Roxi’s French Adventure
japra | May 05, 2009 | Comments 28
While Roxi was in France this weekend, Trudy took us for a walk in Windsor Great Park. More photos later this week.
Roxi and about 30 other middle school students visited Normandy, France over the long Bank Holiday Weekend. They boarded a coach early Friday morning–skipping school, woo hoo!–and drove out to the coast. There, the bus drove onto a train that zipped them through the chunnel. Forty-five minutes later, they popped out in France.
The kids and their four teacher chaperones stayed at the Chateau de Chantereine in Criel-sur-Mer. Unfortunately, the school asked that the kids not bring cameras, so I don’t have any photos to show you. However, here are the highlights:
- They visited a weekend market in Dieppe
- They also visited some Joan of Arc sites in Rouen including the place where Joan of Arc was burned and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Reims
- Roxi tried frog legs! She said they tasted like stringy, slightly rubbery, slightly fishy chicken. However, she did not try the escargot. The boys at her table, however, were slurping them up and were well pleased when Roxi offered them her portion.
- There was a student disco at the Chateau after dinner on Sunday with another school group (4th grade girls).
- Activities at the Chateau included film making, olympic games, archery, and circus skills. Roxi can now spin plates on a stick, juggle, and do the splits.
- On their way back to England, they stopped at the Nausicaa National Sea Centre. Roxi said it was a very nice aquarium, but she and many of the kids were really tired by this time.
Roxi brought back some nice souvenirs from France. Unfortunately, she also brought back a pretty bad head cold that she caught from a girl in her room. She arrived home about 5:30 pm, ate dinner, and went to sleep. She’s recovering at home today. I wonder how many other kids are doing the same?
As for the trip, Roxi told me she had a really good time and that she was proud of herself because she discovered she found she could communicate freely with the locals. All in all, it sounds like it was a successful trip!
Filed Under: Blog • Expat Life • Featured • Parenting
About the Author: JaPRA is an expat Texan living in England with her husband (Mr. DJ), their 17-year old daughter (Roxi), and their dog Trudy.
Sounds like fun. We live so near the coast that we plan to take a ferry to Belgium or France this summer. Unfortunately, none of us are very strong in French.
American in Britain, oh how fun! Either place would be wonderful. Have you been to Bruges? And really, in the tourist areas, everyone speaks English, so I don’t think you will need to worry about French too much. :-)
Sounds like Roxi had a great time! She was brave trying frogs legs – me no!!
Akelamalu, I couldn’t believe she tried those frog legs. If you only knew her when we first moved to England, you would be amazed at how her tastes have changed. Of course, she was just 12 when we moved here ;-)
wow, what a field trip, I’d love to have gone on that! You know, I think I’d try the snails over the frog’s legs, brave girl!
Christine, really? You’d go for the snails? Roxi said the boys were being really disgusting and slurping them out of the shell. They didn’t realize that the toothpicks provided were for scooping the bits out.
I’m cheating, I’ve actually had escargot and they’re delicious with garlic. Then again, the thought of frog’s legs…don’t appeal.
Do they taste like all shell fish (mussels, oysters, scallops, etc)? I eat all of those, but for some reason snails freak me out. I think it’s because I see them (and their cousins, the slug) in the garden.
I love how the pink of Trudy’s tongue echoes the pink rhodo background! (I can’t believe we just missed each other!)
Roxi’s trip sounds exhausting. Do you think that she got ANY sleep? Well-done on expanding her culinary repertoire.
Bee, I can’t believe it either! I need to make it over to Savil before we move. One last glimpse of my “secret garden” before the land of tulips.
And yeah, the whole sleep issue was a huge problem and the whole reason she got sick. She had younger girls in her room who kept turning the lights on and off until 3 AM. One night she got 3 hours of sleep. Bad, bad, bad.
Funny but school trips to France are great, this will be rememebered for many years to come, where sometime later in life you dont’ get the opportunity to travel.
Pity about the head cold though, let’s hope it passes soon.
Maddog, I am happy she had such a wonderful time and felt so positive about her French afterward. You are right, I think she will remember this trip in years to come.
Thank you for your well wishes–I’ve given her lots of vitamins, chicken soup and tea and it does seem to be doing the trick.
Sorry a little ad here, hoipe you don’t mind and not delete me. I’m writing a post about eating snails, which will be posted soon.
Maddog, will you leave me a link? I’d love to read it!
Here’s the link to Maddog’s snail post: http://www.bulgarianslivatree.com/2009/05/bulgarian-sunday-lunch-in-slow-lane.html
Very interesting!!
What a nice trip. Don’t you just love that you can pop over to France for a long weekend?
A Modern Mother, YES, I love it. And I am looking forward to living on the Continent where it will be even easier to get around.
Trudy! At first I thought it was odd that they didn’t want the students to bring cameras, then I realized how close you guys are to France.
Laurie, one of the chaperones took photos, so I am hoping they’ll be available to download. Also, one of Roxi’s friends defied school policy and brought a camera. Next time she’s taking hers… What rebels!
I think they made these rules because too many students have lost expensive electronics on school trips.
Looks like a fun trip :D.Sorry about the cold.Here’s wishing her ‘get well soon’.
love chaitra
Thank you, Chaitra! Roxi slept 14 hours yesterday and felt a lot better because of it :-)
Sounds great! I’m glad she had a good time. She should have tried the escargot though. I’ve never had frog legs but escargot is rather good. Too bad about the no camera rule. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t let you bring one.
Ok, MAYBE I’ll try escargot. Everyone says it’s good!
And yeah, too bad about the camera. Next time I think I’ll just tell her to take one anyway.
I want to go to Roxi’s school so I can have field trips like that! Except for that horrible rule of no cameras – it’s almost like it didn’t happen if there are no photos!
Julia, I think the field trips here are amazing! I wanted to go too ;-)
And yes, bummer about the camera. Her friend had one though, and Roxi borrowed it to take a few pics. I think they’re on Facebook now. Plus the teachers took pics too. Hope they burn CDs for all the kids!
Oh, WOW!! What a great trip!
I hope she’s all better now?
It sounds like a great trip! School children are so fortunate here to be able to skip off to the continent like that! Hopefully there will be even more opportunities once you move to NL.
No cameras??? Pooh.
By now Roxi must be much better! I hope you had a good (American) Mother’s Day, too. Yes, it looks like Trudy is about to eat the flowers in your photo!