Gladis about France

We started our trip early in the morning on 6th March at 4:30 am. We drove to Tallinn Airport by cars and flew to Munich. The flight was pleasant, it lasted 2 and a half hours. In Munich we walked a little bit around the town centre, we saw a cathedral and also went on top of its tower. We also went shopping. Later we boarded our next flight – it took and an hour and a half and we arrived nicely in  Paris, Roissy Airport. We were picked up and drove to Rouen,150 km from Paris. The drive seemed to be very long because the traffic was busy  in Paris and we were all very tired. When we arrived I was very happy to get out of the car because it was very airless in it and sitting was tiring. We had a look at our little hotel – our room was a lot smaller than I imagined. It reminded me of a ship cabin (especially the toilet). We picked out a Chinese restaurant near our hotel for dinner. There we, Estonians, had dinner. The atmosphere was cozy and the dishes were delicious. For example, we ate pork which was caramelized. It was my favorite. The rice, noodles, chicken etc were also very tasty. It was an enjoyable dinner.

On Thursday we woke up at 6:45 am and ate breakfast downstairs. We could choose from French crunchy and long bread, a soft and sweet white bread, Nutella, orange juice, different yoghurts, coffee, tea, jams etc. At 8:30 we started to walk to school led by a French teacher. The street looked rather different from Estonia – there were narrow houses reminding me of dollhouses, tiny gardens etc. The school`s name was College Claude Bernard and when we arrived we had a little tour in the school. The school didn`t leave me any special impression. We also saw the whole project team, they welcomed us in a classroom. Later we had a coffee break in the same classroom. Then we were all divided into groups and workshops began. I was in the same group with Johannes and Larsen. We were taught how to make a cartoon, we talked in front of the camera, played a rhythm in the music lesson, tried different exercises in the gym etc. There were more workshops, but we didn`t visit all of them. I didn`t like that we had to wait a lot between the workshops and they had a little disorganization there. The waiting was very tiring. We also had lunch at school which consisted of potato casserole, salad, white bread, a little roll with chocolate etc. The assortment was actually wider, we could pick whatever we wanted. Meanwhile we had some free time and we stayed at the hotel. We also had dinner at school. The dinner was one of the best memories of our trip because we had a lot of fun with our group (Me, Evita, Liisbet, Larsen, Johannes). We laughed a lot. The dinner was good. By the way we got along very well with Spanish students, they were very friendly and nice. We got to bed quite late and that's why I had no problems with my sleep.

On Friday we woke up at the same time again and after the breakfast we walked to school by ourselves. We presented our slide-show which was successful. After that the Grand-Quevilly tour started. We walked quite a lot, saw different places and it was raining. Then we went to a high school in Grand-Quevilly for lunch. The school was big, there were a lot of walls made of glass, which made me feel like I was in a mall. We had a starter, main course and dessert. The food was prepared by the same school`s students. I didn`t like that part of the starter, which was a  dish consisting of scallops, snails etc. The main course had potato casserole, rice and chicken. I think it was a little bit flavourless, but mainly it was good. For dessert we had a slice of apple cake which was made of puff pastry and the part where apple slices were, was covered with caramel. I really liked it. After the lunch we visited Rouen, which was quite pretty. There was a beautiful old town and a huge cathedral, which we also visited. We also had some hours of free time and I went shopping with Evita and Liisbet. Later we drove back and went to our hotel. We, Estonians, went for a walk in the local town and managed to get lost. It even started to get dark outside, but it was very interesting. I think my legs have never been that painful, but due to that the next days my legs never hurt while walking. Then the welcome-party started at school. To my surprise me, Larsen, Johannes and other students had to perform with what we learned in the music lesson. The performances prepared by French students were quite boring, especially a play and a slide-show. I had this odd feeling after their performances because I couldn`t understand why they made everything in French. We and other guests from foreign countries didn`t understand anything. We also had a dinner at school. Later disco took place. I somehow couldn`t get into  party mood. I actually didn`t like the music either. Instead I talked to Ines, a Spanish girl, who was very nice and friendly. Since we have a common hobby – horse riding, I didn`t get bored and there was a lot to talk about. It was pretty late after the disco and the parents drove us back to the hotel. Again, we got to bed so late.

