IUHPFL Saint-Brieuc 2024

Wednesday, July 10th, 1am (Bloomington time) Bonjour ! I just wanted to give you a final post to give you some information and share some final pictures. First, thank you to all the families for your continued support throughout the program. I apologize for not getting a chance to speak to all of you tonight- the return to Indianapolis is always a bit hectic and it was a long trip, but we are really appreciative of your help! I also wanted to thank our students again. Shannon, Laëtitia, and I are incredibly grateful to have spent these few weeks with you and we couldn't be more proud of all of you. You've shown commitment, resiliency, adaptability, respect, openness, and your overall conduct reflects extremely positively on yourselves and the program as a whole. Thank you for these wonderful memories of Summer 2024 in Saint-Brieuc! I didn't get a chance to take many pictures today, but here are the final three that I took: However, I know you have taken so many amazing ones...

 Monday, July 9th, 12:30am Bonjour, Today was the last day of visits in Paris and, once again, we had a busy program! We gave students a fairly late departure time for today, in order to let them sleep in, considering how intense the past few days had been. They seemed very happy about it and were ready for the schedule we had planned. First, we headed to the Opera and the Galleries Lafayettes. We showed them around, and gave them a little description of the various monuments and places of interest we saw. Then, they had about 2 hours, in groups of 3 or more, to shop and visit the Galleries as they liked. Most of them got up to the rooftop where they were able to enjoy a nice view of Paris. The area and the Galleries have a lot of restaurant options, and students were also instructed to have lunch before meeting back with us. After lunch, we took the bus to go to L'Orangerie museum. Much smaller than the Louvre, it can be visited in about an hour, and it is a nice option if you don...

Sunday, July 7th, 11pm Bonjour from Paris! We've made it to the City of Lights, and the first couple of days here have been extremely busy...! We left early on Saturday, and goodbyes were very difficult for our students. There was hardly a dry eye, both among the students and their host families. Even though they have only spent four weeks together, they have created very strong connections, and it was a very emotional morning. After sleeping for a few hours on the bus, most of them had recovered their smile and were looking forward to the next adventure in the capital of France! We headed to Versailles, and after a 6-hour drive, we made it to the Palace. We arrived about 15 minutes after the Saumur group, who was scheduled to visit at the same time as us. We ate our picnic together, and then made our way through the golden gates. Students were given about 2 hours to visit the Palace, in groups of three. I crossed paths with some of them, took some pictures, and then, once they had...