By Mme Stuart (MFL Teacher)

From Thursday 7th to Saturday 9th May, our Year 7 students and staff travelled to the Côte d’Opale in northern France for a memorable trip. 

Day one: Au revoir, l’Angleterre. Bonjour, la France. After a smooth coach and shuttle journey our Year 7 students and staff travelled straight to Le Touquet where Alex, our biscuit chef at la Manufacture du Touquet, was waiting for us to show us how to make sablé biscuits which he claimed were the best shortbread biscuits in the world (as a Scot, I may not have fully agreed). He explained the etymology of the word bis-cuit, which means twice cooked in French, and went through the ingredients and the order in which they are added before we had a chance to sample one - miam miam !

Once we had had an introductory tour of le château du Broutel, ate our dinner then checked into our rooms, the evening activity was the château olympics! Lots of fun was had on the extensive lawn before bedtime.

Day two: La journée parfaite ! After breakfast we headed to la chocolaterie Beussent Lachelle where our guide really engaged his audience with his fun and energetic explanation and demonstration of how le chocolat blanc, le chocolat au lait and le chocolat noir are made. If we managed to answer his questions correctly, we had to catch the piece of chocolate that he threw to us. Finally, there was some serious tasting to be done of des pralinés and un panda au chocolat as well as some chocolat à la pâte d’amandes et pistache. Délicieux !

On to Boulogne where our tour of la vieille ville had an extra-special touch of a brass band parading along the street to la mairie to commemorate victory in Europe at the end of WW2, a bank holiday in France. Lunch on the grounds outside the ramparts was followed by some free time and the ordering of une glace Chez Nicole. This gave us the energy for the walk to the beautiful beach where some impressive gymnastics happened, a little bit of boules was played and legs were buried in the sand.

En route back to the château we managed to squeeze in a trip to le supermarché Carrefour. Dinner was followed by singing of Joyeux anniversaire for Illaria’s birthday on Saturday, and games around the camp fire.

Day three: Au revoir, le château. At breakfast, chambre 43 won the best bedroom for cleanliness, tidiness and best welcome to the inspection team from the château. Bravo ! We walked to le marché in the little town of Rue where the Year 7s used their French to buy des fraises, des bracelets et des bonbons, amongst other things, before heading home to Bedford.

We were really proud of the students; they were a pleasure to spend time with. I know they, along with Mr Williams, Mrs Lovett, Mrs Logan and I, would like to say another massive merci to Mme Helm for all the work that went into organising such a successful trip.

View photos from the trip here.