Suhani Gupta

Students traveling to France relax in the lounge of the Paris airport. They awaited their flight to Rennes, where they would start their trip.

France is best known as the country of love. This renowned love can be found in quiet moments, like in the crispness of a croissant or the aroma of the muguet. It is also present on more momentous occasions, in the jubilant confetti-throwing of the Granville carnival or the sparkling lights of the majestic Eiffel Tower.

Harker teachers and students experienced all of these moments of love and many more in their trip to France over February break. 21 students and three advisors attended Harker’s first French exchange program with sister school Saint Denis International School from Feb. 8 to Feb. 20.

After two flights, the group landed in Rennes, a city in northwestern France. They enjoyed Brittany-inspired crepes before driving up into the small town of Granville. They settled into the Centre régional nautisme Granville (CRNG), a local sailing school, and they ended the day with some journaling on what they were most looking forward to on the trip.

On Feb. 10, they visited Christian Dior’s garden and soaked in coastal views. Back at the CRNG, French teacher and trip advisor Agnes Pommier’s relatives gave presentations about the Carnival of Granville, a four-day celebration before Mardi Gras. In the carnival, over 150,000 visitors parade through the streets of Granville, throwing confetti and watching colorful floats pass by. Students decorated their own carnival-inspired hats and attended the first day of the celebration.

“During the carnival procession in Granville, I really loved to see the students in their beautiful, original hats that they created, and they were all throwing confetti at each other,” French teacher and trip advisor Galina Tchourilova said. “You could see an element of happiness and childhood memories coming back to them. It was something that students don’t usually experience right now with their very busy schedules.”

They left Granville on Feb. 11 for Mont Saint-Michel, a coastal mountain castle. They first explored the castle in a guided tour before leaving to experience the streets on their own in small groups.

“I definitely think we went to Mont Saint-Michel at the right time,” FNHS officer Gautam Bhooma (12) said. “It gets really crowded in the summer because a lot of people go then, but when we went, there weren’t that many people. You could roam the streets and the castle wasn’t completely filled, so it was a really great experience all around.”

The next day, students settled into their homestays in Loches, a small town in central France. They were encouraged to speak French the entire time with the families.

“I feel like I really improved my French in our homestays where we had to speak it all the time,” French 4 student Ananya Pradhan (10) said. “Towards the beginning, it was initially a bit difficult to make small talk with people in French. I didn’t want to come off as too formal, and I also didn’t want to mess up. As the time progressed, I started taking more risks and conversing more with people.”

Each day in Loches, students attended classes with students from Saint Denis before leaving to explore local attractions, including the Chenonceau castle and the Cabri au Lait farm. After school, they returned to their homestay family’s houses.

“The school was very nice, and it had a different pace than Harker,” Ananya said. “Some key differences were that the students were more relaxed in class, and some of the classes were louder than ours. All in all it was a great school, and the kids there were really nice.”

At the other end of the exchange program, St. Denis students Heloise Pepin (9) and Margot Poulain (10) came to the US to attend classes at Harker. They arrived during February break and stayed until March 7.

“My time at Harker has been really good,” Heloise said. “The teachers care about us and help us in class. Everyone was very friendly when we arrived, both teachers and American students.”

After four days attending Saint-Denis, the group left Loches to go to Paris. Because of a railroad strike, they could not take the high-speed TGV to Paris, instead relying on a longer bus ride.

“Strikes are part of the experience being in France,” Tchourilova said. “They just have different ways to express their feelings, and they’re proactive about it. The French people consider it very important that they have a right to protest. Of course, it creates difficulties, but you can always find a way around it in the program.”

When they reached Paris, the group climbed Montmartre Hill to visit an old artistic neighborhood and the Sacre Coeur.

They left the next morning to explore the left bank of Paris, strolling through the Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Jardins du Luxembourg. After stopping at the Rue Mouffetard for lunch, they learned about the origins of Paris with a guided tour through the arrondissements. To end the day, they watched a late-night production of Molière’s “Les Fourberies de Scapin” in La Comédie Française.

The group walked through the Champs-Elysées and explored the Louvre museum with another guided tour on their final day in France. In the afternoon, they took a river cruise across the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. They spent a few hours on the second floor, exploring the many gift shops and views of the city. Finally, they descended and watched the Eiffel Tower lights before taking the metro back to their hotel to pack for the flight home on Feb. 20.

“The most rewarding part of the trip was seeing students, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes making mistakes, but actually putting themselves out there and asking questions,” Tchourilova said. “Seeing the excitement in the eyes of the students when they actually understood something, or when they recognized something that they talked about before in class. In a way, they revived their interest in the French culture and language.”