A pack of Hapnot Collegiate pupils has come home from a spring break they won’t soon forget.
The group of students travelled across France, spending time in Paris and seeing sights like St. Malo, Mont St. Michel, castles in the Loire Valley, the D-Day memorial at Juno Beach and the Palace of Versailles.
The trip was organized mostly for French immersion students. Teachers organize a trip every two years for French Immersion students, with another travel club organizing trips in interlocking years.
Hapnot teachers organized the trip not only to provide students with a spring break vacation they won’t soon forget – they use the trip as a educational aid, showing students new locales and experiences.
“I love watching them discovering the world. That’s my favourite thing about this,” said Natalie Milligan, a French immersion teacher at Hapnot and trip organizer.
“We read about the Hunchback of Notre Dame and we got to see the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. They studied D-Day and Juno Beach and they got to walk on Juno Beach. I feel like it’s a helpful way for them to make connections. I think that, isolated as we are, it can be hard to get across.”
As well as providing students firsthand looks at things they’ve learned previously, the trip also provided practical knowledge and experience in the ins and outs of international travel.
“It was just a lot of real world growth. You can do what you want in a school, but when you’re going through airports and customs and getting passports stamped and all that, it’s real. You can plan all you want, but jet lag, eating different food, seeing different people, it’s a change,” said Hapnot teacher and organizer Trevor Sytnick.
The Hapnot group travelled with another group of French immersion students from near Calgary. While both groups were insular at first, the two gradually combined, allowing students to end the trip having made new friends from another province.
“It’s nice to see them connect with people who they may have something in common with. It was a nice moment to see that,” said Milligan.
While in Paris, the group received some familiar guests – former Rotary Exchange student Anne-Catherine Renard and current Rotary Exchange student Danielle Nelson. Renard -– a native of Belgium who spent the 2016-17 school year in Flin Flon – and Nelson, a Flin Flonner currently on an exchange in France, met their friends from the north and explored Paris together. Nelson’s younger sister Suzanne was part of the Hapnot group.
Plans are already underway for the next French immersion trip, which is slated to take place in 2020. A destination for the vacation hasn’t yet been determined.
