Warsaw Students Off To FranceEleven Warsaw Community High School students and three chaperones left Wednesday for an 11-day stay in France.
Another student made the trip ahead of the group, but she will travel home with them when they return April 11.
The WCHS traveling group will be visiting and staying with the French students who visited Warsaw in November.
Senior Sam Albertson said he was looking forward to "learning the language more, having fun."
He said, during the trip, they were going to Paris and La Rochelle. "Everything is pretty much planned for us," Albertson said.
He will be staying with the Huard family while in France. Emilie Huard, the daughter, was one of the French visitors to Warsaw last year.
Junior Ryan Riner said he was looking forward to "just the learning experience, going to Paris."
He said he was excited about the trip to Paris because the city has "a lot of ancient things there. It's a very old city."
He'll be staying with Lua Nicolas and Marjolaine Poyvre, who he met in November. He was only nervous about the language barrier, he said.
Kandi Jones' daughter, Jenna Jones, is making the trip. "I think it's great," Kandi said. "I think it will be a great experience for her."
Dave Chastain, French teacher and trip organizer, said the group also will be visiting Rochefort. They will see the Eiffel Tower, visit an aquarium in La Rochelle and meet the town council and mayor of Niort, France.
In 1999, a group of French students visited Warsaw. One of those students ended up later staying in the U.S. for about 3-1/2 years, working on a farm. When that student got married in August 2007, Chastain met Lycée-Saint-André Principal Jean Luc Chartier at the wedding. Chastain told Chartier that he would be interested in Lycée-Saint-André and WCHS participating in an exchange.
After returning to Niort, Chartier passed Chastain's information along to teacher Mickael Delion. Delion and Chastain began communicating through e-mails. Their students then began chatting with each other and sending videos back and forth.
On Nov. 18, Delion, Chartier and 16 of their students arrived in Warsaw. The WCHS trip to France this month is completing the circle of the student exchange.
Making the trip to France are Albertson, Chastain, Haley Coppes, Karen Disher, Anthony Ferguson, Montel Ferguson, James Jones, Jenna Jones, Abbi Montgomery, Riner, Anne Slaughter, Monica Sleek, Nick Sparkman, Shannon Sterling and Kayla Yantz.
Their itinerary starts at approximately 2:30 p.m. today when they arrive at Lycée-Saint-André and have a welcome toast in the school cafeteria before heading home to host families. There's a 6 p.m. concert in the school featuring Michel Beaufils, and a cheese and wine party at 7 p.m. with the American and Slavic exchange students.
Students will have a full day of classes Friday and Monday and April 9. This weekend, they will spend their time with host families.
Tuesday, there's a field trip to Rochefort then on to the seaport of La Rochelle. That will be followed by a stroll through the town and a picnic.
They will go to Paris by bullet train Wednesday, and then have another picnic.
On April 10, they will be interviewed by the press, and then rendezvous with the town council at 11 a.m. At 2 p.m., they have a conference with Genevieve Gaillard, mayor of Niort, France.
Their flight home from Nantes Airport is at about 7:35 a.m. April 11.
