Chateau de la Baudonniere

One of the perks of working at a school like WBH is that they have amazing overseas trips, like the year 5 french trip, that I was lucky enough to go on. The trip was arranged by the the head of french, Madame Soulie, and Mr Steadman - head of boys PE, Mr Kenyon - head of IT, and Mrs Hauser - head of learning support, came along as well. Sunday morning at 7, we met all the kids and their parents at the bottom of the school drive, the goodbyes took a while as this was the first time that some of the kids had been away from home, but we managed to pile all 45 of us on to the double decker and began our day of traveling. It took us 4 hours in the coach to get to the EuroTunnel, which we were then in for 35 mins, we all found it quite funny that we were in a coach, in a train, in a tunnel, under the ocean -  by this time my cabin fever had fully kicked in, as had the kids sugar highs. We then had another 5 hours in the coach until we reached the chateau. It was a pretty tiring day, and we ended up getting arriving just in time for some sandwiches, then bed. It was soo weird being there as a teacher rather than a studen, instead of having to squash into the dormitories with 5 other girls and sharing 2 showers between us, I had my own room, and bathroom in a separate building, which had a mezzanine with tea and a tv.
We started off everyday with hot croissants and cereal for breakfast, followed by a morning activity, lunch, afternoon activity then dinner. Fencing, an assault course, rock climbing, a french lesson, bread making, cider tasting, and a mini farm were all on offer for the kids, as well as aeroball, which was like basketball on a trampoline, very fun and  my team ended up winning :) On monday we went to Mount San Michelle for our afternoon activity. It was amazing and I think I definitely found it more interesting than most of the kids. Tuesday and Wednesday were packed full of activities at the cheatau, then on Thursday, our final day, we spent the morning at a french market and the afternoon at the aquarium. At the market each teacher was given a group of 8 kids to look after, I had my hands full, but managed to buy a yummy french crepe, while the kids wasted there money on even more lollies, tacky jewelry and watches that were bound to break before we got home. Before we stopped off to have baguettes for lunch, we went to a French Supermarket, which was just another opportunity for the kids to buy chocolate and lollies. Everyone really enjoyed the aquarium, however there just comes a point were fish aren't that interesting and by the time we got back to the chateau everyone, including the teachers, were exhausted, and no one was looking forward to getting up a 4.45 the next morning to go home. Friday was another day of travel. An hour and a half on the coach to the ferry terminal, then 6 hours on the ferry, then another 3 hours on the coach, we finally arrived back at school at 4 feeling dirty, tired and hungry.

the dormitories

dormitories

Mount San Michelle. getting close...

and closer...

Yay!!

View from the top

Mount San Michelle, walking round

From down below

pretty white flowers

main building of the chateau

main building from the front, they had heaps of bunnies just roaming round

my 'I' shaped bread

YUMMY snails!!!!

The trip was great and we all got to experience some true french culture, I also got to know the kids much better, especially the boys, who I don't do much with at school. Cant wait to come back to France in summer! 

xxxxx