Week 6 - Au revoir Saumur, Âllo Paris!

On Tuesday, July 16, we left Saumur at 8 am after a warm and tearful goodbye. The families had packed their last picnic for the students and we were off. En route to Paris, we had two pitstops. One at Chartres, to see the magnificent Cathedral of Chartres with it's gothic architecture and expansive stained glass windows. After the visit, we walked down to a charming little park and we had our picnic lunch. Then we headed to the Versailles Palace. It was very crowded here but thanks to our group reservation, we got in much faster than the others. We got a little surprise there because we bumped in to the IUHPFL Saint-Brieuc group and students who knew each other got to finally meet after 5 weeks! There was much excitement in the air!

Once in, the students got some time on their own to explore the palace. At around 5 pm, we headed to our hotel in Paris. Some rooms were shared by two students and others by three. After a very short rest, we left our hotel and headed out to our lovely boat ride on the river Seine. We got to see many sights of Paris like the Orsay museum, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and we also got to see the Eiffel tower. After the boat ride, we headed back to our rooms, completely exhausted but also, really happy because we were finally in Paris!

Here are all the photos from our day 1. Enjoy! 

Farewell Show - Part II

Hello everyone!

I'm sure you're all very happy to have the students back home safe and happy. They will have lots of stories to share with you over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, the blog website has been giving me a lot of technical trouble and along with bad internet, I've just not been able to post as regularly this past week.  I'm hoping to share all updates and photos as soon as possible. Praying to the Gods of technology!

To continue where I left off, the farewell show on Friday went off very well! All host families attended the event and everyone really enjoyed the students' performances. 

The choir performed famous French songs like "La Seine", "L'oiseau et l'enfant" and the current favourite, "La même". The theater group performed a 5 scene play they had created which was inspired by their adventures in Saumur.  The audience really enjoyed the play and said that the students spoke very well! We also had a few solo, duet and small group performances.Jenny serenaded the audience with "rester seule", a popular french song by Louane. Devin our very talented artist of the group did a presentation where he presented 4 of his sketches. All sketches were related to his experience of the program. Jordan and Mason won everyone's hearts by performing a Paul Anka favorite, "Put your head on my shoulder". They not only sang wonderfully, but also translated the song themselves. Now that's called being proactive. Nismie and Houda choreographed and performed on the hit track "pookie" and the audience loved their dance moves as well as their energy. We had an intermission half way through the performance where we laid out snacks and drinks for everyone. This gave another opportunity for us all to mingle and celebrate the end of a successful program! Diana also performed a lovely solo called "Jour 1" by Louane. Bailee, Sophia B, Tyler, Julia and Amanda performed the French version of the ABBA favorite, "Dancing Queen". They definitely brought a lot of swag to the evening with their enthusiasm and of course, their French Béret hats!
We finished the evening off on a high with a cute and fun group dance to the song "Feel the magic in the air". We ended the program thanking the onsite coordinator Marie-Christine for her help and we also managed to get all host families and students together for a group picture! Here are a few more pictures from that evening! Week 6 updates coming up shortly!