Les Ambassadeurs'

 

Third trip to Lyon, france

 

18 children went on a residential trip to Lyon, France from 14 - 18 October 2009 to meet up again with their French friends.  They all had a marvellous time - as witnessed in the photographs below!

This was our third trip to Lyon.  Holmwood children from Years 3 to 7 went to visit the French friends they had made during the bi-lingual activity course ‘Les Ambassadeurs’. This course takes place here at Holmwood every Easter holiday and the French children stay in our dorms or with Holmwood families. The aim is for the children to make friends, stay in touch and, if the friendship blossoms, we try to arrange an exchange.  This year 18 children stayed with their Ombrosa families in Lyon and 6 of them went to Chambery, which is an hour and a half away in the Alps.

We travelled by Easyjet from Stansted on Wednesday morning and were greeted by the French families at Lyon airport. The following day the children went to the Ombrosa and Chambery schools and joined in with the activities that were organised for them. They received a warm welcome from both schools, activities included:

• a nature walk and land art
• sport
• circus skills
• a quiz on Lyon
• and plenty of play time!

At the Ombrosa schools, the curriculum is bi-lingual, starting in Early years.  The children have alternate weeks of lessons taught in French and English.  Chambery is a very small school with mountain views. Ombrosa, in Lyon, is situated on the banks of the River Soane and is a very big school.  The age range is 4 to 18 years.  The buildings are old and full of character.  We were very pleased with the children’s attitude; they overcame homesickness, remained positive and joined in with all the activities.

Friday was spent in Lyon town.  In the morning we visited a miniature museum and met the founder and maker of all the models.  We saw displays of special effects from famous films, such as Star Wars, and the children really enjoyed looking at all the exhibits and video clips.

We then went up to Fourvière by cable car.  There we had a picnic (the weather was lovely) in the Roman Amphitheatre.

After lunch, we walked up to The Fourvière Cathedral and enjoyed the spectacular view of the city below.  In the distance we could see the Alps. We walked back down to town through a park and visited Vieux Lyon (Old Town) and did some shopping, of course.  The best shop was a sweet shop selling a wide variety of sweets and lollies - some lollies were as big as the children but they were very expensive!

On Saturday the children stayed with their families and we saw each other again at Lyon airport on Sunday.  The French families were delighted to have hosted the children and hoped they could stay longer next time.  We were all very proud of them for their excellent manners and for having kept homesickness at bay by really immersing themselves into French school and family life.  We returned to England and it was smiles all round as we walked through the arrivals’ gate.

We would like to thank Monsieur Varenne and Joanna Chalacombe for taking such good care of us and I would like to thank Claire Jones and my husband Simon for their help during the trip.

We all hope the children will stay in touch.

Merci beaucoup et à bientôt!

Marie-Christine Hollington