KNHS French Trip 2010 Blog

We arrived in Paris after a very long coach journey having been sat for almost 12 hours. The staff used there combined experience to complete a whole puzzle pack. We had some priceless quotes on the way inluding “ Is France in Paris “ and “ Are we in France yet” All despite the fact the ferry had not yet sale from Dover.

On Saturday we went to the Louvre and on the Eiffel Tower! We all learnt that Mrs Hammond prefers to keep her feet firmly on the ground. The youngsters enjoyed both visits but were slightly frustrated by the Paris street traders. It was however staggering to see the artists draw portraits so quickly and with such grace and quality. The trip back to the hotel was interesting as we drove across the Arc De Triomphe. Mr Yeomans was set on his way in the hair department as he helped Brian our esteemed coach driver to navigate across. [ He will soon be as thin as me!]

On Sunday we went to Disneyland and I have to say I was taken back to my youthful days of twenty years ago. I think the youngsters enjoyed it to. I will certainly go back for my summer holiday at some point. Ms Mugnier got to see her hero Sully from Monsters Inc. To see her so happy also made the trip worthwhile as she had planned everything so well.

Altogether it was a really worthwhile experience for the staff and the youngsters. We have some real characters at Kings Norton High and it was interesting to see them interact with us and each other outside the school environment. It was a trip I will cetainly never forget for all the right reasons.

We agreed with Brian (our nice coach driver) that he would drop us at the Moulin Rouge for us all to take a few pictures of the famous cabaret place.

As expected, most of the children only saw an old windmill and were more interested in a giant air vent nearby. This is where we started the Montmartre hill ascension.
We went up the Rue Lepic, passing by stalls of fresh cheese of all sizes , shapes and colours, fish, prawns, oysters, langoustines, croissants, pains au chocolat, éclairs, tartes aux pommes, baguettes, and a lot more.

Nick, Asia, Ryan, Chloe, Jenneika and Steve were able to have a look at the café Les 2 Moulins, the famous café in which Amélie Poulain works in the film Amélie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. We had watched the film in French lesson and I was excited to show them what the real place looks like.
Further up Mrs Hammond shared with us a very important and precious moment of her life as we came across ‘le Basilic’ (‘The Basil’), restaurant in which she got engaged a couple of years ago (!). The girls went ‘Ohhhh’ for about 5 minutes and Mr Yeomans took a picture of Mrs Hammond in front of the restaurant for her and her husband to recall this most likely romantic proposal (although they remember it quite well as it was only a couple of years ago, as mentioned above).

We carried on our walk as the streets were getting steeper and the view greater. After a while, the top of the white Basilica Sacré-Coeur became visible above the old typical buildings and as this was our goal, the party felt suddenly motivated and the pace of the out walk increased (apart from Mrs Hammond and a few others who were greatly cheered when they caught up with the rest of the group). We finally reached the artists’ quarter when Mr Yeomans spotted the Eiffel Tower and pointed it out to the children. At that point, they had done more exercise than they do in a year and it was like a wonderful reward for their effort.

The Basilica became bigger and bigger and finally we were all able to contemplate the view over the French capital. I had to remind a few confused children that we could see all of Paris, not all of France. Shae pointed at a big old tower and asked if that was where our hotel was and I said: “Yes, well-done, it looks like it!”. Mr Yeomas was standing beside me and confirmed in an assured voice: “ The hotel is behind us, we can’t see it from here”. Never mind, well-done anyway, Shae.

This site is by far my favourite in Paris and although we were expecting some bad weather, the sun managed to pierce through the big white clouds on a couple of occasions. Some started to sit down on the steps (very famous steps bearing the weight of thousands of different bottoms every day) and we thought it was the right time to take a group picture. Mr Yeomans got everyone sitting down in front of the beautifully white Basilica and I asked a man to take a picture of all of us. When he gave the camera back to me, the children shouted out ‘merci, merci!’ (for most of them, the only word they knew) to the man who was not at all French.
After that, we allowed them to have some free time to go shopping around the eldest places of Paris and Mr Yeomans, Mark, Mrs Hammond and myself went for a very expensive coffee outside on the Place du Tertre, making the most of the sun’s attempts to shine. Great moment until we received a phone call from Chloe, informing us that Jenneika was kindly feeding the pigeons with what she had eaten for breakfast.

Ms Mugnier

Les superbes photos de KNHS a Paris