Sauveterre September 2008
Thursday 4th September 2008
We all arrived safely and on time at Sauveterre. Our flights with Air France , from Newcastle to Paris then on to Toulouse
The children found their luggage and met up with the Cothill group at Toulouse
For supper there was grated carrot with vinaigrette dressing, roast pork stuffed with prunes with pasta, followed by a vanilla yoghurt. Absolutely delicious and wolfed down by everyone as we were all very hungry.
There are only 30 children here altogether this term, which is great! The Mowden boys are paired up with two Mowdenians and two Cothillians to a room. Our five girls are in their own room with a matron next to them.
We will teach them how to use the email probably this Saturday. Tomorrow will be a very busy day indeed as they will meet all the French teachers who are going to try and assess how their French is, and there will be a lot of exploring to do in the breaks.
Friday 5th September 2008
Straight into the routine this morning ; breakfast at 7.45 and lots more instructions to remember ; where to put everything from the suitcases, finding the classrooms, lockers, games shed and changing rooms etc.
Then we all met up in the Salle d'assemblée to be introduced to the teaching staff; Mme Roujas, Mme Saint-Lèbe, Mme Fourteau, Mme Harris, Monsieur Fenieys, Mme Séailles. Today we had all kinds of tests and assessments in order to grade our levels of French so the classes can be set for next week's lessons.
Lunch was poulet frites, which everyone loved; this was followed by mousse au chocolat, a Sauveterre special by our cook, Martine.
In the afternoon, Lucy Cashmore, returned to Mowden with lots of messages from us to make our friends jealous back at school!
In the games period, we walked up to the
Saturday 6th September
A wet start to Auriol Drummond-Hay's 12th birthday, but with lessons scheduled with Mme Roujas and in the art room with Mlle Rodrigues, the weather did not affect the morning's activities.
It all cleared up over our lunch of Saucisse de Toulouse and we all went down to Samatan for the annual African market, which takes place during "Samafrica" week. There was plenty of devious haggling in broken French to be heard and many bargains triumphantly brought back to the Château later in the afternoon !
As the ground dried out, we played out first wide game in the park, as news started to filter in about the torrential downpours taking place in Northumberland. As we all sympathised with our colleagues and classmates, battling with the deluge, we all leapt into the pool to finish off the afternoon.
At supper, we celebrated Auriol's birthday with cake and Champony, with corks firing off all around la salle à manger!
The day finished with delicious home-made pizza, prepared by Anne-Sophie and a film, « Mon beau-père, mes parents et moi » before bed.
Sunday 7th September 2008
A beautiful morning greeted the girls as they emerged from their Sunday lie-in to go to Lombez and collect the breakfast croissants au beurre and chocolatines. They also went to the back of the boulangerie Chez Pellis, to see some dough being mixed for the next batch of baguettes. Mrs Bailey prepared lovely chocolat chaud for our breakfast and the we prepared for our outing.
We boarded a coach which took us south on a 90 minute journey towards the Spanish border. We drove to Arreau and then we headed up the side of the valley to the Col d'Aspin, arriving, like the Tour de France riders a few weeks ago at the point marked "Alt: 1490 mètres" at the roof of the Pyrenees.
We had our picnic by the coach and decided on the route we would take; we walked steeply up through some trees and onto some high pasture; there were flocks of sheep and some pale coloured cattle grazing up there; we saw some Pyrenean Imperial Eagles gliding around in the thermals.
We played with the frisbee and walked on to the summit. We were now in swirling cloud and the last part was very steep. Mr Bailey rewarded everyone with energy-giving Carambars and then we played catch with a tennis ball.
We headed back down, stopping for one more big game of catch before descending to the coach for goûter.
Mr Bailey invited the keener staff to join in on the downhill part of the Col d'Aspin ride, on bikes and they went tearing down in pursuit of the King of the Mountain, Mr Bailey, and were waiting in Arreau when the bus eventually caught them up!
On our return to the Château, we had a bit of time for a swim, some table tennis, then supper, a letter home and bed! Ouf - nous sommes très fatigués!!
Week 2
I am back at Mowden now, but I am receiving messages every day from the Sauveterriens and enjoying the daily photos on their website (www.sauveterre.net.) Everyone seems settled and happy out there. The first exchanges with the Primary Schools in Lombez and Samatan have taken place. The first running of La Course took place on Thursday in a thunderstorm, but being the first one, the children were all under strict orders to keep the times slow, in order to become familiar with the distance of the run and to find out where the hills are etc. On Wednesday, there was a trip to explore the town of Samatan, on a hot sunny afternoon.
MWWS
