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 Jumabaev
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 Hoffman
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 Beys
