

Bonjour everyone!

This is going to be a short post just to share a few photos we took last Friday, June 21.
If there aren't any excursions planned on Fridays, we normally have half-days... a fact that pleased all students a lot :) because this way they got all afternoon to explore the city before their curfew.

The first half began with announcements and reminders for the upcoming trip to Normandy and then the students filled an evaluation about their host families. Once done each group headed to their class. In their grammar class, they learned how to formulate questions and in their culture class they learnt about our 2-day trip to Normandy and then they learnt about World War II to contextualize the importance of our visit to the Normandy landing stations and the American Cemetery.

After classes, we all headed to the canteen for lunch.
During the past 2 weeks, the 'stagiaires' have made friends with some young students from middle school and since this was their day of school before summer break, all of them shared a warm goodbye.  Don't forget to check out the video below!

 

June 21st was also the "Fête de la musique" and Saumur was buzzing with a lot of action!  There were lots of bands playing music all over the streets and lots of people enjoying good music and lovely summer weather! Many students visited the music festival with their host families and had a fun evening! Here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of what the festival was like.

That's all for now. Stay tuned to see how we spent 2 incredible days in Normandy.

Ciao!

Mayor's reception

Hello everyone!
I hope you had a wonderful week and that you enjoyed the last few posts describing our visit to the castles of the Loire valley and photos of the students presenting their coat of arms.
Each year, the Mayor's office in Saumur invites all the participants for a reception at the town hall.
For this occassion, everyone dressed up in formal wear and we walked to the Town Hall of Saumur.
Here are a few pictures of all the students looking sharp in their formal attires.

During this visit, the students also debate over a local political issue as if they were council members. This year, the students were asked to prepare their arguments for the topic of opening a casino in Saumur. Students were divided in to two teams, one was FOR and the other AGAINST the opening of a casino in Saumur. Both teams prepared strong arguments and presented it to the Mayor Mr. Jackie Goulet.
Mr. Goulet presided over the debate as if the students were his real council members and this gave the students a small taste of French politics.





After the debate, we were invited into the main reception hall of the Town Hall for some refreshments and to have an informal chat with the Mayor and his staff who were very welcoming. For this reception, Jordan N and Diana A presented a small speech talking about what the IUHPFL experience meant to them and then giving thanks to the Mayor and the city of Saumur. We also took a group photo holding the American and the French flags.

After this, we walked back to the school and had lunch, following which the students had their Grammar & Communication and Literature  & Culture classes. Unfortunately, because of the Mayor's visit, we had to shift our regular morning classes to the afternoon and so we couldn't do the Wednesday sports activity.
And like this, another good day of the program came to an end.

"Coat of arms" and other happenings

Hello again parents, guardians, families and friends of IUHPFL Saumur 2019!

Yesterday and today, June 17 & 18, were regular days of the program. Apart from classes in Grammar & Communication with Martin and Literature & Culture with me, the students did theater and choir practice in the afternoon on Monday. Today, the students completed their first self-evaluation to check their progress in the program as well as to look at strategies on coping with the challenges of the program.
Tomorrow, (Wednesday, June 19), the students will be attending a special reception at the town hall where they will be greeted by the Mayor of Saumur, Mr. Jackie Goulet and his mayoral staff. Details of the reception and pictures will be shared in a separate blog post. In order to prepare for the reception, the students worked in two groups during the afternoon activities hour and worked on the topic that will be discussed tomorrow.
Over the two days, each student also presented the "Coat of arms" they designed for themselves. Saumur being a historic town with a coat of arms of its own, it was important for the knights of this program to create one which represents their personality the best. This activity is an excellent and fun way for each student to talk about what makes them 'them' and for everyone to get to know each other better! For the entire duration of the program, these "Coat of arms" will be up on display in our IUHPFL classroom.
Here are pictures of each student presenting their own masterpieces!

And here's one with all of them and their amazing coat of arms, each one thoughtfully done!



That's it from us. Do send us lots of positive energy so that our reception with the Mayor goes off splendidly tomorrow!

Excursion 1 - Les Châteaux de la Loire

Hello everyone!
We hope all of you had a good start to the week!
As promised last time, here's an update on our first excursion to the beautiful castles of the Loire valley. On Friday, June 14, the students along with Martin and myself headed out to visit 3 incredible castles. Our bus came to pick us all up at the school at 7.15am and off we went.
First on our itinerary was the Château de Chambord, a 500 year old château from the Renaissance period.

 

Of all the castles in the Loire region (and there are lots) this one is the most vast. We entered the castle together and then the students got about 2 hours to explore the castle by themselves in groups. 

Once done, we headed to the second château of the day. Before entering the grounds of the castle, we did a little picnic right by a small stream with ducks. The students ate the lunches their host families had packed and enjoyed feeding bread to the ducks. It was a perfect day for a picnic!

 
 
                               

The second château we visited was the Château de Chenonceau. The students really enjoyed exploring the beautiful interiors of this castle but what they enjoyed the most was exploring the gardens and the maze. Remember to ask them to show you photos they clicked of the maze! Here are a few photos we took. Here too, they got about 2 hours to explore the castle and the grounds in groups. 

                        

This castle was constructed on the bridge spanning the river cher and the students really enjoyed this breathtaking view of the castle from its gardens. From here we went to a smaller castle with an intriguing past. We headed to Château du Clos Lucé. This famous castle has known many famous owners but the most intriguing for the students was Leonardo Da Vinci, who spent the last 3 years of his life here.
    
                    

The students really enjoyed exploring Da Vinci's house because even though it was simple from within but they could see his sketches and they also got to see and play with his inventions which have been recreated and placed in the house and all around the garden. Since it was a hot day, many students took a break from exploring and had some ice-cream and some even had crêpes.




              

Here's a short video of some of the students exploring Leonardo Da Vinci's version of the Archimedes screw.

After a long journey of taking in a lot of history and culture, we got back to the school by 8pm where we were greeted by host parents waiting to pick up the students.
... And this was the end of our incredible first excursion at the Castles of the Loire Valley!
Hope you enjoyed this journey with us. Stay tuned for how this week's going for our 'stagiaires'!