Blog From France 2010

Log on to this page to follow a 'play by play' report of what your child has been up to!!!

Monday 24th May 6.30am

All children have had a settled night. We are almost at Dover and the weather is brilliant sunshine in a cloudless blue sky. Long may it continue!!

8am

Just getting on the ferry at Dover. Soon the white cliffs will fade into the distance. Au revoir England!

10am (local time) Arrived at Calais. Children were fascinated that they could see Dover and Calais at the same time as it was such a clear day.

2.45pm

Arrived at centre. Children had a good run around after being cooped up on the bus.

5.00pm

We were able to have a swim which really revived us all in the blistering heat. Don't worry they all had sun cream on. After swimming we had dinner. Choice of pork casserole, turkey or a vegetarian option (not sure what that was).

8.00pm

Activities with the PGL rep. Children all appeared to be having a great time doing wacky races and the great egg race.

9.30pm

Off to their rooms to get cleaned up for bed and sort out the mess they left when they went swimming!!

10.00pm

All are safely gathered in for the night. Goodnight all.

Tiesday 25th May

8.00a.m

Breakfast consisted of a choice of cereals, croissants, bread with jam and honey fruit juice and hot chocolate. Off to Brief Comte Robert to check out the local market at 9 o'clock.

12.20pm

The market was a great success with children trying out their linguistic skills when purchasing your gifts. They all enjoyed the treasure hunt as well. At present we are sitting in the shade at the centre having our lunch before visiting the French school.

Sorry that I haven't managed to upload any pictures but I am having difficulties with the technology. I will keep trying though.

 6.10pm

 This afternoon we have visited a French school. The children were very interested to see what the differences were between our two schools.One of the things they liked was that there is no school uniform and I was asked if I would consider abolishing it!! We toured the school with some of their children and it was amazing how the two groups of children managed to communicate, even though our children's French was very basic, as was their English.We then went for a walk ( quite a long walk actually!!!) and then returned to the Chateau. As it had been very warm we gave the children the opportunity to rest in their rooms for a while before their swim. They are getting ready for dinner now and after that they will be having a bin bag fashion competition with a Super Hero theme. All of the children are settled and happy and thoroughly enjoying themselves. I am hoping to try and upload some photographs so have a look in the gallery for France 2010.

8.45pm

Hooray - managed to upload some pictures!!! Dinner was leek and potato soup, a choice of fish or lamb with discs of fried potato ( otherwise known as chips!) and ratatouille with and/or icecream for dessert. Connor reckons the food should have a michelin star and has told me he wants to bring his mum and dad here for a holiday.I'm just off to see how the bin bag fashion show is going and (hopefully) will upload more pictures later.

9.30pm

The Bin Bag fashion was hysterical. Mrs. Fenwick, Mrs. Pizl and Mr. Briggs sported startling blue curls as the judges. Mr. Briggs started out as Simon Cowell but ended up as Marge Simpson - the children were falling over laughing. More of this on the video - not to be missed!

10pm

All are safely gathered in. Goodnight all.

Wednesday 26th May

8am

All up bright and early for breakfast ( same as yesterday). Sandwich making is speeding up. Remembering everything they need to take with them is a challenge for a few children but they are getting better. Off to Paris at 8.45am. This could take some time as the traffic is horrendous at the moment because of roadworks.

11.30am

Arrived at the Eiffel tower. We were very proud of two of our children who are not particularly happy with heights. Both of them managed to get to the second stage ( which is quite high) but decided they didn't feel comfortable to go to the top, which was fine. I brought them back down while the rest of the party carried on to the top. We had a lovely time watching the boats on the river whilst we waited for the rest of the party who were well impressed with the views from the top even though it was drizzling.

2pm

Time to board the 'Bateau Parisien'. We smuggled our lunch on board so we could eat whilst we were on the tour as our itinerary was shot because of the traffic. During the tour some idiots dropped water bombson the boat - narrowly missing Mrs. Fenwick who thought she was going to be Miss wet T-shirt but luckily it was the lady behind who got drenched!

4pm

Our visit to the Musee d'Orangerie was short but very good. The children were amazed at the sheer size of Monet's monumental canvases of Les Nympheas (the Waterlilies) and are looking forward to seeing where he painted them on Friday. There were also paintings by Paul Klee, Paul Guillaume, Renoir, Sisley and others. There was much giggling and digging of ribs when the children saw that some of the paintings were of nude ladies!! After leaving the Orangerie we walked through the Tuileries Gardens ( in the footsteps of Marie Antoinette!) to the Louvre where the bus was parked. We didn't have time to go in, or to drive round the Arc de Triomph and down the Champs Elysses unfortunately or we would have missed our dinner.

7pm

Dinner was 'Cordon Bleu' which was ham with cheese in the middle wrapped in breadcrumbs, the vegetarian option was cassoulet or broccoli bake - having a senior moment- can't remember what the other non-vegetarian option was.

8pm

The children should have had campfire tonight but, while we were in Paris, there had been a torrential downpour at the centre so it was rained off. Instead the staff had laid on a 'Crepe challenge' and a quiz. Mr. Winlow supplemented the activity by suggesting a 'gurning competition'. Unfortunately we couldn't find a toilet seat anywhere so had to make do with a bin liner. Photos will be appearing of the children's efforts on the gallery as soon as I can upload them.

11.15pm

Having difficulty uploading pictures again. Will try again tomorrow. All are safely gathered in. Goodnight all.

Thursday 27th May

7.50am

Breakfast as usual and then a quick getaway to Versailles!

10.45am

Arrived at Versailles to find that the Chateau was closed due to an industrial dispute!! Although the weather wasn't very good we decided to take the children into the gardens, which were open, the heavens opened and we ran for the chateau to be met by Anthony, our tour guide, who said the dispute was settled and the chateau was open ( Unite could take a lesson from Versailles couldn't they?) The children thought the Chateau was absolutely amazing, walking round with their mouths open!

We arrived back at the Centre for dinner, which was duck or Shepherds pie ( vegetarian option legumes parmentier - commonly known as pasta bake!) and, of course, they all had the opportunity to try l'escargots. I was stunned by how many of them not only tried them but had more than one! ( some as many as 5 or 6)

Tonight the activities consist of 'Super Choice' which involves a selection of activities that, as the name suggests, is their choice, including a disco. There are some very smart youngsters strolling around the chateau!

Tomorrow we leave early to visit Giverny en route to Calais so this is probably the end of the blog. It has been a fantastic week, your children have been a credit to you and are by far the best behaved group at the centre. When I return to school I will upload the rest of the photographs and will put them on a DVD for the children. Au revoir until our return to Sunderland.