France: French Immersion Adventure 2025
June 29, 2025
After landing and momentarily being upheld at baggage claim, the group made our way into Paris by bus. We took time to meet our cool leaders and peers.
It was my first time in Paris and all I thought was that it’s really cute and really clean, who knew it would also be really hot?! There is like, no AC in France, and in most of Europe. Everything is really sticky and warm. After gathering at our hostel in Paris, we had a cool lunch at a popular falafel place and some people had shawarma. It was very yummy and we ate in a dainty little park.
We were then guided to see the Notre Dame. It looked so dramatic and the inside of it is somehow even more dramatic. Some guy was talking over the speakers as everyone craned their heads and gawked at all of the cool church stuff and then an organ player started playing the ginormous organ above us; it was really pretty.
After that visit, we walked around Île de la Cité to checkout other famous spots, then went back to the hostel and then back out for dinner which was savory crepes and some sweet crepes. Some kids went to get ice cream and others headed back to their rooms for some nice sleep.
Everything was super hot but at least the view from my room was a really cool looking church. Et voilà (there you have it).
By: Iman
June 30, 2025
Today we woke up at the hostel in Paris, ready to head to the mountains. We had breakfast at the hostel before heading to the train station in Paris. Once we arrived at the train station, we had a few options for lunch and were able to grab what we wanted to take onto the three hour train ride to Grenoble. On the train ride we were able to rest and we also wrote our French intros for the trip leaders. Towards the end of the train ride we each interviewed one other person in French in order to get to know each other better and to present this information to the rest of the group later in the day. After getting off the train in Grenoble, we headed straight to the bus that took us to our gîte in the mountains. The hour bus journey went pretty quick, and we were treated to much better weather up here, as it was very hot in Paris. This evening we had a great lasagna dinner at the gîte and were able to spend some relaxed time together as a group. After dinner we all met together to present our interviews from earlier in the day. By the end of the day all of us were pretty tired so we had a chill night; some of us played some darts in the downstairs area of the gîte. We are all looking forward to white water rafting tomorrow.
By: Logan
July 1, 2025
We woke up this morning at 7:00am, and after getting ready for the day we eagerly got on the bus to head to our whitewater rafting activity. After a 45 minute bus ride along the river, we were greeted by the rafting guides and instructed to put on two wet suits, along with a helmet and life jacket. Although we were very hot while waiting in the sun with all our layers, we were still excited to get on the rafts and begin our adventure. After the guides explained the basics of what we were about to do, we quickly loaded the rafts and were surprised by how fast and cold the rapids were after a storm the night before. After an amusing first half of the activity, we stopped to get off at the river bank and our guides showed us a large waterfall to the side of the rapids. At first we were confused as to why we paused the rafting, but soon after we were entering the waterfall and realized how strong the current was. The second half of the rafting was also very exhilarating, as we made some wrong turns and we even had to get out to redirect the boat a few times. After we got out of the water, we took off our wet suits and ate a ‘pique-nique’ in the sun. We were all fatigued on the bus ride back from rafting after spending so much time in the sun and some of us napped during that ride.
After getting back to the gîte, we were quickly introduced to our service guides: Laurent, Marie, and Fabrice. Although we were tired from rafting, we went to the hiking trail with our guides and were given useful tools for our work before we started following Laurent down the path. He showed us what we will be doing the next few days to clear up the hiking trail, which included taking rocks out of the way, draining water channels, and building a rock wall on the side of the trail. After we were shown what to do and how to use the tools, we began our work and cleared large rocks out of the path. While some of us were with Laurent making a canal in the ground to drain the water, me and a few others were with Fabrice moving rocks and pruning the trees. By the time we were done, we walked down the path to meet the guides who drove us back to the gîte.
When we got back a few of us went to see the café in Mizoën to have something to drink before we showered and settled into the gîte for the night. At 7:30pm we had a classic French dinner, with melon and prosciutto as the appetizer, a French pasta dish for the main and a chocolate cake for dessert. After dinner, we finished our community agreement before playing darts and going to bed.
By: Alex B.
July 2, 2025
July 2, 2024
We started off our day relatively early waking up at 7:30 ready for a full day of service with our guides and new friends Laurent, Marie, and Fabrice. We ate our breakfast while waiting for their arrival, a delicious mix of yogurt, granola, bread, and jam. When they arrived, Laurent was joined by his son Gaban (Gabon) who was coming to work with us for the day. Laurent explained the plan for the day and how we could improve from our work the day before. We would continue to restore the trails in a small town in the Alps, working to build canals and stabilize the walls surrounding it. After reviewing the plan, we split up into 3 teams we would work with for the day. We packed up our lunches consisting of delicious baguette ham sandwiches with fruit and chips, packed our work gloves and materials, and headed up the mountain with our leaders. Once we arrived we got straight to work and used various tools on the trail for a few hours up until it was time for lunch. We all sat in a nice shady part of the trail enjoying a nice break from the work and also working to get to know Gabon better while practicing our french. After lunch we continued to work for a few hours more, up until it started to unfortunately rain down on us. It happened to start right around when we were finishing up anyways, so we all hiked back down the trail as fast as we could, hopping into the minivans soaking wet. We headed back to the Gîte and everyone took some time to shower and enjoy some snacks. At around 6pm we all met up to do a tour and scavenger hunt around the town of Mizoën were we’ve been staying in. We split up into four teams racing around all trying to get to each location searching for answers. We all met back at the church next to the Gîte when our time was up, and are awaiting the reveal of the winner for tomorrow. We then enjoyed a delicious home-cooked dinner sitting outside for the first time and taking in the beautiful views from the deck.
We reflected on the day and now are looking forward to conquering the continuation of trail work tomorrow!
By: Palmer
