Le Spectacle!

On Sunday afternoon, we traveled with several teachers and host families from Senlis to Paris to watch the musical theatre performance of Adam et Ève: La Seconde Chance, which was an amazing spectacle of music, dance, acrobatics, stagecraft, and singing.

 L to R: Piper, Laura, Rachel, Charissa, and Anne Charlotte in front of the big poster for the musical at the Palais des Sports at Porte de Versailles in Paris.

 This picture gives a good idea of the stage, the acrobats, the lighting, etc. It was an amazingly powerful show to watch and listen to.

 In the foreground here is Mr. Néel, the History teacher at Lycée Hugues Capet who has been so helpful for our trip. The cute little girl in pink is his daughter who was overjoyed by the entire theatrical experience. Further down the row, we can just see Rachel, Piper, and Laura. Everyone loved this experience so much and we are eternally grateful to Monsieur Olivier Cormy for making it possible!

 

At the end of the show, the composer/producer Pascal Obispo went on stage (he had been sitting in the crowd) and he got the crowd to participate in a rousing finale with swaying arms and lots of joyful singing!

 

When the show was over, we got to have a late-night tour of Paris and we saw the Eiffel Tower! (and the Arch of Triumph, the Champs-Élysées, the Place de la Concorde, and La Madeleine)

Le week-end à Montdidier

The weekend brought us to the heart of Picardy in the Somme. With Lexi in Normandy and Rachel ensconced with a family in the region she already knows, Charissa, Laura, and Piper stayed with hosts in the Montdidier region. It was a wonderful opportunity to see how people live in a more rural area and to get to know some of the Montdidier students who will be visiting Oklahoma in April.

  

Here we are in Hélène Lieuré's home in Wacquemoulin, France. L to R: Madame Robillard, Pierre Lieuré, Gabriel Borel, Laura Sanchez, Hélène Lieuré, Léo Davy, Charissa Palank, and Piper Janoe. Notice the cool Westmoore t-shirts the French high schoolers are wearing! 

Piper is playing with the Lieuré family's cat whose name is "Beaux Yeux" ("Beautiful Eyes") .

The French kids learned how to play "Spoons", only this time they used pens instead of spoons. The Lieuré home dates back to at least the mid-1700's. Notice the beautiful wooden beams in this fully restored farm house.

 

 For dinner, we ate a specialty from Alsace called flammenkuche which is essentially a thin pizza-like crust with cream, ham, mushrooms, and cheese. It is truly delicious!

  

The girls had been to Compiègne during the day and while they were there, they selected cakes at a specialty pastry shop. Here is Laura's chocolate torte, but she was too full to eat it!

 

Good company and good friends: (L to R) Madame Robillard, Laura, Charissa, Madame Lieuré, Hélène, and Pierre. Pierre kept us all laughing with his jokes and English. What a great guy!

 On Sunday morning, it was time to head back to Senlis. We met at the high school to say our farewells. Here are Léo, Laura, Charissa, Gabriel, and Piper in from of the Lycée Jean Racine in Montdidier.

Albert & World War I

On Monsieur Simmonds' suggestion, after we finished lunch in Amiens, we headed out east of Amiens to Albert to visit the Musuem of the Somme, also known as the "Museum of the Shelters". The entire museum is underground in real shelters from World War I and it is full of very interesting artifacts and descriptions. Laura was able to find a lot of supporting evidence for her research on women in World War I.

Les fellowettes entering into the museum/underground shelters.

 

UCO student Anna Lisa Clark and the fellowettes watching a film about World War I in an authentic bomb shelter.

 

 The fellowettes looking at the exhibits as they wander the tunnels of the museum/shelter. All of the artifacts were very interestingly displayed and really helped create a picture for the fellowettes of what it was like during the Great War.

 

 A map of the region of the Somme, where the town of Albert is located and which experienced some of the fiercest battles of World War I.

 The fellowettes pose with a mural outside of the museum in Albert.

 

The fellowettes (minus Lexi who was in Normandy) in front of the church in Albert, completely rebuilt after World War I.

Amiens: Research and Public Relations

The fellowettes visited the Archives Départementales de la Somme (the archives for the Amiens region) to learn about the history of the region, specifically World Wars I & II. Laura's topic is the comparative role of American and French women in World War I, so this research and learning supported her fellowship project.

