This upcoming summer, 11 La Salle students, French teacher Ms. Amanda Barker, and math teacher Mr. Linus Oey will travel across the Atlantic Ocean to explore France and its rich culture.

From June 23 to July 1, a group of Falcons will explore the city of Paris and a number of historic castles in the Loire Valley, as well as the northern region of Normandy. To start their journey, the group will briefly stop at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Texas. On their journey back across the pond, the group will take a layover in Calgary, Canada. 

For the group’s first few days, they will be venturing through France’s capital city: Paris. While in Paris, they will see the Notre-Dame Cathedral, explore the Château and Gardens of Versailles, and take an evening cruise down the Seine river — which flows right through the heart of Paris.

They will also see the preliminary setup for the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympic Games, which starts towards the end of July. Because of the games, “it probably will be a little bit busier in Paris than normal, but Paris is always busy in the summer,” Ms. Barker said.

For Mr. Oey, this will be his second time in Paris, as he has been in the past to coach for cheerleading. Over the course of this forthcoming trip, he’s thrilled about the chance to learn more about the area and its history. “Last time I was in France I didn’t get to site-see very much,” Mr. Oey said. “I was busy working the whole time.”

As someone who doesn’t know French very well, Mr. Oey has been preparing by using language apps to help him hammer down the basics of the language. Although he is learning some new phrases, he will primarily lean on the students to help him with the language.

After opening their trip in Paris, the group will move a bit south towards the Loire Valley in central France to visit the Château d’Amboise and the Château de Chenonceau. “I’m really excited for the students to see all the castles,” Ms. Barker said. “They’re so amazing and fantastic and not close to anything that we have here.”

Ms. Barker is also excited about visiting this region because of some of the connections they have to the French curriculum. “A lot of the castles and cathedrals and art that we’re going to see at the museums are things that I teach in my classes,” Ms. Barker said.

Junior Brandon Rairdon is also looking forward to discovering some of the stops in the Loire Valley on their itinerary. “I’m kind of excited to see some of the castles because we had a unit about that last year that was pretty interesting to me,” Rairdon said.

Rairdon has been speaking French since a very young age, and is ready for the opportunity to use the language with native French speakers. “I’ve always lived here and I haven’t really had the chance to use it in practice,” Rairdon said.

The group will spend the next couple of days at St. Malo, a city that lies on France’s northwest coast, and then in the Normandy region to visit the storied Normandy beaches. They will conclude their trip with one final day in Paris, visiting the Louvre before returning back to the Pacific Northwest.

Ms. Barker is eager to see her students use what they have practiced in the classroom in a real-life setting. She’s excited to see all of the students’ work translate to a French-speaking environment where they can apply what they’ve learned at La Salle. “It’s going to be really cool for them to be able to see things that they either have learned about or are going to learn about in class,” Ms. Barker said.