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Gideon Bimpey

French teacher Madame Parr talking to her French 4 students. “France is a really cool class for me and broadens my view of the world.” Eli Huber

France is the of the most tourist-visited place in the world, with 85.7 million people visiting each year. It can also be a pretty useful learning experience for students taking French class. Jaqueline Parr of the world language department, has already begun planning the 2018 overseas France trip.

Parr started to plan this trip to France earlier this year for the students of French 3 and 4. Students are anticipating it to be an exciting learning experience and an exciting adventure.

Because the students are flying from America to France, the French students have to generate nearly $5,000 by themselves by the time they go without help from the school.

“I’ll definitely  be doing a ton of fundraisers to raise money for myself,” sophomore Coree Hale explained, “it’s a lot of money, and I know I can’t pay it by myself so fundraisers are a great way to start.”

There are many places in France that tourists living anywhere else would love, with sights such as the Eiffel Tower. It was built in 1887 and one of the most visited monuments in the world. They are also visiting the Pont du Gard located in southern France, an ancient Roman aqueduct built around 19 BC.

“We’re going to be the annoying tourist people in France, oohing and aahing at everything we see. I’m especially excited to see the Eiffel Tower. It’s an amazing piece of art and it’d be an honor to explore one of the greatest constructions of all time,” sophomore Morgan Grim said, “Madame Parr told us to watch out for pickpocketers and tricksters while we’re there though, because they find us easier to manipulate.”

Since this trip is school-related, there has to be a learning element to it and Parr is making sure that happens. She plans to have the students stay with a host family for one week with no outside contact whatsoever, which means no phones.

“Every hour is a learning experience when you are traveling abroad. Students will use first-hand language skills and will be ordering meals, visiting museums and going in and out of the hotels their family stay. The whole experience is a learning opportunity. I will have journals available for the students for questions they think of to help them deepen their observations and understand their experiences. We will also have nightly meetings to share what happened during the day and observations.”

This overseas trip to France is very anticipated by the teachers and students of French class. Jo Dougherty and Jaqueline Parr put a lot of work in this. They are all very excited for this trip and hope to be amused by all the foreign sights in France and all the different people and culture they will see.