French Trip 2019 - Day 1

After a two-and-a-half-hour bus journey, two train journeys and a misplaced passport, a group of tired but curious students and their teachers arrived at the Abbey du Moncel situated in the sweet town of Pont-Sainte Maxence in France. We admired the picturesque grounds of the Abbey as our tour guide showed us where we were staying, which was around the ruins of a castle.

After unpacking, Mimo and I cooked a pasta and pesto dish for dinner and then we made our way into the small town to explore and purchase a few items from the supermarket. Recently, we have been studying the environment in French class, as well as the problems we have with it. As a part of the IB curriculum, we study the context of the topics we learn about in order to better understand the culture and experience in different French speaking countries. I was particularly disappointed but not surprised at the amount of litter I observed in the town – from bits of torn up plastic and paper to cigarettes and gum. After going to the store to buy some fruit, we sat by a pretty church in the town centre to take a moment to reflect on the day, absorb the culture and eat some strawberries that we had purchased. However, after finishing them, we could not find a public bin anywhere to put the plastic in and had to search high and low to find someone’s private recycling bin to put it in. Although disappointed with the lack of environmentally friendly resources in France so far, we hope that our stay in France is as sustainable as possible and we will try to be responsible tourists.