May 29: A Little Place in the Country

A Little Place in the Country

May 29, 2008

Jordan Bowles

In the morning everyone arrived and got on the bus at 9 am. The bus took us to the Chateau royal de Blois. It was a large chateau but a lot of it had already been destroyed. There was a stone courtyard at the entrance that was the center of the remains of the chateau. The group was given free time to roam the inside. The architecture was incredible because of the detail, such as animals like porcupines and fish that were carved in stone. We took pictures and walked through the tour. The tour was on several levels of the chateau and displayed artifacts such as paintings of famous people of that time and pieces of the chateau that had been destroyed. There was also a bed, urns, and fireplaces.

After the tour of Blois, we walked practically right next door to a magic museum. The whole group watched a show of a man and a woman doing magic tricks on a stage. They hid themselves! We had a little extra time so we were able to walk around the rest of the museum looking at magic mirrors, illusion pictures, and many other things. After the magic museum we ate lunch in front of the chateau. There was a big open square in front of the entrance to Blois where horse-pulled carriage rides were conducted, little shops sold crepes, and where I ate lunch on a bench. There was also a small garden to the side of the square with benches that was pretty. The weather then was very sunny and nice.

We boarded the bus after everyone finished lunch and drove to the Chateau de Chambord. The landscape was stunning and great for picture taking. Chambord had a moat in front of it and a large green lawn. The back of it was a very large lawn and a path of a half circle with trees on each side. Everything at that chateau was grand and pretty. It was my favorite chateau of the two we saw. After walking around the grounds for almost a half an hour we got back on the bus and went back to school. We were lucky because we had good weather while we toured the chateaus and then it started raining just as we were driving back to school. Once we got to school we waited for our correspondents to finish class to go home for the day.

May 29th - Chateau & Chateau

Come with Dara Schwartz on a tour of the Chateau de Blois and Chateau Chambord.



A brief look at the couryard of the Chateua de Blois...

The outside view of Chateau Chambord...

A few fun facts about Chambord from Katie Burger, David Sierra, & Michelle Montpetit!

May 28--Bread and Chocolate

Bread and Chocolate

May 28, 2008

Abby Andrews

After a long day on Tuesday, we were all ready to spend a nice quiet day in Tours. We all arrived with our exchange students between 8 and 9am. From there we split up into two groups - sophomores and juniors - and were off for the day. The juniors started off at a boulangerie first thing in the morning. We learned about the old fashion way of making bread and we were shown how all the different machines work. The most interesting part was the oven - it was around 70 years old and had never been turned off. If turned off, though, it would take two weeks to completely cool down. We then got to try some of the bread and taste an award winning type of bread that was very delicious!

After eating, we continued our day by walking across town to la Musee de Compagnonnage. Here we learned about the different practices that students can pick up. There is basically a job that children around the age of 14 or 15 can begin where they do an apprenticeship of a job that they might prefer doing when they are old enough. They have to go through an extensive process to be accepted into these guilds. The final part of this process includes creating a masterpiece for their specialty, so they can be accepted. This museum displays these specialties which were quite amazing.

After an hour spent at the museum, we returned to the school for a two our lunch and some free time of playing volleyball and basketball and relaxing in the courtyard area. After lunch we were off to our last two stops for the day. The juniors began at la Musee de Beaux Arts, which contained many different popular art pieces. We then, walked across town to arrive at a candy store. Here we got to watch them make chocolate, hard candies, and stuffed prunes - trying all of them. They were delicious!! After we all made our purchases of the sweets, we headed back to the school to leave with our exchange students! The day is over! Au revoir.

A day to learn about bread, masters, candy, & art

David Sierra takes us on a tour of our excursions for Wednesday May 28th.

A little bit about the Musee de Compagnonnage...

A close look at the work of master craftsman...

Karena trying her hand at candy making...

Our wonderful and energetic guide at Musee des Beaux Arts...

10th grade students enjoying the breads of Vieux Four...

