Lycée Baudimont Exchange Report
Students from Scots College and sister school Queen Margaret College embarked on an exchange programme last 31 March - 29 April 2012. Matthew Gordon (Year 12) shares some highlights from that memorable trip.
On the 31st of March, a group of eight Scots and seven Queen Margaret students checked in at Wellington Airport to begin their trip to France. After more than a day of travelling, we arrived in Arras to meet our homestay families and the next day had our first classes at Lycée Baudimont, where we quickly found that school in France is very different to that in New Zealand, as classes began at 8am and could continue until 6pm. We went on many excursions during our three week stay including one to Brussels, where everyone indulged in Belgian chocolate and waffles!
After an emotional farewell to our homestay families on the 21st of April, we left Arras for a brief stay in Rouen before a moving ceremony at St Maclou la Brière, the small village where Scots old boy James Stellin sacrificed his life to avoid crashing his plane into the village's schoolhouse.
Albert Nisbet gave an impeccable speech in French and Xander Wijninckx led our haka strongly. After the ceremony concluded we continued to Paris, where we saw the magnificent Eiffel Tower sparkling at night, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Arc d'Triomphe, and many other beautiful landmarks.
I highly recommend this trip to any French student; we all enjoyed ourselves and we'll never forget the amazing experience. Thanks to Ms Jackman for making it happen.
Matthew Gordon
