Recently, students enrolled in French III or IV took a two week long trip to France. During this trip, DSHA students stayed with the exchange student that had stayed with them when visiting America. They lived with their exchange students family for about ten days in Limoges, France, and then traveled to Paris as a class and stayed there for the remainder of the trip.
While in Limoges, they attend school with their students. The DSHA students quickly realized that the school day is much different than a typical American school day. For starters, the school day lasts from eight am until six pm. Their classes are much longer as a result of the longer school day, averaging one to two hours each. The students do not switch classrooms during the day, but the teachers move around the school, coming to different classrooms when one class is over. Although the days are much longer, the students have fifteen minute breaks in between each class where they are able to go outside and relax. Their lunch schedule also differs from DSHA because they have one hour for lunch where they can leave campus and get lunch elsewhere. This was popular amongst the DSHA students because it is a nice change from a half-hour lunch.
After saying goodbye to their exchange students, the Dashers were off to explore Paris. Most days in Paris were filled with museum visits, the favorite of the trip being Musée Rodin. Although they did visit the Louvre, the Musée Rodin was not as crowded, allowing the students to enjoy the art and not be crowded by people. Emme Spears, DSHA ‘26, describes the museum as “a small, intimate space, made out of Rodin’s home. I really loved the back yard garden because it was very beautiful with the plants and sculptures together”.
You can not talk about a trip to Europe without mentioning the food. The Dashers loved trying authentic crêpes, both savory and sweet. Maggie Killoran, DSHA ‘26, advertised Raclette, a type of cheese, as her favorite new food she tried, saying, “It was incredible”. Rachel Memory, DSHA ‘26, talked about the craziest food she tried on the trip, escargot, pairing it with pesto.
When talking with Spears about cultural differences between America and France, there was one major difference that really stood out to her and the rest of the students on the trip. In France, the men do not wear deodorant! Spears recounts this realization saying, “I did not know that this was a thing, but I learned quickly”.
The purpose of this trip is for the students to be immersed into the language and culture that they had been learning for three or more years. The students felt that they were able to communicate fairly well with those they met. Killoran, on the topic of speaking French with native speakers, expressed, “It allowed me to realize I know more than what I give myself credit for. I was nervous at first, but once I was fully committed, it was easier than I thought it would be”. Although the accents were much thicker, and those they were talking to spoke much faster, the students could see their hard work in the classroom paying off.
