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French Trip to Paris 2010

06.09.2010

In July we returned once again to Paris, the magnificent capital city of France and what a successful trip it was! Here’s what we did:-

Friday 16th July

We left at 6am and all the pupils were on time – amazing!! The journey to Dover was problem free. Once there we got a ferry to Calais - cue lots of seagull photos and renditions of “The White Cliffs of Dover”. We continued our journey on the other side of the channel listening to all sorts of weird and wonderful music. We got to our hotel after a few hours which was near Paris and right by Charles de Gaulle airport. Avid plane-spotters had a wonderful time watching the flights coming in!

Saturday 17th July

Today was our day at Euro Disney. Breakfast was a real feast at 8 o‘clock and we left shortly afterwards. The weather was quite warm but we didn’t need too much sun cream for once – Paris can be very hot at this time of year! Once the groups had checked in with their teachers they ran to the rides. The teachers went on the Aerosmith ride and the Tower of Terror first. We recommend these although we were scared by the Haunted Mansion (Miss James especially) but Mr Bradshaw should consider getting a job there judging by his evil, spooky laugh.
Every afternoon in Euro Disney there is a parade of all the famous Disney characters but it can be quite difficult to cross the road when this is happening as Ms Robinson and Miss James discovered! Some pupils returned to the coach with white faces due to close encounters with the street performers. The pupils spent loads of money on souvenirs and we all had a fantastic time. Back at the hotel we ‘enjoyed’ our evening meal which was strangely similar to the previous evening’s dinner. Certain members of staff found the leek in cheese sauce to be a “taste sensation”. Others searched elsewhere for food only to find that there was a lone pizza takeaway place and nothing else in the area!

Sunday 18th July

After breakfast which consisted of bread and gruel due to the hotel running out of milk(!) we took a coach tour of Paris ably hosted by our tour guide Agnes. Mr Sykes also helped out. However this mainly consisted of him saying “Bing Bong” a great deal into the microphone. Luckily he didn’t sing! Lots of pictures were taken of the famous sights such as the Arc de Triomphe and the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Then we got off the coach to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in the lift – it seemed that everyone in Paris had the same idea so we had a bit of a wait to go to the top but it was worth it! The afternoon meant a visit to the Louvre museum to see the famous Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci. This was followed by another drive around Paris to see some sights and then we were lucky enough to spend some time by the Sacre Coeur. This is a very lively and busy area of Paris with restaurants and bars and lots of performing street artistes. None however could compare to “Techno Grandad” whose incredible dance moves were forever captured on film. Some pupils were brave enough to challenge him to a dance-off weren’t they Ashlea!

Monday 19th July

Today was the journey home and most of the day was spent travelling. A competition to take pictures of as many sleeping people as possible took place and some truly embarrassing photos resulted. Make-up also appeared as if by magic on the faces of certain pupils (Mr Rigby)and in some cases it suited them! We may well see the evidence on the walls of the Languages corridor shortly! We finally returned at 10 pm - tired but happy. Here’s to next year’s trip!

Miss James