Last week, from Monday to Friday, I was in the town of Lauzerte for the entire week with my school. I went with some of the students and professors of English because the students were there for an English Campus School. The goal of the week was to help students from my high school with their English by doing a variety of anglophone activities with them, like cricket, theatre, and communication games in English. It was definitely a packed week, so without further ado, let's get into it!
On the first day, I took a bus with my students and teachers from Aiguillon to Lauzerte, which is located in the northwest corner of the Tarn et Garonne department, between the foothills of the Massif Central mountains and the Garonne river. Lauzerte is labeled as one of the most beautiful villages of France, a distinction granted to only 155 villages in the country. It was founded in the 12th century by the Count of Toulouse and is located along the route of the Santiago de Compostela.
The main square, Place des Cornieres, in Lauzerte
Lauzerte has a lively artistic community. On the right, you can see the unique uplifted corner of pavers in the main square by local ceramic artist, Jacques Buchholtz. On the left are a few legs in the garden planters.
The students had to complete a scavenger hunt when we arrived in Lauzerte and afterwards, we could see a beautiful panoramic view of the valleys in the Tarn et Garonne department.
From Lauzerte, we had to walk about 2.5 miles to our bungalows, where we would stay for the week. On the walk, we saw some cows!
We also saw some rams.
The bungalows and the school where on a hill overlooking the town of Lauzerte and all the valleys surrounding it. This is where we did all the activities during the week.
Speaking of activities, the week consisted of a lot of them. As soon as we got to the school, the students played a team game called jeu du tapis. The students had to stand on a tarp and turn it over without stepping off of it. The game is played between multiple teams.
Another activity we did one day was cricket, which is actually pretty similar to baseball.
Cricket is played between two teams each made up of eleven players. Games comprise of at least two innings where each team will take turns in batting and fielding/bowling. The fielding team will have a bowler bowl the ball to the batsman who tries to hit the ball with their bat. Cricket is pretty similar to baseball, except for the orientation of the field. Also, in baseball, batters run around the bases, while in cricket they run between wickets. Other differences include different bat shapes and ball sizes, rules with regards to innings and different scoring systems.
Another sport we played this week was Ultimate Frisbee.
Me and my ultimate frisbee team
There was a trampoline nearby so of course I had to jump on it with my students.
At night we would play music trivia. Sometimes we had to guess the artist, sometimes the song title, and sometimes we even had to finish the lyrics of a song. Whatever the test was, the songs were always in English, sung by American or British artists.
Above you can see me trying to guess a song title from the British bands and singers from the 1970s to the beginning of the 1990s. The song was "London Calling" by the The Clash.
We also had English food during the week. One dish we had was fish and chips.
The British call French fries "chips."
We also ate a traditional English breakfast one day for lunch.
An English breakfast usually consists of bacon, eggs, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, and grilled tomatoes, accompanied by tea or coffee.
One night we had Chicken tonsils on salad for an appetizer. It was interesting..
This photo was taken at dinner one night. Across from me and beside me are Jennifer and Olivia, two of the Erasmus students who joined us for the week and helped us with all of the activities. Jennifer (next to me) is from west Scotland and Olivia (across from me) is from south of England.
On the night before our last day in Lauzerte, the Erasmus students who were with us put on a disco party for the students and we danced the night away!
The morning before we left, the students did one last activity: a treasure hunt. One of the professors and I hid parts of famous English quotes and the students had to find them and put them together to finish the sentences. One of the quotes was "To Be, or Not to Be" from Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and another one was from the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr.
We hid the quotes really well. For example, we rolled up one of the clues and put it in a tulip. Some of the students had difficulty finding that one...
We took a group picture at the end of the treasure hunt of all the students and teachers before getting on the bus to leave Lauzerte. What a fun week we had!
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