End of week one in France!

 Sunday, June 16th, 3pm

Bonjour !

 

The end of week one was very busy with new activities every day. On Thursday, after morning classes, we met with students from the Lycée that hosts us. They are in a program in which they learn to organize and facilitate activities, and so they had prepared an afternoon of festivities for us! The activities were supposed to take place outside, but Brittany weather was not kind enough with us for that to happen... so we had to resort to spending the afternoon inside.

Students started by getting to know one another with a few games:



 
 
 
Then, teams of 4 or 5 were created, with 2-3 American students and 2 French ones per group. The theme of the afternoon was the Olympics, and students took part in a variety of activities requiring skill and accuracy. Among other things, they learned to play Palet Breton, which is a game played in all of Brittany, and Mölkky, originally from Finland by now popular across Europe!






















 
Then, French students taught Americans a few traditional Breton dances. Most traditional dances from Britanny involve holding each other by the pinky and dancing in circles, with an inner and an outer circle:



 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
The group of French students also have their very own dance, which our students learned:
 

 
And finally some of our students taught them Cotton Eyed Joe:
 

 
The day ended with crêpes, salted-butter caramel, and soft drinks prepared by the French high schoolers. The afternoon was a big hit with our group, who really enjoyed meeting French students their age!


Friday afternoon, once classes were over, we had an optional bowling activity scheduled. Most students decided to join, along with some host families, and they all had a fun time competing against each other:


















On Saturday, it was time for our first day trip and we all got on our way to see le Mont-Saint-Michel:

 
One of the most popular tourists attractions in France, it's always a highlight of the program, and it never ceases to amaze students (and ourselves as well, even after several visits!). As soon as we got off the shuttle, they were quick to take pictures and we then climbed the many stairs to the abbey at the top. We visited the abbey, took more pictures, and finally made our way back down, but not before a stop at the gift shop to buy souvenirs. The weather hasn't been very kind to us all week long, but we were lucky enough not to be gifted any rain for our visit!
 





































 
We made a quick pit-stop for lunch, and we then went to the Montgommery Castle. There, we played Ducey Code, which is a collection of enigmas centered around the history of the castle. We split into three groups, and ours did super well! We took a picture to celebrate (with a "G" for "gagné"):
 

 
After the castle, we stopped at a nearby American WWII cemetery:
 











 
We finally got on our way back to Saint-Brieuc, which gave students a chance to show off their flip phones, as they were communicating our arrival time to their host families:
 


 
 
However, the long day got to them and the bus got really quiet for the rest of the trip:






 
We arrived in Saint-Brieuc at 6:30pm and students were picked up by their host families. Today they are spending the day and getting some rest with their families, and tomorrow is the start of week 2! 
Tomorrow evening we have more Breton dancing planned; on Wednesday, we'll spend the afternoon with a group of 9 to 11-year-old French students; and Friday is La Fête de la Musique in France, so it will undoubtedly be a busy day full of celebrations as well!

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