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Travel tales of an empty nester
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Home  >  Blog  >  The French are Coming!

The French are Coming!

Trish Burgess Posted on16/01/201207/04/2016 Teenagers 20 Comments

This weekend was mostly spent  trying to sort out the spare room in preparation for a French invasion. Rory’s school are participating in a student exchange and, despite me thinking he wouldn’t be keen, our son was well up for it. I suspect this may be partly due to the following:

a) the trip is a joint affair with the local girls’ grammar school.
b) the age group is 16-18
c) the host school is located in the balmy south of France.

Rory will be travelling via Eurostar and TGV in March to stay with his French counterpart but before I can even get my head round this, I have to steel myself for a young man, aged 17, coming to stay with us. I shall keep his name private: don’t want the poor soul googling himself in the next few days and discovering his host’s mother is one slice short of a baguette. In any case, Dougie seems unable to keep the boy’s name in his head and keeps referring to him as Jean-Pierre and imagining him hanging out of the bedroom window wafting the smoke from his Gauloises.

The two boys have now begun to MSN/Facebook chat/message each other and this is providing some useful information. His favourite foods are ‘meat, vegetables, raspberries and cornflakes.’ My question as to what he would like in his sandwiches on the days they go on trips, elicited the response ‘chorizo’.

‘Jean-Pierre’ will stay for a week and most days he will go on organised visits with his French group, Cambridge and London being the highlights. However we still  have a full weekend to fill and I haven’t the faintest idea what to do with him. He lives on the south coast of France, near Marseilles, so surely has access to some very chic resorts and picture-postcard Provencal towns. Not sure Skegness will cut the mustard but possibly the empty vastness of our North Norfolk coast may appeal? Or do I just leave him to sleep, like my own son, until the vaches come home?

I remember being offered the chance to go on a French exchange when I was at school and declined as I was too scared. Dougie, however, exchanged with a German boy, Wolfgang, in 1978, when he was 14. It was all going swimmingly until the weekend during Wolfgang’s stay in Edinburgh, when Dougie’s parents invited another Scottish lad, his parents and accompanying German student for a meal. The four boys amused themselves in the garage playing with the Scalextric track while the four adults sat demurely having tea. Dougie tells me the German boys were ‘being annoying’ and things became a little heated. Wolfgang trotted back into the living room where the adults were sitting and asked,

“What means ‘Fuck Off’?”

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20 Comments

  1. Expat mum Reply
    16/01/2012 at 3:51 pm

    Ha ha ha. I don't remember being offered the French exchange at school I have to say, but a friend at another school had a girl for what seemed like a month. We had to take her everywhere, she was very homesick, and smoked those filthy fags all the time. She wouldn't eat anything and spent most of the time in the bath! Very stressful all round.
    Looking forward to hearing tales about JP when he arrives.

  2. Trish @ Mum's Gone To ... Reply
    16/01/2012 at 3:56 pm

    Expat Mum – oh god, let's hope the week flies by and JP is a happy guest. Best stock up on chorizo and cornflakes and hope he doesn't hog the bathroom.

  3. Fr Gavin Reply
    16/01/2012 at 4:46 pm

    When I had a German guest he had to amuse himself whilst I went to work so he asked my parents to borrow my bike do he could explore. Two hours later he hadn't returned so my dad went off to find him in the car and discovered that he'd merrily cycled from Newborough to Crowland!

  4. Troy Reply
    16/01/2012 at 5:09 pm

    Get him to pay for things up front as I believe his credit rating will have recently been downgraded.

  5. MsCaroline Reply
    16/01/2012 at 5:20 pm

    We never had an exchange student to stay but I've taught lots of them in my classes and I'm always amused at what they like about the US – it's rarely what I expect. My Russian student last year said that her favorite thing hands-down was 'Halloween,' so go figure. I bet Rory will have some good suggestions; my boys would probably want to sleep in, but maybe Jean-Pierre's more keen on sightseeing than my somnolent offspring. MrL's family once had a French exchange student who expressed his enthusiasm about each upcoming meal by patting his stomach vigorously and imitating a trumpet fanfare – maybe that will be the response you get to the chorizo…

  6. Trish @ Mum's Gone To ... Reply
    16/01/2012 at 5:32 pm

    Fr Gavin – What a lovely surprise to see you here!
    Do you think he would have kept going if your dad hadn't found him? Will keep bikes locked up just in case.
    Apologies for the swearing, Father 🙂

    Troy – Excellent tip. Must keep an eye on the exchange rate too: a few years ago I could have got nearly two Jean-Pierres for one Rory.

    MsCaroline – He did ask Rory if we had snow and was disappointed to hear we hadn't. Should have come last year.
    I think I'll pre-empt the noises by trumpeting in the chorizo myself!

