Sad Farewell To France After Seven Weeks

COUNTRY: France
PROGRAM: Language Immersion
WRITTEN BY: Eadelin Melloy

On Saturday, Clémence and I went and did some shopping in the sales both in Rouen centre and the docks (shopping centre).

 We went to many of the different stores you can't get in Australia like New Look and Jennyfer, which was amazing. Of course the sales just made it so much better as everything was so much cheaper and some of the clothes were even 70% off!

After going shopping in Rouen city centre we went to the docks and got some lunch at a pasta place before going to see a cute french film 'Le Nouveau', which was about a boy starting at a new school. We had some good giggles and it was a nice break from shopping! After this we did even more shopping and I honestly could not believe how busy it was – so many people! Once we got home we had mini cheese crepes for dinner and went to bed as it was quite late.

On the Sunday we slept in and then went to the markets to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables and other food for the coming week. It was very interesting as I have previously seen a video of this in french class so to see it in real life is quite funny!


After this we had Clémence s fondants that she had made that morning, these were absolutely delicious and I must ask for the recipe before I go! That afternoon we just hung about and had a relaxing evening.

During the last week of school in Rouen, I attended my first audiovisual class for four hours on Wednesday afternoon (due to many of the Wednesday afternoons being excursions) which was quite interesting as they looked at the way film was made. That night I was given a 'Burgundy' meal, which consisted of my first ever snails and Beef Burgundy a famous dish from that area which is world known.

The snails were surprisingly delicious – I think this was mainly due to the amount of garlic and butter put in the delicious sauce.

Snails!

On the Thursday it was my last day so Clémence and I went out to do some final shopping in Rouen and also went to Flunch for some lunch during our three hour break eating 'Galette complet' and a delicious strawberry custard tart. Full to the brim I purchase my last macaron (I was most definitely forced to by my host sister) this time 'ganache' flavoured. After this we did have an hour break where we went into the computer room and watched 'The 100' in french.

After saying goodbye to the people I had met at school, we caught the bus home and I started to pack. It was here the fact that I would be leaving really kicked in and the sadness and excitement filled me up. My host family took me out to a restaurant where we had our last meal and they gave me two beautiful books - a french cooking 'bible' and a book of Normandy.
View outside the bus

Getting up at 4:00am in the morning, I put on my jeans and my Antipodean t-shirt and headed off to meet everyone at the bus. The 7 weeks had seemed to go fast and it really was sad to go. When it came to saying goodbyes i think my host sister and I cried and hugged about 10 times before I could get on the bus (I was the last one).

After goodbyes, we headed to the airport where we caught a 13 hour flight to Singapore and a 7 hour flight home, exchanging stories with everyone of our adventures abroad. Once touching down in Sydney and seeing our parents everyone excited, only truly feeling like home once stepping out into the heat!

Au revoir France!

Honestly I can say this experience has been an amazing one of culture, language and creating connections. I was extremely lucky to receive such a lovely family and I will definitely stay in contact with.