SPASH students treated to once-in-a-lifetime trip to France

Les étudiants de SPASH sont traités pour un voyage unique en France

By Joe Bachman
Editor

STEVENS POINT — A group of thirteen lucky students spent 15 days in France on what would be an unforgettable field trip.

Chelsea Peeters, French teacher at Ben Franklin and P.J. Jacobs, took 13 students over 4,000 miles to a trek across the grounds of one of our oldest allies. The students traveled with two other schools across the northwest-France region, taking in such historic sites as Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy Beach, and of course, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

“It was an eventful two weeks — it was a blast.” said Peeters.

The students left on June 16, and returned on June 30. These students were able to utilize what they have been learning over the years in a real-world situation. Not only did they hone their French language skills, but had an up-close experience with another country’s unique culture.

“People have always equated traveling with a language class to the game of a sport — practice is what you do in the classroom, and being able to go there and actually use their language and skills that they’ve been learning these past few years and see it for real — it really legitimizes what they’ve been learning,” said Peeters. “I think in this part of Wisconsin it’s common for students to not get to travel much in their life, so to be able to have this experience and to see that there is a world outside of here is so good for them.”

Peeters would like to thank the following sponsors to help make the trip happen: Polito’s, Culvers, Family Video
Copps, Community First Bank, Plover Chiropractic, Crow Family Dental.

The students also put together a running blog of their trip. Below is an excerpt from the blog, which can be found at https://spashfrancetrip.wordpress.com/

“Next we headed over to the Champs Elysées which is the most famous street in Paris. We stopped at La Durée (which is famous for it’s macarons) to each get a macaron. At that point, we had a couple of hours before our next activity so we shopped until we dropped. There is a lot of shopping to be had on the Champs Elysées, and yesterday also marked the beginning of the “soldes” which is the two times a year that stores all over the country clearance out their stuff. Otherwise, you generally don’t see things on sale like you do in the U.S. We got quite the haul!”