Oh god, the year nine trip to France...
I had one too!

The first night, somebody fell onto the phone on the wall, and it fell off (the bracket as well, not just the handset - the whole lot just dangled there on its wire)

They served us such delicacies as black chicken, very dubious fish and what most of us suspected to be rat; while the teachers and hotel staff dined at their own table on champagne and chocolate cake. The (exact) same amount of salad always came back the next day as went away the last.

Also, we all bought BB guns and cheap cider from the supermarket - while we were all pissed off our heads down by the river, a gendarme popped up and told us to put the guns away, as they were illegal...


Also, in Year 7, I embarked upon an exchange trip funded by the EU, also to France.
With only the flight to pay, we were promised rides on the TGV, excellent accommodation, and probably a whole load more that I can't remember...

We never got the train ride, (too expensive), but I recall during our 6-hour coach journey from Lyon to Strasbourg, a railway line ran alongside much of the motorway, and every now and then I'd see an orange blur shoot past... That is what we in the business refer to a pisstake.

But the fun didn't stop there! In an incredible stint of generosity by our funders, we were allowed to stop at a 0-star motel, rather than sleeping on the coach! Three people to every two beds, (I slept on the floor, which was actually more comfortable), and in the morning breakfast in the car park, mingling pleasantly with the flies and the exhaust fumes from the adjacent motorway.

Oh, and while trekking round Strasbourg, we had to wear these stupid far-too-big or far-too-small t-shirts with the European flag emblazoned across them.


Nothing else comes immediately to mind, but I'll be sure to let you know if it does...
( Albert the Mildly Deranged purveyors of nothing much since a year or two ago, Tue 26 Apr 2005, 18:04, Reply)