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…
Wednesday | Maia and Tom
After a busy first day and a long night's sleep, we got ready and went down to breakfast. When we got to the dining hall, the smell of freshly baked croissants greeted us. After we had sat down, our tour guide explained that in France they dip the patisseries into hot chocolate. Since I am allergic to dairy, I had something else but from what I could see everyone else enjoyed the new combination.
Our first destination was the Market place to buy some souvenirs. We went around in groups and bought things speaking in French. We then had to climb up a very steep hill to go around the city walls on a trail.
After a quick pit stop to have lunch we headed to the beach where we had fun running around, digging holes and burying friends. When everyone had finished brushing the sand off we headed to Europe's biggest aquarium, Nausicaá. After wandering around the aquarium and looking at sharks and manta rays we went to the sensory pools and touched some fish.
When we got back to the chateau, we had dinner which included bolognese pasta and raspberry doughnuts for dessert. After dinner we had a campfire with smores! And of course campfire songs.
Thursday | by Sophia
Thursday’s breakfast included pain au chocolat, hot chocolate, peaches and other fruit. After making lunch (I had a turkey baguette), we went on the coach to the chocolate factory. When we arrived a man came and told us all about how chocolate is made. We saw the making of a hazelnut praline chocolate and we got to eat it afterwards. It was very yummy! We went to the shop and I bought two praline chocolates. After taking a picture outside the chocolate shop, we got back on the coach to Le Touquet.
Le Touquet is where President Macron has a second home and so we could not have a picnic on the beach. Because of this we had to walk 20 minutes to a market and eat our lunch. Lunch was very refreshing and after that we went back to the beach to play. I went off exploring to collect seashells and I found some very pretty shells in the rock pools. Sadly there were no animals.
Afterwards, we went to a biscuit factory. We learnt and saw how to make almond shortbread and got to taste one afterwards. We went to the shop and I bought some chocolate shortbread. Then we returned to the Chateau.
After tidying our rooms, we had dinner. Dinner was chicken with cheese inside and pudding was a very yummy pastry called Millefeuille. After dinner, we had my favourite event of the whole trip: the silent disco. We all had headphones and there were two channels, a random one and a ‘song requests’ one. I loved 'We Will Rock You' as we were dancing round the table tennis table. I also loved 'Radioactive' and 'Revolting Children'. After all that fun we went to bed.
Friday | by Franie
On the final day of our trip, which was Friday, we tidied our rooms, collected our sheets and set off from the chateau. First, we had to say goodbye to our group leader, Mathilde who was quite emotional at leaving us. We stopped at the Auchan supermarket on the way back as well, to use any leftover money before returning to England. Most people bought baguettes, sweets and last minute gifts for their family - if they hadn’t already done this.
Afterwards, we got back on the coach, and stayed on it until we got to the port in Calais where we again went through passport control and security. We all waved goodbye to France as we stepped on the ferry although we were excited and looked forward to getting back to England. The ferry ran smoothly until Dover, where we boarded the coach again. There was some traffic on the roads as we got into the suburbs of London but we weren’t stuck for too long. Soon, we arrived back at 3:45 pm and none of our parents were there, seeing as we were 3 hours early. We took all our luggage from the coach into the playground and we stayed there and played until we were called.
Altogether, we all had a great time and wished we could go again as we learnt so much and it was so much fun!
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