Caroline Li, Arts & Entertainment Editor
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May 13, 2024
The interior of the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière. We took a funicular to the top of a huge hill in order to get here.
Early this April, a group of 19 AHS French students were offered the opportunity to participate in an exchange with Val-de-Saone in Trévoux, France. Accompanied by Madame Vaughan, her sister (Dr. Lisa Docktor), and her sister’s wife (Laura Walton), we explored Paris, Lyon, Trévoux, and more through a variety of cafés, bookstores, and museums. The main purpose of the visit was to immerse ourselves in the French language and its culture; in February we hosted a French student in Arcadia, who we would later stay with in Trévoux in April. We left with a better understanding of the country we’ve been learning about and a plethora of new friends.
Léna Grisey (The Frenchie of Amy Wang) and I both like Rubik’s Cubes, so she let me borrow her Megaminx to try to solve! I can do everything except for the last layer now.Grace Yang, our Frenchies, and I went to the boulangerie (bakery) to grab some treats for our park picnic. I got a tarte aux fraises.Dolphin- and fish-shaped chocolates at one of the boulangeries.A Great Prominent moth I found in a gazebo in Trévoux. She slept on me for a while before flying away.We got curry chicken pizza in Lyon. That same day, we went to the Haribo store, a cool church, and a popular variety store chain called Normal.A tiny vinyl store in Lyon with tons of old movies and albums. Aspen Myrvold bought an Edith Piaf record!Nathan de Joannès (my Frenchie from last year) and I met up to take a walk around one of the largest parks in France, le Parc de la Tête d’Or. His school is right next to the park, so he showed me around all the coolest parts, like the giraffes and the greenhouses.My Frenchie and I stopped by Joseph Wong’s Frenchie’s house to see their cat. (I’d come back to France just for you, Peanuts.)The dad of Lilie Mercier (my Frenchie) would cook these amazing dinners for us every night, one of which ended up being yellow curry. Speaking of food, almost all the Americans preferred the food we had with our host families over what we ate in Paris.My Frenchie posing with the capybara plushie that I bought for her. Afterwards, we watched Hunter x Hunter on her bed for the rest of the night because we were super tired.A heart-shaped ball of fur from Chipie, the cat of Léna Grisey. Thanks for the souvenir!Working on a project comparing French and American schools with Janis Zuanon (top left), Lilie Mercier (bottom left), Amira Collins (bottom right), Charlotte Quillet di Folco (out of frame) and Nikini Wathuthantrige (out of frame).“Roman” by Arthur Rimbaud, one of my favorite French poets. We were given this poem to annotate in their literature class and had tons of fun discussing different interpretations of its message.Janis Zuanon and I painted tiny cats on each others’ nails at one of the parties!A napkin that one of the Americans, Larissa Vega, decorated with cute French words and phrases that we used throughout the trip.A bookstore in Villefranche that we spent way too much time in. I got some cute socks for my Frenchie here.I drew some of our friends as animals on my Frenchie’s arm on our way home from Villefranche. We made a pit stop to buy some dragees, a traditional French candy made with almonds and typically eaten at weddings.
