Gay Paris - Not Quite!!!

So - Tara's passport wasn't found! Despite frantic searching on Sunday night and monday morning it did not show up! So, her night(sic) in shining armour had to step in and go in her place. Schoolboy french was desperately polished (une billet pour le metro, silvers plates!!!) and off I went - with 32 students and 3 other very apprehensive staff!

It took all of the first day to arrive at "Le Chateau Romaine" once the site of the Brasillian team base for the '98 World cup in France - now a rather less classy establishment with accomodation for 300 excited school students!
It was so hot on the first night that the heat sensor (apparently set to 45 degrees celsius!)in the one of the student's rooms triggered the fire alarms - and we were all evacuated!

The second day was spent fighting our way through paris traffic to the Eiffel Tower - and then through hordes of sweaty tourists to the top via the stairs! We then went on a relaxing boat ride on the Seine!

The next day, for my multitude of sins, was spent trying to make sure that I and the rest of the staff knew where 32 overexcited students were inside Euro Disney! Unfortunately we were able to bring home the same number off students that we started with - and copious amounts of plastic tat and numerous and wonderful ways to consume large amounts of sugar!

The fourth and last day was spent on the coach again making our way back to good old England.

The highlight of the trip for me?
The amount of "misinformation" we managed to feed our students:

• "We are in France now, they all drive on the right hand side of the road, so they all wear their watches on their right wrists to remind them of this. Please move your watch over to fit in with french society"

• "On the left hand side of the bus you can see the "Paris Cloud Machine" (a large factory!). This machine makes clouds in the summer months to try and keep Paris cool!"

• "We are now entering the L'Arc de Triomphe roundabout. Once we cross over the blue line on the road (put there for the Tour de France) we are no longer insured - so cross your fingers and hope we don't crash!"

• "This is the Calais cloud machine. It has caused an international incident because when the wind blows in the wrond direction the clouds get blown over to england - this is why our weather is so bad!"

Thankfully - for our future travel plans - Tara's passport has now been found - safely hidden between books on the bookshelf!

I'm now looking forward to the last 2 and a half weeks of school being nice and quiet - and me not being on any more courses or trips!

Au Reservoirs,

Stephen