Magazine if the third mobility in France of the Erasmus project Cultures on a Palette.

CULTURES ON A PALETTE -LTTA3- MARCH 2022

In the evening, at 7 pm all the students went to school again for the farewell dinner , we sung our project song to the parents and had a lot of fun!

It was 01.00 pm when we got the train to go to the center of Nantes. We arrived there around 01.15 pm. After we wander around the city center a little bit, we got a bus and took a tour. And the bus was litterally talking! It was telling the stories of the monuments we were passing by. Statue of Louis XVI, Monument aux 50 Otages, Eglise Saint-Clement, Les Anneaux, Grue Titan are some of the wonderful places we visited. While we were having the tour the speaking bus was telling us what these places are and when, why they were made, what they represent. We were enchanted by the beauty of the history behind this lovely city.

After the meal everyone went to the laser game which was fabulous, everyone was so happy but after the game when we were saying goodbyes to each other... it was a very emotional time! Everyone was crying and hugging each other because everyone was so emotionally connected with all the other students , the bonding was just so beautiful.

From the river we saw a lots of things: -Bridges like Alexandre III -Notre Dame de Paris -The Louvre museum (we visited there later, we will tell you about it!) And many others! It was an amazing trip that lasted for 1 hour.

After this snack, two French students, Lylou and Hugo M, (we also have a Spanish Hugo!) were guides for a visit of the French school: Collège Gutenberg.

After the trip on the bateau Mouche, we had a picnic in the Gardens of the Invalides, and started walking again to go to the Louvres museum.

We crossed the Champs Elysées avenue. At the very end of it, we could see the Arc of Triumph.

To start with, our Tukish and Greek partners gave us lessons linked to important personalities in their cultures.

LTTA3 IN FRANCE - 7th to 11th MARCH 2022

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After lunch, we went on a discovery tour of the 18th century Nantes. A group of French students recited their poetry on the tram. The poems contained the names of the different tramway stops. Actually, it was like a spell or a performance. We, the passengers, repeated the lines of the poems, even if we didn’t understand all the words (some of them were translated in our trip diary, though). On the other hand, it was like an impressive language lesson that left the French echoing in our ears.

We didn't expect that there gonna be feelings like this ! They made us part of their family and we got to made friends. Finally, one week is enough to create strong links between each others and our family. Because we leave ours own, to build a second one somewhere else, like our family can be found anywhere we are.&nbsp;

All the erasmus students agree to say that it was very sad and hard to say goodbye and come back home!

Our day continued with Mrs Neuilly, a university professor and Unesco expert, and Mrs Kermili a lady who worked at the Unesco too, with a conference on UNESCO : its values, organisation, educational programmes, Goodwill Ambassadors, soldier children etc. Later we had a discussion with Mrs Neuilly. She told us about her job in UNESCO, the success stories and failures, and we asked her questions that we had prepared.

We started a bit later on Thursday as the previous day had been really looong. First, we gathered into a music classroom and practised singing our project song, Open Windows, in 6 different languages : the chorus in English and the verses in each of our languages. It was an exciting challenge! Especially for the pronunciation :)

On isemoodi igaüks, koos saab elu mõnusaks Everybody is unique, together life is complete

As ftiáxoume ton kósmo éna charoúmeno méros óloi mazí Let's make the world a happy place together

Birlikteysek bize hiçbir zorluk yok Here we are to strenghten our bond

Trabajando duro parece una cosa simple working hard it is just a simple thing

Toutes ces cultures me font vraiment rêver All these cultures make me dream

The Spanish students gave us a lesson about Antoni Gaudi, a famous Spanish architect. Some students took notes on a board and at the end of the activity, we did a kahoot game to check what we understood.

During the games, a journalist came to make a report about us and interviewed some students and teachers of each country. We got a report on the city magazine and on a city youtube clip too!

Le collège Gutenberg à l'heure européenne

When we&nbsp;took the bus to Paris, it was a really good moment with everyone. The way back was very long but was even better! We should have arrived at 22h00 but because of the traffic (there was a problem on the road), we were 4 hours late! So we had a really great idea. Clara had brought a music player and she was our DJ for the night. We did a party during 4 hours, the music was loud but our screams were even louder!

The teachers couldn't take it anymore :) and they were tired but we weren't. All of the music and songs we listened to were fun ! But some were better than the other like : the band QUEEN. We all sang even if we sang bad :) and some of us danced too !!!

Afterwards, we had an initiation to Breton dancing (a traditional and regional one) with Mrs Peaudecerf, a lady who is very involved in the transmission of the Breton culture.

&nbsp;The Breton dancing with Mrs Peaudecerf was so good and interesting. We learned so many new things and had some information about Brittany: history, flag, costumes... Mariana and Rihanna, two French students did some instant translation for us.

There were some instruments, clothes and accessories that Breton women used to wear. That was beautiful and lovely. After having lunch we discussed about the magazine workshop and what to do.&nbsp;

The local student guides took us to medieval sights of Nantes and other places and told their stories about them.

