Bonjour Readers!

I have been in France for like 40 days and it is the last day of my stay in France. It is very hard to sum up this beautiful journey of 1 month in just few words but I hope this blog will help the students who wish to come here in France for studies.
We landed in Barcelona on 4 march 2023, and came to France in a bus.So, my first week started in Perpignan where all the 18 students from our university stayed together in Theza .The first day we spent a beautiful evening with our coordinators . We tasted different types of cheese like more than 20. we went to places together like St.Cypriaen, Colliure and centre of Perpignan. After dinner we used to dance and sing together with french students. we also visited the school campus and had a great interaction with french students. We also learned some French greetings and some sentences so that we can easily interact with French people. Last day there was organisation of Indo-French cultural night. We celebrated our festival- HOLI with French students and professors . We served them some Indian snacks and played with colours.

CHARTRES LA SAUSSAYE
In week 2, we all (18 students) went to different institute in a group of 2-3 with our coordinators. So, my first institute was EPLEFPA CHARTRES , there we stayed for 14 days. The first day we met the Director of the insitute and other professors, we also got acquainted with the training schedule . There we prepared apple juice, apple jam, cookies, , yogurt and ice-cream with the french students and professors. In weekends we used to go the french families and did a little cooking exchange with them. We also visited the Church in Chartres. We also visited the market of the Chartres and shopped from there. We used to attend the lectures of different subjects like, microbiology, economics, english , food science and also work in the food processing lab. We also saw the agricultural machines and tools . They have grown many crops like wheat, mustard and vegetables.The staff members and teachers were really very supporting to us. On open day, we gave presentation about our country and a brief introduction about our university.

VISITING PARIS: THE CITY OF LOVE
Then comes the most interesting part of my travel , the day I visited Paris, my dream city. it took about 2 hours from Chartres to reach Paris. there we went on the top of Eiffel tower and the view from the top cannot be expresed in words, it was just amazing. Then we went on a cruise and saw the famous monuments like, Louvre Museum, Versailles palace, Cathedrale Notre- Dame de Paris,The Sacre-Coeur. We visited an Indian restaurant and purchased some perfumes and gifts for India.

LYCEE AGRICOLE DE SEES
Then we went to our next institute for next 14 days. It was 2 hours far from our previous institute. We were warm welcomed by our coordinators there. We had lunch with the Director and other professors.The same day we went to the castle in Normandy- Chateau d’O (Mortree), it was surrounded by water and has great ancient sculptures .
In the institute , we went to the farm and there we saw many species of cow, horses, sheeps,etc. We visited the apple cider and apple juice making site . We came to know about the types of cider and how it is been processed. We went to the snail farm and there learned about the varities of snail and their function. We went to the Agricultural laboratory in the institute and saw the function of each machines. Alongwith it we also attended some English lectures and french students asked questions about our country and culture.
We also did cooking exchange with french students and really that was the best time where we used to enjoy together. On weekend we went to The English Channel , the next side of the channel is the England . We took a walk to the near market and restaurant. We went to wineyards and leant how to process wine from them. We also had a horse-riding session and we really enjoyed that. Apart from this we visited the famous monument,mount st . Michael , this was in an island .there was a famous lace museum with different types of embroidery. We went to bowling with families and had a nice time with them. Last day, we gave a presentation on Sustainable development and it was a good interactive session.

At first I was also nervous that , how I will communicate in French but slowly adapted the environment and French cusine too. It was a great opportunity for me to built self confidence and groom myself for my fututre ventures. At last I will wrap up this by saying that, one must visit France in his life .I will really miss these days spent in France. Hope to visit here again and explore more.



Merci !!