Erasmus+ project "Digital Tools to Support Inclusion and Empower Sustainability (DIPS)" in Chalon-en-Champagne, France

Monday, 13.05.2024

Our last trip of the year started again with a very long travel. We had an early morning flight so we had to spend a night at the airport. But as always, when you are excited about the trip, the time goes fast and before we finished watching the Eurovision final, it was time for our flight. Because the flight was so early, we arrived in Paris around noon and to our final destination, Chalons-en-Champagne, around 14:00 on Sunday. We had a nice afternoon and good rest and got ready for Monday.

On Monday we met at the school and met the principal and Vina, who will work for us for the rest of the week. The principal in his welcome speech mentioned that many foreigners think their school is like a prison. We must say it is a little bit true. The school area is protected all around by a tall fence and the gate is opened only during some times and when students come in, the employees with walkie-talkies search their bags. It was very strange for us to see, but we had to adjust to the way they operate. Luckily, as guests, we had a little bit of VIP status.

What the schools lack in freedom it balances with the food. As France is the culinary superpower of the world, we had an opportunity to see how just a simple school lunch can be elevated to a gourmet experience. The students have to pay for the lunch, but for the price of around 2 euro they can select fruit, salad, dessert and selection of 3 different main courses. And it all tasted amazing. But maybe the reason is also because this school is a combination of the basic “lukio” with a culinary vocational school. Next we got the tour of the school and started working on the project, which would be creating a video on the topic of inclusion. We ended the day with a workshop on flavor and tasting some local food. It was interesting to see how when blinded, it changes the perception of flavor.

We would like to mention one more thing here and that is the school system in France. Later during the week we went to observe some lessons and it is very different from the system in Finland. Here, the teacher has the main word and there is not as much discussion or team work during the classes. Also, their school days are very long, from 8am until 6pm. And then they also have loads of homework, so the study is very intense. Our friends seemed to be very stressed from school. And we also noticed that they always called the teachers using the “Mr.” or “Mrs.” and last name. So it is a very very respectful relationship.

Tuesday, 14.05.2024

Today we had a planned day trip to Reims. The weather forecast was not very good, it was supposed to rain the whole week we were here, but at least today we got lucky and the day was windy but otherwise very nice. Reims is an old city with a cathedral that served as a coronation place for 25 french kings from the 8th century until the last king of France. It was around a 1 hour train ride. We toured the city and saw some of the most notable sights. The city was very nice and very typically French, with the houses very similar to Paris style.

And the cathedral was absolutely amazing and mind blowing. We could not stop admiring the decorations and the details that it was decorated with. It was for a big part destroyed during World War I, but it was reconstructed as much as possible. During our walk we saw many traditional french bakeries with amazing looking pastries and of course we also got to taste some during our free time. The whole city was very nice, clean and we had a great time here. We even found some old ancient sights that even the local teacher did not know about. 

We decided that for our project we will combine the presentation of France with the inclusive approaches and so we spend a lot of time taking pictures and recording videos for the final product of this project.

Wednesday, 15.05.2024

It is always nice when we visit a smaller town that is near a big city, especially a capital city. First of all, it means we do not have to travel for too long from the airport. And second of all, it also means that usually during the day we will get to go to the capital city for a day trip. That was the case also here, so today we went to Paris.

Of course, going to Paris is very exciting, none of us has been here yet and we all wanted to see the Eiffel tower. The train ride was quite long, it took almost 2 hours, but finally we were in Paris.This year, Paris will host the summer Olympic games and it was visible everywhere. There were sport areas and tribunes being built at most of the tourist attractions and there were a lot of people and police around the city. So we felt safe. But also the constructions blocked some otherwise amazing sights.

We started the tour at the Sacré-Cœur church and from there we went to see the Montmartre area of Paris. It is a famous area where all the artists like Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre-Auguste Renoir lived and created their masterwork and it is also a place where many others were searching for their inspiration in (then) cheap bars and cafes. Today, it is still an artistic quarter, but the cafes are not cheap anymore because it is full of tourists. However, it still kept its charm and we had a very good time there.

Because it was almost lunch, we took the Paris metro to the royal gardens, where we had a picnic under the sunny skies. Just on the Paris metro - it was an experience by itself. The narrow and long and winding corridors were a crazy thing to navigate and if the local teacher wasn't with us, we would for sure get lost. Good thing we have the metro in Helsinki so easy - it is impossible to get lost there. The Royal gardens were a great place for a picnic, with the benches that can be moved around. We had a nice time and a peaceful snack in the very heart of Paris.

