Written by the students in Seconde 3

DAY 1 (Stonehenge)

On the first day, we took a coach to go to Stonehenge.  We saw a lot of things in the museum, like a skull and many bones.  Furthermore, in this museum, we saw a projected screen showing the evolution of Stonehenge over the years.  We also noticed many tools and objects of prehistoric life and rocks.  We learnt information about this place and saw how these people could have dressed before.

Besides this, near the museum there are some prehistoric huts made of clay and wood.  The clay walls stained our coats. 

We could then take a bus or walk to the rocks.  Our first impression is that we found the rocks really big, it’s impressive how the rocks can stand up vertically since the prehistoric age. 

Finally, we walked through the shop where there were many souvenirs to remember this famous place.  This visit was good and we all appreciated it in spite of the rain and wind.

Tilio CUDICIO

Erwan PERTRIZEARD

Justin RENAUD

DAY 2 (Bath)

The Jane Austen Centre

On Tuesday January 28th, we visited the famous Jane Austen Centre in Bath.  The building was built in the same style as the house Jane Austen lived in, which is also located on Gay Street.  Shortly after our arrival, we were warmly welcomed by the staff who, like the building, looked like they came from the 18th century.  In the waiting room, we watched a short film about her life before a lady dressed as Anne Elliot, a character from the novel Persuasion, presented Jane Austen’s family and life as a female writer in the 18th century. After that, we walked through a gallery decorated with paintings depicting her and her life.  Then we experienced several interactive things such a s tasting a traditional 18th century biscuit, trying on traditional 18th century clothes, and writing letters with ink and a quill.  Right before leaving for our free time, we quickly took a look at the gift shop.  To sum up, it was a wonderful experience and a great discovery.

Milla GALLAIS

Célia GEHA

Ama KAMSU KOM

The Roman Baths

The Roman Baths were created in the first century and are situated in the center of the city. The place has a natural hot spring which the Romans believed was given to them by the Gods.  It was built for the Goddess Minerva and was considered to be a sanctuary. 

The Baths are divided in three distinct parts.  The first part was a sanctuary where people could make offerings to Minerva and pray to her.  The second part contained the baths.  There was  a changing room (apodyterium), a hot room (caldarium), a warm room (tepidarium) where people could swim in 40 degree water, and finally the cold room (frigidarium).  The third part had the big underground rooms where people worked to warm the caldarium.

Étienne de MARSAC

Zyad RAHMANI

Dimitri BOULLEAU 

DAY 3 (Cardiff)

Principality Stadium

Principality Stadium, formerly the Millenium Stadium, is the official pitch of the Wales Rugby Union.  We had the opportunity to visit it during our trip to the United Kingdom.  During our guided visit, we explored all the places we can’t see on TV.  We first went to the seats where we learned that there are 74,500 seats which makes it the second biggest covered stadium in Europe after Bernabeu. It was built between 1997 and 1999.  This stadium isn’t only for rugby.  It also hosts concerts, important football matches, and even boxing events.  After that, we went to the private lounges.  Did you know that there are more than one hundred lounges which cost between 30,000£ and 90,000£ a year?  The highest price for a VIP lounge for one evening was 250,000£ during the Champion League final in 2017 between Juventus and Real Madrid. Next, we went to the players changing room where we listened to an authentic coach speech. Then, we walked through the iconic corridors where the players wait before the matches that we can see on TV.  Finally, we went to the press conference room where the players often have to answer difficult questions and where we had the opportunity to take some photos.

Timothée CAPORAL

Titouan DELALANDE

Mahdi HAMRA-KROUHA

Mathieu CASTELLO

National Museum of Cardiff

On Wednesday, we went to a new country: Wales.  After visiting Principality Stadium in the morning, we went to the National Museum of Cardiff.  This museum was divided in two parts: the “evolution of Wales” and the “art exhibit”. All the information was written in two languages: English and the national language, Welsh.

At first, we visited the first floor, the art exhibit.  The art movements that were represented included : French Impressionism, Pointillism, Realism and Modern Art.  In the French Impressionism part, we saw lots of famous works of art by Monet, Rodin, and Degas that were beautiful because they were full of colors.  The next room represented modern art.  It was a little weird and even scary. There was also a room dedicated to a woman who drew tattoos on bodies in order to make a cartoon.  The drawing was incredible because if represented a bird which was flying to a flower.

