School Exchange

When I was 16 and coming to the end of my 5th year in Secondary school, I had the opportunity to go to Paris to the Lycee Victor Duruy for a 6 week exchange with one of the pupils there. A group of us (I don’t remember, perhaps 12) travelled out by bus and ferry accompanied by certainly 1 teacher.

When I went to meet the exchange family, I was somewhat taken aback to find that my counterpart, who should by then have been in Scotland, was still there. It turned out that her older sister was going on a pilgrimage to Chartres and she was somewhat upset.

The family lived in a rather smart address, a flat with a concierge in a gated community and with a lift. The flat was near the metro station Cambronne, and near the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides. I can still remember the address, and even went there while on holiday some years later, but nobody remembered the family. I am sure that the father had long retired by that time.

On our first day at school we were all ushered into the classes of our exchange partners. Some girls there told me that I would be sent for by the headmistress and that I (and all the rest) would be put down to the bottom class. They asked me to tell her that I wanted to stay with them.

It worked! My exchange was due to take her Baccalaureat the next year, so I felt it incumbent on me to take notes for her. English was fine, History was fascinating because of the different viewpoint of the French, Maths and Science were fine as we were ahead in Scotland, French was ok even with having to remember a poem by Victor Hugo, but Latin! I have to confess that I gave up there!

I got well used to going round on the Metro and seeing bits of Paris for myself. The greatest benefit was having no opportunity to speak English so that I dreamed in French and thought in French. Perhaps you will understand why I was able to read War and Peace while there.

When the exams (the Bachot) were on at the school the family took me to their country cottage in the Loire et Cher Departemant. While there, they took me round most of the Loire Chateaux. After some time in Paris, I found it easier to go round with the French speaking guide than the English speaking one. (a matter of accents more than anything).

At the end of term I came “home” for lunch and received a special lunch to celebrate my 17th birthday – I can’t remember the food, but there were certainly champagne, white wine, red wine……… and then I went back to school, to collect my exchange partner’s prizes. One of these was a booklet on the chateaux of the Loire with photographs. The family gave me that as a souvenir of my wonderful visit.