David's Big Adventure

This young guy...

got on an airplane today...

and is now on his way to spend his spring break in...

FRANCE!

(I found this beautiful print of "things Parisian" on the design*sponge website--see my sidebar for a link)

David is with his French teacher, two other teachers, and a small group of students.

They are going to tour Paris first, and then travel to the south of France, where each student will stay with a family in a small village. David's teacher has been taking groups of students to visit this area for many years. (I believe that 56 families applied for the privilege of hosting the 15 students. That is hospitality, friends! It makes me think that these students are going to feel very WELCOME in the village.)

They will
*attend a French school,
*tour the countryside,
*learn more about France,

*partner with a French student for a scavenger hunt in Aix-en-Provence, and

*speak as much French as possible.

My mother's grandmother, Mathilde (Grandmere), came to the U.S. from France as a young woman, and her daughter, my grandmother (Nana Emilie), spoke French fluently all her life. Nana was still taking lessons (in order to stay fluent) in her 90s!

(This is a photo of my mother, her parents and her other grandmother, in the 1960s. We have no digital photos of Grandmere.)

Grandmere lived with my mother's family from the time Mom was about 7 years old, so my mom was bilingual, too.

Nana Emilie taught us grandchildren to speak French before we studied it in school. She used to read and translate French stories to us when we were little children. I'm quite "rusty" now, but David is in his second year of studying French, and he enjoys it very much. It's fun for me to practice speaking with him, just as it was fun for me to speak with my mother when I was studying French.

This trip is a wonderful opportunity for a 16-year old guy to enrich his learning and enjoyment of a language that has meaning and family history. I miss him already, but we are thrilled for him!