  7. Anonymous Reply
    16/01/2012 at 5:37 pm

    My brother, who was at an all boys school, said he didn't mind his exchange partner being male or female and because most of his friends wanted a boy( or I suspect the mums did), he was given a girl. Much teasing ensued until Janette, blonde, gorgeous and the height of casual chic sashayed down the steps and asked in the sexiest of voices "which one is Clive"?. Whereupon brother's stock went sky high and there was a lot of offering to swap. 30 years later they still exchange Christmas cards.

  8. Trish @ Mum's Gone To ... Reply
    16/01/2012 at 5:40 pm

    Anonymous – Whoo hoo! Respect to your brother. There was a chance Rory could have had a girl to stay: he ticked the box to say we didn't mind which sex. I suspect he was thinking of the increased kudos too.

  9. libby Reply
    16/01/2012 at 5:59 pm

    I missed out on the school exchange trip……and had to plaster a false fixed smile as I waved goodbye to all my mates as they set off on the coach….I still torture my ma with that one!
    Are you intending to be bi-lingual while you have your french visitor? it all sounds like hard work but good fun…enjoy.

  10. Sarah Reply
    16/01/2012 at 6:04 pm

    My son likes chorizo too. His favourite sarnie is chorizo with lettuce and tomato.

    If it was my son visiting, he'd want to hang out with Rory and his friends doing the stuff they do, or go shopping in one of the cheap and trendy(ish) places like Primark (depending on how much money he has), go to MacDonald's or perhaps do some cycling. Both my boys love museums with hands-on activities such as the Science Museum. Gotta have hands-on or it's booooring! Or a ruined castle.

    JP probably likes Nutella too. Make sure you feed him Yorkshire puds, the little kids here all love it.

  11. Trish @ Mum's Gone To ... Reply
    16/01/2012 at 6:22 pm

    Libby – I'm hoping to keep it a secret that I did A level French. Problem is, I was always hopeless at speaking the languuage and really struggle now. Rory seems to send him messages in French but cheats by using Google translate first ….that will really help him learn the language!

    Sarah – brilliant tips: nutella and yorkie puds…together? I think they may be doing Science Museum when they are in London so that should keep him happy. I think a shopping/messing about day may well be a good idea. I did wonder about inviting Rory's pals and their French students to hang out here together. Brave or foolish?

  12. Very Bored in Catalunya Reply
    16/01/2012 at 6:43 pm

    How exciting and much blog fodder! I hope he doesn't turn out like the French exchange student on the Inbetweeners!

    And chorizo and cornflakes, really? Not very French!

  13. Steve Reply
    16/01/2012 at 6:44 pm

    I wish you the best of British.

    Erm. Sorry. You know what I mean.

  14. Trish @ Mum's Gone To ... Reply
    16/01/2012 at 7:07 pm

    Very Bored – I was looking at the French student bit on YouTube and laughing again at Will's mum getting all skittish in front of the French boy. Very funny episode. Let's hope I won't have blog fodder I can't use!

    Steve – I'm thinking it will be close to Burn's Night when he's here so will give him a Scottish meal to get the full UK treatment. If he likes chorizo he will love haggis, won't he?

  15. Kelloggsville Reply
    16/01/2012 at 9:04 pm

    Been to Magna Science Park? I really enjoyed it. Very very different to London science museum. Based around a steel works. They have an indoor zip wire and bungee jump there too. It's Between Rotherham and Sheffield. And Warwick castle is always good.

  16. Wylye Girl Reply
    16/01/2012 at 10:47 pm

    Just bear in mind that he'll need feeding at 7am, 12pm and 7pm on the dot. He'll also need a 'gouter' at around 4pm. If he uses the same school books as my kids did in France he'll also expect you to have tea with cucumber sandwiches, travel everywhere on a red double decker bus and will firmly believe that Prince Charles went to rugby. You have a lot of educating to do there! 🙂

  17. Trish @ Mum's Gone To ... Reply
    17/01/2012 at 7:58 am

    Kelloggsville – we went to Magna many years ago when Rory was younger: a great place. I might give the lad a few suggestions and see what he fancies doing.

    Wylye Girl – That made me laugh! Sounds like it's going to be an education for both parties.

  18. Funky Wellies Reply
    18/01/2012 at 7:36 am

    LOL!! Should the situation be reversed with your exchange student using foul French words, I am at your disposal for a quick translation service!!

  19. Trish @ Mum's Gone To ... Reply
    18/01/2012 at 11:00 am

    Funky – I might well take you up on that!

  20. Pingback: Sur le pont d'Avignon - Mum's Gone To ...

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