Jeudi 14 janvier

The new group of Mowdenians travelling to France this term all gathered at Newcastle airport on a freezing and snowy morning, at 7.45 am. Despite fears over the weather and possible flight cancellations, all travel arrangements went to plan this morning and our flights from Newcastle to Heathrow, then on to Toulouse went ahead as planned. Our only problem was to discover that Ben R, Christina and a few other new arrivals had no luggage to collect as it had not made it past Heathrow! We met up with the other Sauveterriens in the departure lounge at Terminal 5 and filled the back of the plane.

We arrived at the château in a coach, but also in pouring rain. We explored the château before going to the salle à manger for supper - delicious roast pork with plum sauce. We sat down in the salle d'assemblée to watch a Tintin film in French before going up to our rooms at the end of a very long day.

Vendredi 15 janvier

Beautiful cloudless sky, with the snow-covered Pyrenees in full view. What a lovely welcome we have all had. The children all unpacked after breakfast and the missing suitcases all arrived before midday. All the French teachers arrived and introduced themselves, so the children all went to different classes to try out their French for the first time. A morning of great concentration and effort deserves a good lunch, which is shortly to be served....

We all enjoyed saucisses de Toulouse for lunch, followed by the French traditional "Galette des Rois" Epiphany cake, which has a secret charm hidden within the filling of each cake for a person to win; the lucky finder at each table receives a gold crown and is pronounced "Le Roi" (or "La Reine") and James G was the only Mowdenian King this year!

There were three after-lunch lessons followed by a walk up to Sauveterre village; there was an incredible view of the whole Pyrenean range 30 lies to the south. We played games at the top of the steep hill and had a snack before walking back down to the Château.

We had quiche for supper then went to write our first letters home. We have only been here for 24 hours, but we have done such a lot already!

Samedi 16 janvier

Saturday morning: a randomly selected lucky group were taken to L'Isle Jourdain Market this morning. It was chilly but dry as he children set off on their mission - to find the most unusual object for under 2 euros in 35 minutes. Quickly, queues were forming at vegetable stalls, where some bizarrely shaped carrots, radishes and other unidentifiable root vegetables were on sale. Some approached the oyster seller and bought "huitres" while the honey seller was popular too. Victoria and Tara bought a beeswax candle and some delicious "fritons de canard." The most unusual and certainly the most unpleasant object of all, as voted by all present was the revolting skinned rabbit's head that two girls managed to buy from the game stall - for well under 2 euros!

The group returned to join the rest of the Sauveterrians for a listening comprehension test followed by a tasty lunch of duck confit and then chocolate mousse..

.. à suivre