 

In the center is the archival expert who presented the materials and history to the fellowettes. 

 Laura taking pictures of th ematerials that will help support her research.

The archivist found this poster from the 1930's encouraging farmers to use insecticides --- since Charissa is studying organic foods in France, this little bit of history was a significant find for her.

 Here are the fellowettes in front of the Archives, the building was once a convent.

 Les fellowettes have a moment of levity after visiting the Archives. It was a cool, misty day in Amiens. One can really get a feeling for this working-class part of the city in this picture.

 We visited the campus of the Jules Verne University in Amiens and met up with our fellow Oklahoman from the University of Central Oklahoma and Westmoore student, Anna Lisa Clark (second from the left in this photo). She is a student at Jules Verne University and she joined us for the day.

 We ate a gourmet meal at the Vocational High School for Hostelry. In this picture, Charissa is explaining her fellowship to a colleague of Mr. Simmonds' who had called in during our lunch.

 

Piper, Laura, and Rachel during a visit to the kitchens of the training school.

 

Holding the picture of the Francis Tuttle partnership students that hangs in the hall of the hostelry school.

 With the director in front of the school.

 Students at the school hard at work.

An Afternoon in Paris

On Thursday afternoon,we took a quick trip to Paris and we spent the afternoon in and around Notre Dame de Paris. We've seen enough cathedrals at this point that the fellowettes were impressed with Notre Dame, yet not over-awed. Of course, the rose windows there are beautiful and here Rachel is taking a picture of the north rose window.

Just across the Petit Pont (the little bridge) next to Notre Dame is the famous secondhand English-language bookstore known as Shakespeare and Company. The tradition is to buy a book there, get it stamped with the shop's iconic stamp and them give the book as a gift to a friend as a way to perpetuate a love of learning. So, we all did just that.

 

This is the view from the Shakespeare and Company bookstore looking over to the Notre Dame cathedral, just so you can see how close the two are.

 

The fellowettes on a bridge back over to l'Ile de la Cité (where Notre Dame is situated).

 

Piper and Rachel with the statue of Charlemagne in front of Notre Dame.

Le lycée et un déjeuner

Piper, Rachel, & Laura during the pause between classes in front of Lycée Hugues Capet with a Spanish teacher from Colombia.

According to French cultural norms, smoking is considered quite normal, even though the is a growing movement to get smoking out of public spaces and to force people to recognize the dangers of smoking. It is perfectly acceptable in France for teenagers to smoke, although they are not allowed to smoke on school property. So, during the pause between classes, many French students gather outside the school's front gate to smoke. This crushed package of cigarettes in front of the high school reads "Fumer Tue" which means "Smoking Kills".

We went to the Pizzeria Maestro in Senlis for lunch and the fellowettes learned to each pizza French-style --- with a knife and a fork! The pizza was delicious, but a lot of hard work!

After lunch, we had a quick visit of the cathedral in Senlis and Laura had a close look at the names of the soldiers from Senlis who died in World War I.

Beauvais with friends

On Wednesday afternoon, the fellowettes went to Beauvais which is a town about 45 minutes from Senlis whose history goes al the way back to Roman times. This picture shows Madame Robillard with Madame Bouichou who lives in Beauvais and who accompanied the lauréats in October when they came to Oklahoma in October 2011. Madame Bouichou brought her two sons, aged 10 and 6, and showed us around Beauvais for the afternoon.

 

 Here the fellowettes are on the steps of the cathedral in Beauvais with Madame Bouichou's sons, Maxence (in red) and Clément.

 The Beauvais cathedral an example of a "flamboyant" Gothic cathedral.

 The interior of the Beauvais cathedral with Maxence and Clément.

 The fellowettes and the Bouichou family in front of the 19th-century astronomical clock for which the Beauvais cathedral is famous.

 One of France's most famous saints is St. Thérèse de Lisieux, also known as St. Theresa of the Little Flower. This is a banner for her in the Beauvais cathedral and the quote of her roughly says that she wanted to spend her live making heaven known on earth.

 A very interesting door inside the Beauvais cathedral --- it's about 4 feet high.

 In addition to the cathedral, we visited the Departmental Museum (a department in France is a lot like a county in the US, so this museum is the equivalent of the county historical society. We saw all kinds of art and artifacts from all the eras Beauvais has known going as far back as Roman times.