At the start of July, a group of Thirds set off on an exciting adventure to Normandy, where they experienced French cuisine, took in beautiful sights and practised their language skills. Here's a report about the trip from Arabella and Carla.
On 3 July, at 2.45am, we set off on a trip to Normandy, France. We had a long journey ahead of us, but managed to sleep the entire way to Portsmouth ferry port. As we boarded the ferry, the salty sea breeze blew through our hair, with the 6-hour journey across the English Channel awaiting us. Obviously, we spent much of the time in the duty-free section, testing all the most expensive perfumes. When we stepped foot into France, we knew that there was an exciting experience waiting for us.
After we had settled into our dorms at the château, we sat down for a well-deserved meal, which was delightful after 10 hours of travelling. Finally, it was time for bed after the longest day of our lives. Almost everybody fell asleep within five minutes and slept peacefully until the morning.
After a delicious breakfast of croissants, our first activity was making bread. We learnt about the ingredients and volumes in French, which was soon followed by us getting a chance to make our very own bread to eat at dinner. During bread making, we took part in a load of challenges, including making the longest bread and creating a shape out of our bread. After we had finished putting our bread in the oven, we headed to lunch, which gave us plenty of energy for the activities ahead of us.
Aero ball was claimed to be the highlight of the trip for most people, as the animateurs were exceedingly kind to us and the game was a mix of volleyball, trampolining and basketball. Aero ball is played in a tall metal frame covered in safety netting and has four different trampoline sections inside. Within the netted structure, the four sections are separated by netting to stop contact between the players. Behind each player there is a net, and the aim of the game is to throw the ball into the opposition’s net to gain points. We played a tournament and our team was declared victorious! Overall, it was one of the highlights of the trip.
Next, we conquered the climbing wall, which was a lot higher than it seemed and, if you managed to get to the top, you could let everyone know about it by ringing the bell, which we completed successfully. Everyone was starving by the time dinner came round, which is when we were able to taste the bread that we had made in the morning, and it was very tasty. The day was almost finished except for our evening activity, which was a very fun and exhilarating treasure hunt that ended with our team winning.
Sunday was the day that everyone had been waiting for, as we were visiting Mont Saint-Michel! Mont Saint-Michel is surrounded by water and, when the tide is low, the surrounding bay is exposed. The beautiful architecture blew us all away, with the medieval abbey surrounded by winding paths leading deeper into the town, where you could purchase lots of sweet treats. Apart from shopping in the town and admiring the architecture, we were led by an instructor into the bay surrounding Mont Saint-Michel.
This instructor taught us about quicksand, as that is what much of the ground was made of. We did many thrilling activities in the quicksand, such as bouncing up and down, which made the ground underneath feel jelly-like. It was the most fascinating thing we had ever seen! After ten seconds of wobbling around on the uneven surface, the instructor told us to move away, as you can sink very quickly when you create that kind of surface on quicksand. The instructor then showed everyone how to get out of quicksand before it hardened, which was an unbelievably valuable life skill. Overall, this was our main highlight of the trip, as you will never experience anything quite like it.
The day ended with our last dinner and evening activity at the château, which was a big quiz, before we headed off to sleep.
As we woke up for our last morning at the château and a long day of travelling ahead of us, we packed our bags and loaded the coach, ready for our departure. Before we set off, we had our last breakfast and said thank you and farewell to the animateurs and the château. However, the fun did not stop there. On the way to the ferry port, we stopped at Bayeux Adventure, where we all took part in high ropes. A group of us took on the black course, which was extremely high in the air and incredibly challenging. During the course, we were all screaming with fear because we had forgotten about our fear of heights until we reached the top. Although the course tested our fitness and our tolerance for heights, we managed to complete it successfully and were enormously proud of ourselves afterwards.
Overall, this trip was the highlight of the year and we would thoroughly recommend it to any future Thirds in years to come.
