The second Year 3 Trip to Sauveterre - September 26th - 29th 2008

Click here for more photographs from this trip

Friday 26th September

It was the turn of 3H to set off for Sauveterre this morning, slightly later in the day than their friends from 3K last week. The group flew with Air France to Paris and great excitement broke out as the Tour Eiffel came in to view shortly before landing. We saw Concorde parked at Charles de Gaulle and transferred to our next plane which took us to Toulouse. Mr Bailey came to meet us and drove one group to the Chateau, which was very exciting.

We arrived at the peak of the Toulouse Friday rush hour, so we had a late supper on arrival at Sauveterre. What first of all looked like suspiciously foreign food turned out to be quite delicious! It was green lentils with ham and the new arrivals decided it was much nicer than it looked and gobbled it down with enthusiasm. Sam claims to have eaten four bowls of it!

After supper it was already dark, so we played tag on the central lawn under floodlights. It was great fun and we went to bed exhausted.

Saturday 27th September

In the morning, we had a fun lesson with Madame Roujas, who made a train with the days of the week on in French. Natalia taught us about van Gogh and got us to draw something at Sauveterre using van Gogh styles.

After break we went to L'Isle en Dodon market, where we set off on foot to find interesting objects for under 2 euros. We asked the prices by saying "C'est combien?" and asked them to weigh some of the food. We bought some souvenirs and the girls bought a beautiful bouquet of artificial flowers for Miss Hogarth!

For lunch we had Saucisses de Toulouse which was lovely and then set off for Lombez. There was a fair going on in the town centre and a 24 hour sponsored run going on in the streets. We watched the runners and bought some helium filled balloons for the balloon race that was scheduled for later. Angus and Henry were there helping at Madame Roujas' waffle stall making and selling "des gaufres," which looked yummy.

We then spent an hour at Pellis the Patissier learning how to make delicious "Tartes aux Pommes." We cut out the pastry into small disc shapes then pressed them into their moulds. We squeezed the patisserie custard into the base and used the incredible apple slicing machine to peel, slice and cut the apples into little wedge shapes. We placed them carefully on top of the cream and left them for Laurent to bake overnight. He showed us how he makes chocolate mousse cakes and his favourite which is a chocolate bomb!

We let off the balloons at the top of the hill behind Lombez and they flew way up into the sky. We finally returned to Sauveterre and had our first swim in the pool. It was quite chilly but we had great fun there. The Sauveterre boys swam as well. After our home-made pizza supper, we watched the first part of "Finding Nemo" before bed.

Sunday 28th  September

On Sunday morning, we were ready for our lie-in and when we got up, Mr Spencer had been to the bakery with Henry, Angus and Charlie. They brought back baguettes, pains au chocolat and croissants. We ate them for breakfast with tasty hot chocolate made by Mr Stacchini. We went to the Sunday assembly then wrote postcards home which we had bought in the sweet shop on Saturday. We had a lovely time playing in the maze afterwards, making our own dens and redesigning 3K's den!

At 11.00 we went to collect our Tartes aux Pommes from the bakery. They looked and smelled really good and we decided to give them out to everyone at the picnic. We went up to the village of Sauveterre and could just about make out the Pyrenees on the horizon. At 1.00 we all set off with the Sauveterrians to Samatan Lake, where we had our picnic. The sun was really bright and warm, so we played on the beach and swam in the lake all afternoon. We caught lots of crayfish, which nipped some people with their claws! We finished the afternoon with an ice cream at the café.

When we got back to the chateau, some people were brave enough to swim in the pool. We all went to La Petite Maison and looked at the vines. The grapes were picked last Wednesday, so we looked at how the wine was looking in the old barrel, where the grapes were being pressed.

We had supper and a shower in the evening and watched a funny Asterix film in French until we were nearly asleep. We all slept really well that night.

Monday 29th September

We were up early for breakfast and into lessons with Madame Roujas and Natalia. We did more art work and watched French animations on the whiteboard. We had a quick break snack and met the group coming back from their weekend in Toulouse. We said "au revoir" and "merci beaucoup" to Mr and Mrs Bailey, Mr Stacchini, the Gappies, Madame Roujas and Natalia. We were meant to catch the 1.00pm plane to Paris, but when we got to Toulouse Airport, they told us the plane had been cancelled and we would have to wait for the plane to Amsterdam that was leaving at 5.30! We had a long, long wait for the plane but kept ourselves busy with our D.S. games and a bit of shopping. At least we got to go into the play area that 3K had used last week in Amsterdam!

We all had a wonderful weekend at Sauveterre and we were very lucky to have Mrs Gowans and Mrs Kurdi to help with our activities and with the driving around. Miss Hogarth and Mrs Smales were very kind and helpful all through the trip and we all want to thank them very much for taking us to Sauveterre.

M.W.W.S. and 3H