Afterwards, we went downstairs to the shop to buy some souvenirs.  We didn’t visit the evolution of Wales because we ran out of time to visit the entire museum.  It was enormous and it also had a cafeteria. 

It was also Miss Scott’s birthday !

Cécile LESERVOISIER

Nitin LECOMTE

Ambroise DELAUNAY

Victoire LABAT-BERTHIER

DAY 4 (Winchester)

On the last day, we visited Winchester with its typical monuments: Winchester Cathedral, the town center, and finally the Great Hall. 

First, during our free time, we decided to visit the Cathedral.  This place was interesting to visit because it is where Jane Austen was buried and so it was the follow up to our visit of the Jane Austen Centre.  Unfortunately, for several reasons, we couldn’t go inside but we took photos of the outside. Next, we went to a cafe and drank typical British tea.  Then, we walked through the town to the Great Hall: it is a cute, small city that is really cosy. 

The Great Hall is a structure which is not really recognized as a significant type of monument/  It is a huge place with walls on which were painted the names of the Parliament and, on the opposite side, the Round Table hangs on the wall.   It represents the Arthurian Legend which describes how Arthur ascended to the throne thanks to the sword put in the stone by Merlin the Great.  After that, we tried on some Medieval clothes and we went to the gift shop.

In our opinion, this place was interesting and is a precious monument for English history.  It was not the best activity we did during the trip, but it was something that needed to be visited.

Lilou DAIZE

Léa BASSI VERRANDO

Héloïse MAILLARD

Antonia RENARD DOUAY

Cultural Reflection

Transport

On the first day, we went to England by Shuttle.  The Shuttle is a train with carriages which crosses under the English Channel.  It took thirty minutes to reach England.  Sadly, we didn’t see any fish!  Most of us stayed in the coach because the carriage was tight.  It was so fast that some of us who had never taken it thought we were still in France!

In order to come back home, we took the ferry to Calais.  It took one and a half hours to reach France.  This boat was really big!  We got out of the coach and stayed on the inside decks.  We could also go on the outside decks and admire the beautiful sea at night. 

There were shops, restaurants, a gaming room, and seats and tables.  Some pupils played a game called Ten Thousand with Mr Varin and Mr Laplace.  In the end, Ms Scott won, thanks to an amazing throw of the dice by a pupil!

Thank you to the drivers !

Thank you to all the people who organized this wonderful trip !

Louise LACHKAR

Raphaël DEBRAY

Chloé FEUILLATRE

Solène JUMENTIER

The Families

Firstly, we arrived at 7pm in Melksham.  The families were already there.  Everybody was divided into groups of two, three, or four.  The families took good care of us.  The houses were small and simple.  When we arrived at the house, the host gave us some rules like the time we had to go to sleep and the time we had to wake up as well as the things we couldn’t do. 

In some families, there were pets.  Dinner time was around 7pm.  We could talk with our hosts during dinner.  Some families introduced us to their habits and lifestyle.  Some people did meditation.  We had to go to sleep at 10pm and, in the morning, the host families came to wake us up at 6:30am, and then we had breakfast.  We usually ate toast with jam and butter, some fruit, and we drank tea, milk, or juice.  In the morning, the host parents drove us to the coach at 7:30am. 

We want to thank them because we are very happy to have been hosted like that.

Louison MICHAUD

Mathilde BODILIS

Agathe LERAY

British Food

First of all, for the first dinner, we all ate pizza and chips. In the UK, we eat chips with vinegar and a bit of salt; this is very popular in England and it tastes very special when you first eat this.   There is also a very popular sauce in the UK called the Houses of Parliament Sauce. It is very common but not all tourists like it.  Another dish is fish and chips: it is one of the most famous and simple dishes in the UK.  It is often served with peas and tartare sauce.  For dessert, we ate the famous cherry pie which is the favorite dessert of our host, Charlie.  We were surprised to have Chinese food for dinner because it was the day of the Chinese New Year.  He told us that British people frequently order Chinese food.

For breakfast, the British eat different things on one plate; baked beans, mushrooms, eggs, tomatoes, and the famous grilled toast that we eat with butter or marmalade.  It’s delicious! 

The quantity of food is somewhere between France and English except for breakfast which is very generous.  Alse, the British eat earlier than the French.

Lucas MASSEZ-JARRY

Aurélien LECLEIRE

Romain STAQUET