Clifton College Website

Paris Trip 2009

"La culture c'est comme la confiture, moins on en a, plus on l'étale."
(Culture is like jam, the less you have, the more you have to spread it).

It was appropriate to stumble across this maxim, scrawled on the inside of a café window, against the backdrop of the lashing November rain, as Clifton’s third annual visit to Paris was drawing to a close. The jam-jars of the thirteen participants were intensively filled over the five days that spanned the three-quarter exeat and few of the bastions of French culture were left untouched. For cinéphiles, the stars lit up at the interactive Etoiles du Rex; we were both subjects and objects of Impressionist Art, from having our mugshots mimicked at Montmartre to marvelling at masterpieces at Musée d’Orsay; we had doses of sculpture at the beautiful Musée Rodin, took ourselves back in time to a 19th Century aristocratic experience at the opulent Opéra Garnier, were humbled by the atmospheric Père Lachaise cemetery, Notre Dame and Sacré-Coeur, and, only yards from the latter, we enjoyed the contrast of crowd-pleasing impromptu musicians. We even sampled the French fine art of industrial action, which unfortunately put paid to our plans at Pompidou. Oh, and we went to Disneyland.

For all of this exposure to the jewels of the capital, the most valuable element of the visit was the fact that each pupil was hosted by a French family. For five days, the pupils experienced first-hand the daily life of a Parisian, including getting up and making the commute from the suburbs, sampling morning and evening meals and most importantly, developing the art of conversation with the families. Such an experience can be daunting, yet our pupils acquitted themselves very well. Having no option to resort to English, their language skills, under pressure, had to rise to the challenge and all have commented on how quickly their speaking and listening skills improved.

The dual element of this trip of Paris by day and with families by night was a very successful formula and my thanks go to International Links who arranged the visit for us and to all the parents for their support. Greatest thanks are reserved for the pupils, however, whose spirit and attitude were first-class throughout.

Joyeux Noël,

Mr Bobby Trivic
Head of French

© 2006-12 Clifton College