By Mrs Hosking (MFL Teacher)

Early on Friday morning, two coaches of Year 8 students, accompanied by staff, left to spend a long weekend in France to practise their French and experience French culture. After a town trail around sunny St. Omer, answering the French questions, we stopped at the "marchand de glaces" for a well-deserved ice cream. Everyone was able to use the french  we had practised in class to ask for their ice cream.

After arriving at the Chateau where we were staying, it was time for dinner. The most exciting part was the snail tasting afterwards. A surprising number of students were brave enough to try one! Afterwards, we sat and played games or volleyball in the gardens.

On Saturday, we went to the wonderful Le Touquet market to practise our French again. Students were given money to buy things that they would like to supplement their packed lunch with. Many opted for "fraises," "framboises," or "cerises." They also had a mini geography-style survey to do and had to be bold and ask a French person the questions. This was a challenge as the market was so busy!

In the afternoon on Saturday, we went to Les Chocolats de Beussent and learned how the chocolate is made while watching a demonstration. Despite being in French, the students could follow the gist of what they heard, especially the question "Vous voulez déguster?" It was delicious, and we were able to practise our French again in the shop afterwards.

On Saturday night, some students chose to play outside to make the most of the beautiful weather, and others came in for a while to make and eat "crêpes."

After checking out on Sunday, we went to a small family-run organic fruit farm where Christian gave us a tour, and we helped him make apple juice using the traditional method. Afterwards, we had a blind tasting of three of the fruit juices and had to guess what each was. A final chance to practise our French in the shop before setting off to Calais for the ferry.

Students who went on the trip said they enjoyed "spending time with my friends and experiencing French culture" and "going to a French market and eating French food, which is AMAZING!!" and "becoming more confident in French speaking." We crammed a lot into a short time, and the students made the most of all the opportunities.

View photos from the trip here.