On Tuesday 5th March, we (Years 5 and 6) arrived at school very early with half an hour to relax before finally setting off on the journey that we had been waiting for since the beginning of the calendar year, to settle at last, for 3 nights, in Ebblinghem, northern France. This trip was mainly to practise our French, but also to try some French treats and delicacies!
Tuesday | by Maximilian
Starting to wake up, at about 4am, most of us were surprisingly quite perky, but I, and some other pupils, were so stunned by the earliness of this start that we were barely awake when we arrived at school. Luckily, there was one room for napping, with no lights, and the other was for pupils to watch a programme. I, without thinking twice, went into the napping room! Once all the passports were checked and collected as well as Health Insurance Cards, we met Mentor, who introduced himself as our coach driver for the rest of our trip! We packed our suitcases into the luggage compartment and were checking over and over again that we had all our stuff. Then, we found our seats, and happily fell asleep…
We arrived at Dover surprisingly quickly, and we let out a big cheer and whoops of joy; some of us had never been on a ferry before, and were bursting with excitement! We boarded the ferry at least half an hour earlier than we expected without any hassle. We whizzed past passport control and as the coach rolled up the slope, we could smell the wet metal of the ferry. After leaving the coach, we climbed the stairs, thinking the ferry wasn’t too cosy, then we all rushed toward the eighth floor and soon felt the warm carpet beneath our feet. Then we sat down impatiently and waited for the ferry to chauffeur us across the calming swish of the Strait of Dover. We said a hearty goodbye to the white cliffs of Dover…!
Before long, the Calais shoreline stretched out to us, for we thought we were there, about half an hour before the ferry actually stopped its course. We got off the ferry, and got on the coach!
We stopped at Auchan (a close supermarket) after about 30 mins into the coach journey and saw delicious pastries and meringues and stuffed ourselves with them. We ordered them in French!
Finally we arrived at the chateau – Le Chateau D’Ebblinghem – and unpacked with many big sighs of relief. The evening was slow, with an exciting scavenger hunt. At dinner, we made our own crepes, filled with Biscoff and slept well. Gladly, we went to bed and thought of the days ahead and all the thrilling events of the day we just had been through…