We were so excited to meet after our virtual mobility in November! We had the feeling we knew each others a little because we communicated a lot between November and March. First the principal of the school came and welcomed the partners with a speech.

The French hosts got nice presents from the partners and next we had a welcome snack:&nbsp;pastries (croissants, pains au chocolat and pains au raisins) and drinks. 

After the Breton dancing, we had lunch , and after lunch, we inaugurated the "Cultures on a Palette" garden square. Each plant symbolises something: we planted Iris (for the rainbow) , primerose (for youth), cyclamen (friendship) and campanule (faithful friendship)

Then in the afternoon we visited the city of Saint-Herblain where our French partners' school is: some parts are urban and other parts are very green like the Château de la Gournerie.

On the third day of our erasmus project , we all discovered Paris and monuments. It was really good. We met at the school at 3:40 a.m. We were on the road for 5 hours. We arrived there around 9. First, we went to see the Eiffel Tower; where all the students took pictures and videos. The Tower was huge and they were repairing it for the Olympics for 2024.

After visiting the Eiffel, we walked on the streets of Paris. It was an extraordinary experience. The buildings were influenced by art. While we were walking, we arrived at the river (La Seine) and took a boat to travel around the city.

Our feelings and impressions in a nutshell

In the morning we also did Olympic games in international groups. There were four teams: the Mavi Kebab, las Croquettas, Must Panthers(black panthers in English) and the Aristoteles! These funny names were found by one&nbsp;student of each country within the teams. We played basketball and futsal games (futsal is football in a room, "salle" in French). And the winner waaaaas…The Must Panthers!!!

Then we had a little snack and it was great and they gave us some presents. In that there was a bracelet that we liked a lot cause we used that like a innocent weapon and also had fun even at the bus.&nbsp;We also met the deputy mayor of Saint-Herblain, Mrs Farida Rebouh. She told us things about our project and how happy she is for us being there, in France. At the end of the day we had so much fun and we learned many things! It was a very good experience.

It was hard to follow some steps but we were grateful that we were able to do it. Some teachers tried to do it with us... but they quickly quit because it was too tiring!

Then we went with a tram to Commerce, the main place in the city centre, to see the Les Machines de l'Ile : they are inspired by Jules Verne's " Invented Worlds " , the mechanical universe of Leonardo Da Vinci and Nantes' industrial history. It was really fun because some of us had to climb on the machines to make them work.

Nantes Opera, the Courthouse, Passage Pommeraye, Nantes Castle and Water mirror, the Lu Tower...

This is an amazing experience living at the house of french students, it's a good exercise for practicing our english, even if it wasn't always easy, learning the french culture from within and french eating-living habits. Even we are far from our families we find another one in here. The hospitality was unique and they were very nice and sympathetic. We all think that we learnt a lot of this experience. We got to see their lifestyle, we have seen that we are not so different . In some family, during free time in families we could go out somewhere, like the bowling, cinéma, restaurant or in city.

Finally we went to the town hall where we did an activity related to&nbsp;our good or bad behaviour. We made different international groups and we elaborated some posters where good and bad attitudes were shown. It was so interesting and made us meditate about the society of nowadays. Also talked about that we have so many prejudices without knowing if they are true or not. We just think that our prejudices are correct and that some other persons are bad. It was really creative!!!

We also met the deputy mayor of the city, Mrs Farida Rebouh.

The most impressive and thought-provoking place of the tour was the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery because Nantes used to be an important port in slave trade.

After that the Estonian and the French students did a presentation about some famous Estonian and French personalities : Estonian music and a famous Estonian musician, and Simon Veil, Women's international Day and a famous French politician who fought for women's rights. Then we had our lunch in the collège . Everyone had a good time

After the tour finished our kind tour driver delivered us to our school. It was earlier than the schedule and we had an hour of free time.

So we went to the big market chain next to our school. Mrs. Diack asked us if we are curious about the market cause she thought when people go abroad a market tour is like the most fun thing: you can learn about people's daily life. And she was right. We were really curious about it. At the market we bought things that we wonder and it was such a big market like we could find more than we were asking for. After one hour we gathered all together and this was the end of our fun and educational trip of Monday.

Friday , the Greek , Spanish , Turkish and Estonian students' last day in school ! Everyone came to school normally and the students got divided in 3 teams. The students did many activities on Friday , such as French cooking workshop, magazine workshop, manifesto workshop and visits in classes .

The last step of the trip, from 14:30 to17:00, was to visit the Louvre museum. It's a very famous museum in France and around the world. There are a lot of famous paintings and sculptures like: La Joconde (Léonard De Vinci) or La Vénus de Milo (Alexandros d'Antioche).

We saw a lot of greek sculptures and a lot of VERY VERY VERY big paintings. For some students, it was maybe a little bit long because we walked a lot and it was at the end of the day so we were tired. But it was very interesting to discover a part of the world's art.&nbsp;

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