Lent Term 2008

2s Visit to Pau
7 - 12 February

Day 1: We began with a very start: 4:45 and we changed into our light blues and had petit déjeuner and got onto the minibuses bound for Gatwick. Once we got there, we cut it fine and whizzed through check-in, security and passport control, and boarded the plane. As I am an aircraft fanatic, and I bore anyone unfortunate enough to sit next to me, nobody did next to me, so I had to talk to myself about how utterly amazing aircraft actually are and how underestimated they are.

Before I knew it, we were landing at Toulouse Blagnac airport and, again, we whizzed through passport control and the coach was there to collect us and take us on our way to Pau on the motorway. It took 2½ hours and we were at St. Ursule College at last. Our final destination. We dumped our bags in the library and then had lunch from the canteen. After some consideration, we decided the food was, no offence meant, just slightly better than Ashdown. We were slightly astonished that the French children regarded us with interest due to the fact we were both foreign and new.

We then took a walk along the Boulevard de Pyrenees and it was relatively tranquil. We then visited the château’s grounds. It was nice, but then a security guard reeked destruction to the silence by telling a group of boys to stop throwing stones down a 70ft well. After this we all went back to St. Ursule and were collected by our penpals or as the French call us; “correspondent” and were taken to their houses and that was one long day done.

Day 2: We were all delivered to St. Ursule around 8:15AM and everyone huddled in groups both to discuss their penpals and their families, and, more importantly, to keep warm in the temperature of just 3ºC.

Then we all headed off to La Marche and everyone started the hunt to find an essential sweet stall. One was found, and when everyone flocked to it, the woman at the check-out (If you could call it that!) was so overwhelmed that she started giving people more money than they paid her! Maybe we should be more orderly next time!!

Then we had lunch and then, we headed off for the insides of the castle.

We got in and a very nice man with a very strong accent showed us round and it was interesting. What we saw included Henry IV’s turtle shell cot and the royal apartments.

Weekend: Everyone went home to their penpals and spent the weekend with them. Popular places that people were taken to included Biarritz, St. Jean de Luz and Spain. I unfortunately had a fever, sour throat, blocked up nose and vomited on Sunday, so that was that.

Day 5: We all got to school as usual at 8:15 and were quickly whisked off to the orienteering. I was not all that well, but my fever and sour throat had departed, so I did the marking of the stamps. What everyone had to do was to run to specific trees marked on a map and get a stamp from each tree, and each one was unique. I had to sit at a desk and put an X on the right ones, or scribble on the wrong ones.

Then we all went and had lunch at the canteen, or with our penpals. Then we were shipped off (in a coach) to a chocolate/jam factory and the sweet aroma entered our nostrils and we were enchanted.

We all filled in a questionnaire and then got down to the business of buying things for ourselves, or, for the less selfish, for other people. The moral of the story is: “Chocolate is addictive, therefore, eat as much of it as you can before you die.” I believe it is a good one. We then went home for our last evening with our penpals.

Day 6: Another early start and long trip to Toulouse airport meant a lot of tired children and when we got on the coach, some conked out, and some were still full of beans and as noisy as usual… this meant chaos for those trying to get any sleep at all. We got to Blagnac and me, being a airspotter, went mad as I saw the first Airbus A380 I have ever seen for real. It is fantastic, but I’d better not rant otherwise:

1) You will fall asleep
2) I will not get to lessons on time

Anyway, we got on the plane and lived happily ever after, and I saw were I go on holiday in the Channel Islands (Alderney) and I saw were Top Gear is filmed (Dunsfold.

Edward Pinnegar