HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-09-05, Page 9THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013. PAGE 9.
By Aislinn Bremner
I have travelled to many places,
but never to Europe. It was my first
time going across the ocean, and I
was travelling alone. It was both
exciting and frightening at the same
time.
My first few hours in France were
overwhelming. I was exhausted
from my long flight and surrounded
by the French language. Since I
haven’t studied the French language
since high school, I knew it was
going to be a challenge. My Lions
Club driver drove me to Annecy to
meet up with the other youth. Most
of the camp met one another in the
first day and started to get to know
each other and become friends.
Fortunately, most of the youth spoke
English, so I was able to
communicate with them.
By the end of the day, I was ready
to go to bed early, but first we had a
dinner reception where we met all of
the host families. We would spend
the first week out of three, with these
families. After a night of delicious
food and getting to know each other,
we went home with our families to
get settled in. Daniella, my “sister”
from Hungary, and I went home with
friends of our host family. The Lamy
family had asked their friends
Nicola and Andre to take us in for
the first few days while they were on
a bicycle trip.
The week with the two families
was definitely difficult and a little
overwhelming with the language
barrier, but it got easier. I didn’t
realize how “rusty” my French was
until it was all around me.
The week went by very fast. We
had something to do everyday with
the families and we had a lot of fun
together getting to know each other.
We got to explore Annecy quite a bit
and learned a lot about the history
and culture of France, specifically
Annecy. We went to visit a chateau
(castle), several churches, an
animation museum, and even went
hiking on a mountain. We enjoyed
some beach time, after our mountain
hike, on the beautiful shore of Lake
Annecy. The water was very chilly,
but refreshing.
One of the days we went to “Les
Gorges du Fier”, which is a large
gorge created by eroding rocks. We
walked on a wooden platform
through the rock with other campyouth, and their host families.
Annecy was a beautiful village.
We were sad to part with it, but knew
we would return in the final week of
the camp.
The second and third weeks we
spent with the rest of the youth. By
then my understanding of French
had improved and I was able to
follow conversation more. The
second week consisted of our rounds
in the Rhone-Alps/Drome area of
France. We stayed for a few days in
Crest at another family’s house, and
visited some interesting places in
Crest. We went for a tour of
“la tour (tower) de Crest”, before
exploring the downtown market. We
explored the “Grotte Aven Marzal”
which is a 125-metre underground
cave.
Our next stop, after Crest, was
Lyon. I don’t think I have ever
experienced a city warmer than
Lyon. We stayed in a youth hostel on
the top of a hill and we walked up
that hill several times a day in the
scorching heat. We went on
several tours during our stay in
Lyon, both walking tours and a boat
tour. In addition to the daily groupactivities, this was the first chance
where we got some free time to
enjoy the city on our own if we
wanted to.
One evening, we took a trip to
Vienne for the annual Jazz Festival.
It was held at the Théâtre antique de
Vienne, which is a huge ancient
outdoor theatre, where the seats are
actually stone. It was a great
experience and the music was
fantastic. A couple hours in, we
started to hear thunder rumbling and
the sky was getting darker and not
just because of the sun setting. It
started out spitting rain, but we had
come prepared with some garbage
bags in case of rain. There wasn’t
enough for all of us though, so some
of us shared. All of a sudden the
skies opened up and we were sitting
Local experiences France through Lions exchange
The cave
Aislinn Bremner, right, on her trip to France through the
Lions exchange program, was able to visit the Grotte Aven
Marzal where she and her friends visited a cave. Seen here
taking in the sights are, from left, Lucie from Armenia, Sofie
from Denmark and Bremner.(Photo submitted)
Visiting the Château
Blyth’s Aislinn Bremner, right, was able to spend a few weeks in France thanks to her
relationship with the Blyth Lions Club and the Lions’ famed exchange program. Bremner was
able to take in many aspects of the French culture, including here, a visit to the Château de
Virieu alongside, from left, Mariam and Sopho, both of Georgia and Sofie from Denmark.
(Photo submitted)
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