La fin arrive ! / The end arrives!
Bonjour à tous et a toutes ! Hello everyone!
Collectively, we can agree that the end is a bittersweet moment. This was a sentiment that was shared by nearly everyone in the last few days of our trip. Students were ready to return home and see their families, but leaving Saumur behind, and with it, their host families, was especially challenging. Nevertheless, we departed for Paris on Sunday! Below are a collection of photos and videos from our time in Paris.
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Day 1 - First Stop: Versailles
Day 1 - Second Stop: The Boat on the Seine
Day 2 - First Stop: The "I Love You" Wall
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Day 2 - Second Stop: Sacre Cœur
Day 2 - Third Stop: Les Invalides
Day 2 - Fourth Stop: Le Tour Eiffel
Day 2 - Fifth Stop: les Champs Elysées
Day 2 - Stop Six: Le Louvre
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Final Thoughts
Saumur 2022 was an amazing success! In addition to seeing and doing all the various activities, such as our community engagement events with the mayor of Saint-Florent-Saint-Hilaire, and our adventures visiting the castles, seeing Normandy, and touring Paris, this program was made a success not because of what we did or saw, but because the twenty-four incredible, diverse, and dynamic students rose to the challenge presented to them and exceeded far beyond our wildest imagination. While linguistic progress is a primary goal of the program, and our students blew us away by it, the instructor team especially noted that the personal growth we witnessed in them was, at various times, admirable, humbling, inspiring, and quite profound. The seventeen families who welcomed students, and the three families who welcomed the instructors all felt that this year was a great success after several years without the IUHPFL presence in Saumur. Of course, there were new, challenging, and at times, frustrating hurdles to overcome with the day-to-day changes that COVID-19 brought and the subtle ways in which it has affected the wider culture, however, we were undaunted by it and triumphed in a way that only these students could. Six weeks passed us by in the blink of an eye, and while the end of the program brought a bittersweet sadness, we can all count the 2022 Saumur program as a wild success!