On 13 July 2015 44 students who study French and German GCSE, together with 4 staff: Mrs Sims, Miss Crabtree, Mr Charlton and Mr McLelland, headed for Strasbourg, which is on the border between France and Germany. We met at school very early, at around 5am and made our way by coach to Dover, where we boarded the ferry to Calais. We were now on route across France to Strasbourg, which took about 8 hours, but we stopped regularly at the services on the way, which were interesting.
When we arrived at our hotel, Ciarus, we were given key cards for our rooms and went off to unpack. After dinner in the restaurant, we went for a short walk around the city to stretch our legs, which was lovely in the evening sunset.

The next day we were up early for breakfast and had croissants and fruit or ham and cheese and a drink. After collecting our packed lunches we headed to the old cathedral in the centre of Strasbourg, where we started our walking tour with the tour guides around the old town. We were able to see inside the beautiful old cathedral with its famous astrological clock, which was magnificent. We walked along the river which runs through the city before relaxing in the sun for our lunch and a bit of shopping! Then we boarded the boat for a cruise around the city past all the famous old and new buildings, which were so beautiful, while we listened to the commentary in French or German. The boat took us through the old lock gates to raise or lower the boat to reach the next level of the river- it was very exciting. After the boat tour, we met the coach to take us to a chocolaterie, where we watched chocolate being sculpted into animals and even sampled some delicious chocolate! Next we made our way back to the hotel for dinner and to have some free time before going out again that evening to watch the amazing firework display at Place de l’Etoile to celebrate Bastille Day, le 14 Juillet, which was especially lucky for Ella Berkane as it was her birthday! The display lasted about 15 minutes and afterwards we made our back to the hotel through the crowds, guided by Mrs Sims’ flashlight on her phone! We got back about 11.30pm.

On day 3 we visited the European Parliament where we were given a guided tour and shown all around the building, which is an amazing place both for its size and brilliant architecture. On the same day, we also took a trip to the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart in Germany, where we were able to see pretty much every Mercedes ever made! We were also able to spend a short time in the centre of Stuttgart on Königsstrasse to do some shopping and have dinner. However we were rather delayed on our departure back to the hotel as one of the students had managed to cut his thumb and had to take a trip to A & E! But all was well!
Day 4 was equally exciting as we took a trip to Europa Theme Park in Germany, which is one of the biggest theme parks in Europe with spectacular roller coasters! Everybody had a great day, especially as it was scorching hot – such perfect weather for the water rides! In the evening we were lucky enough to be able to watch the Son et Lumière light show displayed on the walls of Notre Dame Cathedral, the highest in Europe, which was an amazing spectacle.

Then it was time to go home which was a long journey, even longer than the trip out (17 hours to be precise!). This was caused by a delayed ferry and very tight border controls. This didn’t really matter as it was a good opportunity for everybody to catch up on sleep lost to early starts and late finishes!

We would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Sims for organising the trip in her already busy schedule, and to all the other staff members who donated their time to make this happen. It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip and I am sure that everybody on the trip would encourage other students to go on future MFL trips as they are great fun, truly memorable and are a great way to put into action the languages you have learnt in class.

Emma Gooden (Head Girl) and Lewis Crow (Head Boy)