On Saturday morning it was difficult to get up because we could sleep too few hours. After the breakfast we went on a bus trip to Normandy county. We visited Honfleur, Le Havre and Etretat. My personal favorite was Honfleur because of its cozy and special atmosphere and the town was quite different. We also had some free time there which we used for walking, sightseeing and shopping. I didn`t like Le Havre very much because it is an industrial town and didn`t look very nice in my opinion. The architecture reminded me of socialism. There we walked around by ourselves, drove up a hill by a lift reminding of a train and we saw the view of the town from there. We also walked around there. Etretat was very cool because it was next to the Atlantic Ocean. We walked at the beach which had an absolutely gorgeous view to the ocean and it made me feel spectacular. Saturday was actually one of my favorite days because we saw a lot of new places and it was interesting to observe surrounding houses and landscape even on the bus. In the evening we got back to our hotel and spent some time in our room. About 8 pm we went out and we were told which students were the ones hosting us for dinner. I could go to a girl`s place together with Liisbet. When we arrived, we could see that their house also looked like a doll's house. Together with the basement floor they had 4 floors in their house. We met her family, had a tour in the house, talked a little bit and ate some snacks. We also gave them our presents. We went to the kitchen, sat down and the first meal was a crab-pie and a delicious fresh salad. And of course the baguette. The pie was quite delicious, although I liked the salad much more. We drank Coca-Cola. For the main course we had French fries and chicken. After that they gave us some cheese to taste, which we ate with the same crunchy white bread. The dessert was made of eggs, the texture reminded me jelly, the colour and taste were like vanilla pudding. When eating, it felt very soft and tender, with vanilla taste. I loved it. After the dinner we went to the living room and started to play Wii, later Playstation 3. When we started to drive back, the time was about 11:30 pm. It was a nice and friendly family. Later we talked about the dinner with each other. We also had lots of fun in the hotel, we didn`t go to bed right away. Later we packed our things and just relaxed in our room, then we went to sleep.

On Sunday we woke up in the morning, ate breakfast and packed our things. In front of the hotel we took some pictures and later brought our suitcases, said goodbye to the others and our drive to Paris began. I felt relieved to know that lots of things had been done and we can go and enjoy Paris. On the other hand, I already missed those days we had spent there and our little room had became very dear to us. The drive didn`t last too long, most of the time I tried to sleep in the car. We were brought in front of our hotel. When we entered the hotel, I didn`t get any special impression, the toilet downstairs was rather ugly. We put our suitcases into the luggage room. In the same hotel there was Comenius Turkish team and we started our Paris trip together. We drove quite a lot by metro. We visited a graveyard, where people like Chopin, Oscar Wilde and other famous people are buried. Mostly there had been buried famous French people, whose names were unfamiliar to us. The graveyard was very big and we only had an hour to look around there ( we also needed a map to do that), but who would want to spend a lot of time in a place like this? Still, the graveyard looked mighty and old-fashioned. We also visited Notre Dame, shopped a little bit and ate lunch at a cafe. I ordered crepes with caramel and banana. It tasted delicious. We also saw the Louvre Museum, which was amazing. We only had about half an hour there, but we went inside and me, Evita and Liisbet searched for Mona Lisa and Aphrodite. Later we were very happy that we could see them. Basically we still didn`t have time to look around there because the museum is huge and we had very little time.  But still, it was worth going inside. Paris didn`t look beautiful in all places, as you would expect of a big city. There were lots of different people. I kept my eyes open all the time and I was careful, because I have never been to a huge city before and unfamiliar places always make me careful. We also went to see The Arc de Triomphe, which was very powerful. Meanwhile we ate in McDonald`s. All the walking was actually very useful, because we saw more places and streets that way. The highlight of the day was still the Eiffel Tower. Luckily it was already dark outside while we walked towards it. Eiffel looked absolutely amazing and enchanting in its lights, the view was beautiful. The weather was very cold and windy up there. Later we drove back by metro and went to our hotel.  Our hotel room was really cozy and beautiful, totally different from downstairs. Neat, clean and beautiful. When we finally got to lay on our beds, it was probably one of the top moments of the day. The bed was very soft and comfortable. The sleep was peaceful and good. Shame we didn`t get to sleep longer. All three of us dreamed of staying in this hotel just a few more days.

When we were all ready with our things on Monday morning, we went downstairs to eat breakfast. The food was similar to what we had eaten for breakfast the other days. Then we set ourselves ready for the tour in Montmartre. We also saw Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur there. I didn`t really like being in the streets of Montmartre. Later we went back to our hotel to get our suitcases and then drove to the airport. We first went to Munich again, where we had several hours of free time in the airport. Our flight to Tallinn went very well and I was very happy to be in my home country again. The flights we had when we came back from France, where much better and the views were more beautiful. We got our suitcases back in Tallinn Airport and we drove back home by cars. The trip was very, very good. I got chance to see lots of new places, people and got new experiences. I`m very grateful for a chance like this and I will sure have lots of good memories of our trip.