| FRIDAY 30th March |
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Meeting at 05.50 a.m.
The coach driver was late... he came at 06.05 a.m., in the front of the school.
Oh ! What a surprise ! But it's our favourite English teacher : Mr Nodarian who drives the bus...
At 06.10 a.m., all the students were on board, and off we go !
07.20 a.m., we arrived in the port of Calais and after the traditional identity check, we went on board the ship, the "Pride of Canterbury". We were right on time : at 07.30 a.m. the ship left the port.
The weather wasn't very good, it rained and there was a lot of wind !! So the sea (Channel) was rough.
But an hour and a half later, we all arrived in the port of Dover. Nobody was really seasick. |
At approximately 08.00 a.m. (English time), we left the port of Dover and took the motorway to Oxford, and after a 2 hour and a half's drive, we arrived near the Heathrow airport, where our coach stopped for a while for us to see the airport and some planes taking off... |
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It was approximately 01.00 p.m. when we arrived in Oxford. The pupils had their lunch in town. The next meeting was at 02.00 p.m., for an Oxford Tour with an English guide.
When the guides joined us, we separated in 2 groups, and we went and discovered this town and its famous colleges.
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We began with Christ Church College, a famous college where some scenes from the Harry Potter movie were shot. All the students were very interested in this anecdote, and some of them, thinking about the movie, wanted to find where the scenes had exactly been shot... |
Then, we went to Merton College, which was founded in 1264. It is one of the three ancient Oxford colleges founded in the thirteenth century. |
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We went inside to visit its courtyards (quad) and see a gorgeous gothic vault with beautiful sculptures showing the astrological signs.
Meanwhile, it had started raining. After this heavy shower, we went to the thirteenth century chapel. This college owns a library which is probably the oldest surviving working library in the United Kingdom. |
After this college, the guide took us to the Radcliffe Camera, a circular baroque monument built between 1737 and 1749, by James Gibbs, one of Christopher Wren's pupils said our guide. The Radcliffe Camera was originally intended to house a new library and is now the main reading room of Oxford's Bodleian Library complex, with underground rooms holding about 600,000 books and Oxford artefacts. |
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Then we went to the Bridge of Sighs (somebody immediately thought about Venice) and behind us we could see the first work by Christopher Wren (the famous English architect of the eigteenth century, who built St Paul's Cathedral in London) and the Sheldonian Theatre, which is also used for matriculation and graduation ceremonies.
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Finally, we walked to the Bodleian library and we could see the Divinity Schools, a wonderful room with a sculpted vault. It's another place where a scene of Harry Potter was shot (Harry Potter at the hospital wing at the end of the first movie). In the courtyard, we could see the Bodleian Library entrance and its Tower of the Five Orders (of classical architecture). |
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The guide, a woman, was very interesting and our pupils listened carefully and they learned a lot about Oxford Colleges. But at 4.00 p.m. she had to leave us because the guided tour was over. (Tea time already ?)
So our "prefect", the great Mr Nodarian, let the students for a 2-hour free time in the town centre, as it had been announced ! Everybody could take advantage of that to buy postcards, gifts, cooking books... or to walk in the town and visit other monuments, other streets... as I did. See the pictures below.
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Queuing in the street and waiting for the bus... |
Trinity college,
the graduates' garden
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Pub, the grapes
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Some front doors in the street
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| At 6.00 p.m. the free time was over, all the students had come back to the coach, so we went to the youth hostel about 20 miles away. The weather was clear, and the sun lit the countryside. Some houses
looked really beautiful. |
It was 6.30 p.m. when we arrived in our "hostel", a lonely farmlike building in the countryside. There were already some people, some campers !
Everyone moved into the youth hostel and got ready for the dinner. |
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At 7.00 p.m., it's dinner time :
- first : orange juice or vegetable soup
- main course : fish & chips or pasta bolognaise or jacket potatoes and cheese and salad
- dessert : crumble or yoghurt.
In the evening : guitar, games, songs and jokes for an evening of fun ! And at 10.00 p.m., everyone went to bed for a good night's sleep or almost (but if your neighbour snores, it's more difficult... no comment ! fortunately there was a big living room).
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SATURDAY 1st April (Fool's day) |
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It was probably 07.00 a.m. when almost everybody woke up to have breakfast or have a shower... but if you wanted to have a shower, you had to be courageous because there was no hot water, only cold water !
At 07.30 p.m., everyone had their breakfast (English or continental breakfast). |
at 07.30a.m. (above) and at 08.30 a.m. (below)
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After a little walk around the youth hostel for some of us, where we could see a gorgeous panoramic view (what a nice scenery !) on the countryside, it was 09.00 a.m., when all of us were ready to go !
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But, but... Mr Nodarian's
bus started and stopped sixty feet farther ! "What's happening ?" we asked him. Mr Nodarian didn't answer, he tried to start again, but nothing happened ! The students approached the coach to go on board but Mr Nodarian didn't let them and told them : "you 'll have to push the coach to start it I'm afraid !".
Was it a breakdown ? Obviously not ! It was April fool's day !
But a lot of them had forgotten it and trusted Mr Nodarian... Even an English camper came and pushed the coach !
But when they understood that it was a joke... Sophie was angry because her hands were dirty, and "now they stink !" she said.
After
this plot, we decided to go to Uffington White Horse, a protohistoric site, before going to London and Camden market. It wasn't planned but when we saw that the site was close to the youth hostel (approximatly 7-8 miles away), we decided to go there.
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We left the coach and some pupils who didn't want to go and see this archaelogical site on the car park. We walked approximately an hour around the site. We saw some black and white sheep and even some lambs. It was about 10.30 a.m. when we came back to the coach, some pupils were nervous because they thought we wouldn't have time to go to Camden market as it was planned.
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But 3 hours later we arrived in Camden for its famous market. Mr Nodarian parked his coach in a supermarket car park and after everyone had taken their packed lunch from the coach, all the pupils went to conquer this big market while we went to the supermarket.
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After the supermarket, we walked along the canal. We saw Regency housing which were built in the early 19th century (picture 2 above). Then we crossed Camden market and its old industrial storehouse (picture 3 above) now converted into numerous shops.
There were a lot of people on the street (picture 1 above), it was Saturday ! And sometimes we could see some "strange" people (picture 4 above) with beautiful haircuts !
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At 3.30 p.m., we were all back on the coach and we left Camden Market to go and see the most famous London monuments and places from our seats. |
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We could see that the different architectural styles in London were mixed, there is no unity inside and between the different districts : we could find a contemporary building close to medieval architecture or a modern building... as you can see on the different pictures above.
At 4.30 p.m. we had a short walk along the Thames in front of the Parliament (some pupils went to the Tate Galery) and after half an hour's break, we left London for France. We arrived, once more, just in time to go on board the ship, it was approximately 07.30 p.m. when the ship left the port of Dover.
At 11.00 p.m., we arrived in Hazebrouck with all the students (nobody had been lost !) and many memories ! A lot of parents were already waiting for their children... 11.45 p.m. everything were over, the last students went back home with relatives.
Many thanks to Mr Nodarian, it was a great experience for me and I think it was the same for most of our students...
Thanks to you.
M.E.
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