From there our tour continued to the Louvre and ended at the Eiffel tower. The Louvre was impressive - it was much much bigger than we imagined and we also learned why - the reason was that every king or ruler that lived there wanted to leave his/hers mark at the royal palace and they all built a piece of this huge building. We were trying to count how much the rent would be, but gave up when we read there are more than 135 rooms inside. There is also a museum now that also has the famous Mona Lisa painting. However, we did not go inside but continued the tour.

Last, but not least, we arrived at the Eiffel tower. It is located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "La dame de fer" (French for "Iron Lady"), it was constructed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair, and to crown the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution. Although initially criticized by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, it has since become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world.

Now a little bit on the style of houses in Paris. Paris undoubtedly has a very recognizable architecture style that is very specific for this city. We learned that, similar to Rome or other cities, the emperor wanted to turn the city into a more representative city. There was no place in their vision for small curvy streets of gothic medieval origin, but they wanted to have big bulevards and high buildings for the representative purpose, but also to adjust to the needs of the growing population in the cities. Hence the small streets were torn down in the 19th century and the typical design of the Paris street has appeared.

The visit to Paris was a great mid-week activity and we just wish we had more time to see everything this amazing city has to offer. But we got a little taste of it and we know we will come back one day for more.

Thursday, 16.05.2024

Today we got a chance to work a bit on the project work. We collected the materials we have from our trips to Reims and Paris and started thinking about the way we will incorporate the inclusion topic into the videos. Luckily we had almost the whole morning to work on this because the task was not easy. And to cut and edit the videos and pictures also took a long time. 

After lunch we attended some lessons with our friends. As we mentioned, the school system is very strict to the students and they have to learn a lot of knowledge. We felt like the Finnish system is a bit better because it teaches us how to find the information we need and how to think critically and analytically rather than just memorize lots and lots of information. But we guess every system has some advantages and also some disadvantages.

When the lesson was over, we got a tour of the Chalons-en-Champagne city. It has a population of around 40.000 people and as the name tells us, it is in the Champagne region of France. It was originally called something else, but changed its name in 1998 to Chalons-en-Champagne and we think this is for sure a good name, at least from the marketing point of view.

The city is not very big but has some interesting sights like 3 huge cathedrals, a district house where Napoleon visited during his stay in the region and a beautiful park. It is also a home to one of 13 circus schools in France. The circus is not the one with animals and clowns, but the acrobatic circus similar to the tradition of Cirque du Soleil. 

The day ended for us with a time we spent with our families and new friends. They took very good care of us and always organized for us some eventful activity to do in the evening. And of course we got to eat the delicious french food, including the traditional baguette and so so many cheeses to choose from.

Friday, 17.05.2024

And again, as it happens on these trips, it was the last day. The week went by so fast and tomorrow we are leaving our new families and going back home. But not thinking about it yet, we have the whole last day ahead of us.

The day started with more work on the final project. We used every minute of time we had to make the best of our efforts to create a good movie that would combine French sights and inclusion. There were several approaches, some people chose food, some chose the history - however all final product videos were great. 

We like the topic of digital tools because we feel like we always do something that can give us a practical advantage and skill-set for the future. Making a movie is a great way to learn editing skills and also think about the soundtrack for our movie and overall plan the video from start to actual finish. It is great to find new digital platforms that we can use and to see that sometimes a mobile phone is all we need for a good result.

After the project work presentation, we had a food related workshop. We split into 2 groups - one was learning how to flambe and one was making mocktails (cocktails without alcohol). And then we switched, so that everyone got to try both things. Making the mocktails was easy and fun and the final result was like from a tropical isöland beach. Flambe was a bit more scary, because sometimes the flames were as tall as the kitchen room. But we all survived with hair and eyelashes intact.

Then it was just cheers and enjoyed the flamed pineapple and pear and and it “au revoir” to the school. Luckily we still had to enjoy the last evening with our new friends and families.

As always, in the case of these trips, this week gave us a lot. We learned a lot and created memories and connections that will last with us for a long time. We improved on many levels and feel like we got more independent and even if not every minute was great (sometimes we were tired, annoyed or homesick) we learned to deal with the situation and go on. And after all, the overall feeling is positive and we are happy we got to take part in this trip.