2003 Year in Review

Local Students Travel to France

The group in front of the Eiffel Tower at dusk. Left to right, front to back are Janelle Kaiser, Charlie Gatz, Adam Heusinkveld, Tim Houzenga, Beth Janicek, Larry Gatz, Katie Beveroth, and Savana Egan.

One of the water gardens at Giverney.

Mont Saint Michel

The back of Versailles along with a fountain and a sculpture.

A view from the top of the Eiffel Tower at night.

On July 14th, 2003, eight MHS Students traveled to France with their French teacher, Melissa Landes for 9 days. Their trip was called La Belle France, and it was organized by ACIS, (the American Council for International Studies) Traveling to the foreign country was a great experience for all to practice using the French language they had learned in school. Mrs. Landes plans on continuing to do these trips in the future for the benefit of the students.

Day 1: The group met at the MHS parking lot and headed for O’Hare Airport to catch their overnight plane for Paris.

Day 2: After a long overnight flight the group arrived in Paris at about 11:00 a.m. and got situated in their hotel, and then took off to see the Arc D’Triumphe, climbing all the way to the top. After returning to the hotel, the Morrison students met up with about 25 other students from Ohio and Indiana, and went to dinner. After dinner all students and teachers were ready for bed, having been up for close to 2 straight days.

Day 3: Everyone woke up early for a morning bus tour of all the major sight seeing places in Paris. In the afternoon, they traveled to Giverny to see Monet’s house and gardens. At night, the group traveled back to Paris for a night-time boat tour on the Seine River, seeing all major buildings at night.

Day 4: The group woke up early to get on a bus for a long ride up to Bayeaux to see a tapestry made hundreds of years ago, showing the battle of Hastings. After that they got onto the bus again and drove to Normandy to see the D-Day beaches. After a lunch at Arromanches, the group visited the American Cemetery nearby and walked on the beaches that 60 years ago were littered with bodies and the aftermath of the battle that took place there. From there, the group traveled to a little town on the coast of the English Channel called Dinard where they stayed the night, ate dinner, and took a walk along the coast.

Day 5: The group was out of the hotel and loaded onto the bus early in the morning to make it to Mt. St. Michel, where they spent the morning and ate lunch at the beautiful city on an island. The afternoon was filled by a long bus ride to Tours in the Loire Valley, where at night they went to a very busy town square.

Day 6: The students were eager to get moving the next day which would be helpful when walking through the chateaux of Chenonceau and Chambord, because both were gigantic castles fit for a king, literally. In the afternoon the group went to a winery, and was able to take a tour and see how the wine was made in a family owned business for over 400 years. After that, the group went back to Tours and had a nice evening meal and went to sleep after the long day.

Day 7: In the morning the group left for Chartres to see a cathedral that has been a symbol of hope for many people for centuries. After eating lunch in Chartres, they left for Versailles, the palace for French nobility. After a quick tour of the palace, the students went outside to the thousands of acres of fountains, gardens, and sculptures. After Versailles, the group left for Paris, where they ate dinner. The Morrison group left the rest of the group who was getting on a train for southern France, and went to a hotel near the Eiffel Tower. That night they went to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, and most went all the way to the top, where they had a perfect night time view of Paris. When they got down, the group took a walk on the Champs-Elysses and then called it a night, at about 1:00 a.m.

Day 8: The small group of nine went to The Louvre first in the morning, and saw most of the major works housed there. After visiting the museum, the group posed for a photo outside near the glass pyramids. And then traveled by the Metro to the Centre Pompidu, where they got a good view of the architecture, and got to do some shopping. In the afternoon, the group went shopping in downtown Paris at some of the worlds largest department stores such as Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. On their last night, the group went to Sacre Coeur, a white cathedral on a big hill in Paris. After seeing the church, they went across the street to where many street artists worked and many bought art.

Day 9: In the morning the group had a leisurely breakfast and packed their things for the bus ride to the airport, where when they arrived, they were met with very long lines. Once on the plane, they settled in for an eight hour flight, that, because of time changes, took two hours.

Editors Note- While in France, never at any time did anyone in the group experience any hostility toward the Americans, and never were they treated badly because of their nationality.

by Larry Gatz, theCity1.com
August 1, 2003