In the early hours of 29th April, the tired Year 7 and staff trekked across school to get on the tangerine bus to start our exciting adventure. Our wonderful bus driver, Steve, drove us down to the famous white cliffs of Dover to sail across the English Channel to arrive in France. Out on deck we stood between rainy England and sunny France. This is when the excitement was dawning!
After another cruel few hours on the bus in France we finally arrived at our destination in Le Havre. A smile grew on each of our faces as we found out our dorms and each of us made for our appartements to (as the children call it) “bagsie” their beds. After we had our wonderful supper at the local restaurant we made for the beach!
All of us took our shoes off and felt the sand in between our toes, then we all laughed as we sprinted down to the seashore. All of us enjoyed the beach very much and we all played French cricket and football whilst the rest were jumping waves in the sea.
The next day we arrived at Omaha beach and we walked around the American cemetery. We all learnt a number of interesting facts about the horrific war and we were all amazed by the German bunkers dotted down the coast. As we looked out in the Channel beyond some of us could just imagine the American soldiers sailing towards France with terror in their eyes.
After midday we arrived in the beautiful town of Arromanches and had the lovely experience of looking round the 360 cinema about the war. Then all of us enjoyed going round all the souvenir shops in Arromanches and we all ate lots of crepes and ice creams.
As the sun set we went down to the beach again. Mr Hickman took lots of wonderful pictures and Mrs Nicholas enjoyed doing handstands with the girls. Most of us got soaked in the sea whilst jumping the waves but then we all dried off by either playing French cricket or throwing a nerf javelin with Mr RLG.
After another morning, we arrived in the lovely town of Bayeux and had a wonderful time in the Bayeux market. All of us had an amazing time watching a lady make homemade sweets. Most of us ate crepes and Martha loved sitting down and eating a massive chocolate doughnut. Everybody had a very competitive head in the Bayeux Cathedral as Mr Weston had set a prize on the 1st person to name the 1st person who had become the bishop in that Cathedral.
In the early afternoon we made our way to the exciting experience of the Bayeux Tapestries. All of us found it really interesting and we loved every moment of it. Unfortunately, that day being a bank holiday the hyper-market was closed but because we had such a great team of staff they decided on a plan B.
That night we went bowling and it was amazing to see all of us bonding together as a year group. Steve, our one-of-a-kind bus driver, won overall at bowling and all of us were just too excited to think about going home the next day but of course it had to happen.
As we woke up the next morning sadness grew in each of our faces as we knew this was the day we went home to England. We said our goodbyes and thanked the wonderful catering staff that had cooked for us during those few days and made our way back to the tangerine bus. On the way back we stopped off at a supermarket instead of the hyper market to stock up on presents for family members and snacks for the long journey home.
We all enjoyed the prize giving on the bus journey. The prizes were for the most tidy dorm, the person who spoke the most French, the most helpful people and numerous other things. All of us loved our McDonald’s for supper but were sad to see our wonderful bus driver, Steve, go. We all said goodbye to Steve and gave him a thank you card to remember us by. By the time we arrived back in school grounds we were all exhausted and just wanted to sleep.
May we all thank all the remarkable teachers and staff members who had organised this trip for making it memorable and thoroughly enjoyable. We all loved this experience and hope that other students will get to have this wonderful opportunity too.
Sally W (Year 7)
