The bi-annual three week French trip started with a couple of days in London so the boys could experience the West End production of 'Les Misérables, and the under-the-channel train from London to Paris, and a few hours with a recent SBHS exchange student, Antoine G.

In Paris, we stayed in at FIAP, a cultural and accommodation centre for students. The boys enjoyed the buffet food and making friends with students from other countries. The five days we spent here were very busy: bike tour of the main historical monuments, visit to Versailles, a day at EuroDisney, the Eiffel Tower, shopping at Gucci, Notre Dame, the Catacombs… After lunch in a small restaurant the boys performed a haka on the streets of Paris for a new Parisian friend, and a crowd of onlookers.

After Paris, our NZ/France history tour commenced with a trip to the D-Day Beaches in Normandy, and then onto Arras to stay with our hosts at Lycée Jacques le Caron. The students at this school receive an education and apprenticeship to prepare them for employment in the construction industry. We hope to host them soon in Christchurch where their stonemason students will work on the rebuild of the Christchurch Cathedral. We spent a day with our hosts in Bruges, Belgium, a town with water canals and buildings dating from 1100AD, and also an afternoon in Lille, France.

A highlight of our journey was a visit to the Wellington Quarries where the French commemorate the participation of NZ tunnellers and soldiers whoi fought in the Battle of Arras. twenty metres underground, with NZ city names carved into the rocks and artefacts from ‘our boys’ surrounding us, we found it a very humbling experience, and more than one person had tears in their eyes.

The boys experienced a traditional French education in Dijon at Lycée Caron. We participated in History, English and Maths classes, with long hours at school and complicated voyages on train and bus to be there by 7.30am. Our hosts decorated their cafeteria with welcome banners and specially decorated tables, and they prepared a ceremony attended by about 250 people (including journalists, a choir of Year 7-10 students who sang our National Anthem) and a four piece band. Within five days the local newspaper had 143,000 hits on the article reporting on our gift of a World War 1 commemorative carving the haka the boys performed.

While several host families had someone with some English language knowledge, in most cases, students had to communicate in French, which helped them learn new words and gain confidence conversing in French. In addition, the boys were responsible for navigating the group around France – which is no small task considering many train stations have four levels and host about 500,000 passengers a day, and we had very close connection times and big suitcases!

In the south of France we visited historic Avignon (where we chanced upon a medieval festival that staged a battle of 500 knights in armour) and the Roman amphitheatre in Arles where gladiators fought and bullfights are regularly staged. We did a walking tour to see the places painted by Vincent Van Gogh, and  spent plenty of time eating local food. Aix-en-Provence, the city of a thousand fountains, is the second most visited city in France – probably for its enormous shopping centre full of high-end shops that were well visited by the boys. In our final destination, Nice, we made a day trip to Monte Carlo, Monaco to check out the cars, hill top castle, and  swim in the Mediterranean Sea.

This unique trip around five countries (we took advantage of our long stopover in Dubai to tour the city) allowed the boys to experience the French lifestyle and student life by staying with families and going to host schools where they were be fully immersed in the language and the culture. The pre-trip activities and fundraising opportunities built a bond between the boys that prepared them to lead on the trip, as well as learn to self-manage and put themselves forward in new situations. 

The next trip in 2019 is recommended to those who currently study French at Shirley Boys’ High and want to increase their language and cross-cultural communication skills.