The Park School France 2024

May 18, 2024

Bonjour!

Greetings from Aix-en- Provence! The students have proven to be great travelers! With limited sleep, they have remained curious, optimistic, and adventurous!

You will hear from the students tomorrow, but everything is going great! Enjoy these first pictures.

Best,
Park’s French travelers

Saturday we went to a goat farm after being awake for 30 hours! I got to eat incredible cheese and see animals. A small child held Ellie’s hand and I read. A lot. I kind of like it here!
Shirley C.-S.

May 19 2024

Today, we woke up and had some yummy breakfast at the hotel. Then we got all organized and started our walk to the market. We split into groups to pick out foods for our picnic. After that, we took a looooooong walk past Cezane’s art studio to his outdoor painting site, where we had a nice picnic. Afterwards, we walked back to town and starting a walking tour. At the end, we got ice cream to cool down from the heat. While we ate, we made friends! Then, we shopped for 30 minutes and tasted crepes. With a quick trip to hotel to get ready for dinner, we walked to a nice French-outdoor dinner. We had more dessert!

By Sloane F. and Chloe M.

May 20, 2024

We woke up groggy at 6:45am to go on a bus ride to the du Gard an aqueduct built by the Romans. We packed our bags and headed out at 8am. After a 2 hour bus ride, we went to the Pont du Gard museum, then we walked a few minutes to see the actual Pont.
Then we had another bus ride to Carcassonne. Once we arrived to our beautiful hotel, we went to meet our host families for a potluck dinner. Afterward, we went to « la cité » a small medieval city!
We had pizza and ice cream then went to bed and prepare for our second day in Carcassonne!

By Ben G. and David G.

May 21, 2024

Today we started off our morning with some hotel breakfast which also had the good hot chocolate. We met in the outdoor space which was a beautiful garden which so many plants and a pretty fountain. We got together and started walking to La Cite. When we got there, we got our ear pieces and began walking through. We got to see beautiful views of Carcassonne from up high. Once we made it all the way through La Cite we ended up in a cute medieval themed village. We got to shop around for a little while before having a delicious lunch of pizza, burgers, pasta, and salads. After that we all rushed to choose some candy from a candy shop. Next, we headed to the bus to go to our service work. We worked for a few hours pulling and raking weeds and ate some snacks while we worked. We got back on the bus to go get ready for our host family dinner and were surprised with ice cream! We got some ice cream and then got ready to eat dinner with our host family before going our separate ways. We got back to the hotel pretty late so we just went straight to bed!

By Paloma R. and Sophie S.

May 22, 2024
We started the day at 8:30 and we all enjoyed breakfast downstairs. Then we boarded the bus to Collège Antoine Courrière. We did icebreakers and played games with the French students. We played all together in the courtyard and met many new friends. At noon we enjoyed lunch in the canteen with our new French friends. We were very sad to say goodbye, but we boarded the bus to Pouzols-Minervois. In Pouzols, we learned the history of the town and church and did a scavenger hunt. On the way back to the hotel, we went to get ice cream and crêpes.
We got ready at our hotel for dinner with our host families. After dinner, we went back to the hotel at around 9:30 and said our final goodbyes to our host families. We then packed our bags for our adventure to Toulouse. We said bonne nuit and lights out.
Au revoir,
Ellie M. and Mikoto M.

Reflections from the homestays: 

At my home stay, we looked at the school that our host parent worked/ lived at and looked at a multi million dollar car show with 64 cars on the first day. It was awesome. On the second day, we went to look at a water park/lake and it also had a tree park and restaurants.
-Jamesy B.

At my homestay, I ate delicious food, played a lot of Uno, and spent time with our families’ 5 and 8 year old grand children. With the 8 year old we played a soccer game on his iPad.
-David G.

One thing I enjoyed at my homestay was hanging out with the grandkids and playing games with them!
-Luca K.

At my homestay, we visited a waterskiing lake and viewed street art in Carcassonne. We enjoyed a series of delicious home cooked meals and watched a surprise Italian car show!
-Raphael B.

May 23, 2024

Today we woke up in Carcassonne and went down to breakfast that had very good hot chocolate. We boarded the bus and drove a half hour to a paper mill in the middle of a forest. It was so beautiful! We learned about how paper was made through the years and then made some of our own. It was so interesting and fun! After, we ate lunch on the bus which was sandwiches on baguettes. We arrived in Toulouse and had a walking tour. On the tour, we ate ice cream macaroons, saw a pretty river, and learned about France and Toulouse. When the tour ended, we shopped for an hour. Some people tried French McDonalds, others got clothes and went to the grocery store for snacks. We walked back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We went to a crepe restaurant and we each got a savory and a sweet crepe. We had a stop at the grocery store and got snacks. Then we went back to the hotel and packed up our stuff.
Maya A. Merrin C. And Olivia M.