May 27--To the Sea in Ships

To the Sea in Ships

May 27, 2008

Bryan Abadie

Day 3 started off early! We all arrived at school at 7:30. (an hour and a half earlier than when school starts; why can't we start at 9) We took a three hour bus ride to La Rochelle, a huge harbor in the west of France. We took pictures from the stairs of the castle overlooking the water before splitting up in our groups to explore the city. We had about an hour to go where we pleased, but most of the time was spent eating our huge lunches. Today, our host parents packed us a bag lunch. Everyone had more food then they could handle. I personally had four sandwiches, two apples, a huge bag of chips, lots of cherry tomatoes, and two Twix Bars. At 12:30, we all met back at this fantastic ice cream shop before getting on the bus to go to our next destination.

Next, we went to see a large 18th century style boat under construction named L'Hermione. French carpenters have been working on this boat for years, and in all, they expect it to be finished in 2011. It will take them over ten years to build this boat, the same boat that took only 6 months to build in 1700s. The builders plan to sail the boat around the world when they finish.

After leaving the boat, we had some time to look at different pastry shops before heading back to Tours.

Day trips to La Rochelle & Rochefort Sur Mer

Anna Plastina's view of our day visiting the seaside.

La Rochelle "la Rebelle"

Hotel de Ville - the courtyard of the town hall of La Rochelle

The Hermoine, a 14th century ship that was one of LaFayette's, being rebuilt

10th graders viewing the rebuilding of the Hermoine

May 26--Touring in Tours

May 26, 2008
Touring in Tours
Jamie Berger

Today was our first full day in Tours, and what an exhausting and busy day! We started it out by meeting at the school at 8:10, and then had an orientation and a tour around the school, after we were given a little time to write emails and check Facebook... The French kids went to class and our group walked to the town hall of Tours which was called La Mairie or L`Hôtel De Ville. The town hall was designed by renowned architect Victor Laloux, who also designed Le Musée D'Orsay in Paris.






We were given a tour in French of three rooms there: the marriage room, another room called La Salle Des Fêtes, and a room for town council meetings. There were murals on the walls of each room; in the marriage room, there were paintings representing important aspects of the history and culture of Tours, including those of famous men, writers, explorers, mathematicians, etc., who had come from Tours or studied there, such as Descartes. Also represented in the paintings was wine; for which Tours is very famous, and goats, symbolizing Tours goat cheese. The largest mural was one of a couple going through the stages of marriage and life; on the left side of the painting they were pictured getting engaged, then married, and on the far right, they were shown after marriage with their children. Painted on the ceiling was a scene of a woman on a throne, she symbolizes Tours, and below her were a man and a woman, meant to symbolize the two rivers important to Tours and its residents- La Loire and another one which I cannot remember the name of, but I think it is Le Cher.

In La Salle Des Fêtes, there were two enormous fireplaces on either side of the room. There were four portraits on the wall of famous men who worked and studied in Tours. These men were: Balzac, Descartes, Rabelais, and Vigny. The Tours coat of arms was also above one of the fireplace in this room, it has three "fleur de lis" and three towers.



The next room was the one in which town meetings are held. The tour guide described the political arrangements of the members of the city council. The guide mentioned that the room was quite plain compared to the others so as not to distract the officers... yet it still seemed very ornate to us Americans! A mural on the wall of this room recounted the story of Joan of Arc's death on the stake.



After visiting La Mairie, the group returned to school to meet our hosts for lunch. Some eat lunch at school, some at home, and some around town.

We Americans then went to a post office to buy stamps, and to a big department store to get food, water, journals for taking notes, etc. We then walked to "Place Plume" and Vieux Tours or "Old Tours" which is the part of the city that is over 200 years old. It was extremely beautiful and very quaint, with narrow cobblestoned roads, stone and wood buildings, and streetside cafés and boutiques. We were given some free time, during which many of us tasted the Gelato of a corner shop... I tried Crème Brulée, which is now definitely my personal favorite! After this we trekked back to school, and on the way saw ruins of old buildings. We met up with our host students and returned home with them. It was definitely a tiring but wonderful first day!

Our first day in Tours

Enjoy a little of our day visiting and exploring Tours.

Your tour guide for today...




Everyone's favorite part of walking around...

Sunday 052508 - No rest for the weary

CA teachers hard at work after settling in.

Sunday 052508--We're Here!

Lafayette, we are here!

The flight was pleasant. Two meals, all the movies we could watch (on individual screens), and all our baggage arrived in good order.





Excitement overcame many of our participants as we approached Tours.

All the students were greeted by their host families and have already begun their home stays.