My Erasmus+ journey to France

In this post I want to share my journey to France with you and recommend you some things I’ve found interesting.

Tuesday – 11.04.2023: Our journey to Paris

The most challenging part was waking up early, extremely early, at 2 o’clock in the morning. As a night owl, this is usually the time when I go to sleep. I had to be at the train station by 4am, and then I faced a five-hour journey to Prague airport. Thankfully, I had plenty of time to catch up on some sleep. After I arrived at Prague airport, I noticed it was surprisingly quiet and peaceful. Despite my exhaustion, I decided to grab a coffee to boost my energy. However, I ended up falling asleep during the flight regardless.

At 2pm, twelve hours later, I finally arrived together with my group to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Then we spent the rest of the day in Paris. Some people from my group decided to take a look at the Eiffel Tower in the evening, when it was already getting dark and I went with them. I enjoyed the view of the tower and its surroundings, that’s when my journey officially started for me.

Wednesday – 12.04.2023: First meeting with French friends

The next day we went away from Paris to meet our new friends and host family. We took train, that was heading to Nemours, where we spent most of our stay. Nemours is a small town, around an hour and 25 minutes away south from Paris by train. We came to the school where we had our study program for next few days. At the school we waited for our assigned French friends. After we all met, almost everyone except me and one other friend went to eat lunch at their canteen. My French friend took me right away to her home to eat lunch. At hers I met with her friend that also had a person from my group. For lunch my friend’s mother had prepared a chicken with potatoes and it was a really heartwarming welcome for me, because I didn’t eat much before. I’ve got to know with my new friends and also her family.

Château de Fontainebleau

In the afternoon, we visited one of the most famous French palaces – Fontainebleau. I was pretty surprised how complex the building actually is! Also, my friend rides on horses and she practices every Wednesday in the local school of horse riding (Société Équestre de Fontainebleau). We were able to watch her training session and it was wonderful. Actually, I’ve never had a chance to get so close to an horse. Such an amazing animal. After the training we walked around the palace.

In the past, this palace was a residence to many French monarchs, for example Louis VII. or Napoleon Bonaparte. Nowadays, it serves as the national museum and it belongs under the UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its unique architecture and also a historical importance. There are 1500 rooms, but not all of them are accessible.

Château de Fontainebleau

Thursday – 13.04.2023: Exploring Nemours

This day was officially the first when I went to the school in Nemours to learn something new. I went to the same classes as my friend and I always followed her when we were moving to another classroom. For me, it was a little bit chaotic in the beginning, because their school is much bigger, than ours. But as days have passed I’ve got used to it. My first lesson was SES (Sciences Économiques et Sociales = a mix of economy and politics I’d say). Frankly, not anything interesting for me. What was a shock for me: the duration of their lessons. I’m used to 45 minutes long lesson and then a 10-15 minute break. Here, the lessons lasted mostly for two hours straight with just a five minute break. At the midday I tried lunch from this school canteen for the first time, which was also different from what I am used to. I’ve got much bigger portion and we could also take some salads, cheese or yoghurts. We had a cod with potato croquettes – for a canteen it wasn’t really bad at all. But that’s probably because I like fish.

Un gâteau à la gelée

In the afternoon I went together with my group to visit the castle of Nemours (Château de Nemours). Beside this castle the Loing river flows and the scenery has a very peaceful vibe. Inside the castle there is a small exhibition of paintings. The main courtyard is surrounded by medieval houses which constitute the heart of the historical heritage of the town.

Near the castle there is a patisserie (pastry-shop) with delicious cakes and sweets. I’ve tried a creamy cake covered with strawberry jelly. It costed me 4,50 euros but it was definitely worth it. We spent almost the whole afternoon in this patisserie to tell each other our new observations and experiences, while our French friends were still at school. In early evening we met with our French friends back and went back home. In the evening we gathered together with the host family at the dinner table. I was slowly getting used to veeery long dinner sessions, but the dinner that lasted the longest time in my whole life was still somewhere in the future… 

Friday – 14.04.2023: The most boring day

This day was one of the less interesting days. We went to school – I had Histoire-Géo (history and geography in one) and maths. And in the afternoon we watched a movie that I didn’t understand a lot (due to both context and language barriers). However, in the evening my host family took me to a fun park with a lot of fun attractions and good food. The fun park took place in Parc des Noues park in Montereau-Fault-Yonne, which is located 15 minutes away from Nemours by car. I really enjoyed that time here with my host family despite it was pretty cold outside.

Saturday – 15.04.2023: Louvre, lost in underground and the dinner that lasted for almost an eternity

Finally a weekend has arrived. I was excited for this day the most, because we went to Paris for the whole day. In the morning we visited the Louvre museum. This was probably the best time of my stay here. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time so I had to rush a lot to see at least the most famous pieces and paintings. I also managed to find Mona Lisa, but the room was so crowded, I saw it only from a distance – I didn’t need to waste time waiting in a queue to get closer. I was mostly observing the paintings from the New Age. Even though I was so thrilled to visit the ancient Greece exhibition, unfortunately I couldn’t spend more time in the museum, because I had to meet with our group in the early afternoon.

If you’re interested in visiting Louvre, buy tickets online. Although it’s slightly more expensive you will save a lot of time waiting in a long queue. The admission for people aged 18 years and younger is free. Also students up to age 26 with the residence within the EEA have free entrance. Otherwise, the general admission is 15 euros if buying at the cash or 17 euros if buying online. You can find more information here.

My journey through the underground jungle of Paris

When I got out from the museum, I finally realized that I have a little time left to get to our meeting place on time. My senses heightened as I stepped into the underground labyrinth of Paris, a city boasting one of the largest subway systems in Europe. The problem is that some lines were highlighted in similar colors, only further adding to my confusion. My first mistake was that I went to the wrong direction. Instead of going back I rather decided to change the line, because I thought I would get faster to my destination – which was the Eiffel tower. I didn’t know I was so wrong. By boarding the wrong train, which line was a lighter shade of green or something similar, I unwittingly traveled even farther away from my goal.

Of course my time was running out. Everyone else was already in a queue to the Eiffel tower. They were waiting for me but it took me so long to arrive. I had to get back to my original destination from where I first entered the underground. Although I was late for almost 30 minutes, I’ve managed to get on the tower together with my group. However, luck was on my side. Because it was so crowded, the number of people allowed beyond the entrance gate had been limited. Despite my chaotic attempt to find a route to the tower, I found an advantage in the fact that I didn’t have to wait the long queue of increasingly impatient individuals.

In a nutshell, the view from the Eiffel tower was pretty nice, but I enjoyed way more our time in a local market where you could smell any kind of fresh food. I was also starving because I ate almost nothing during the day. I tried a pie made of cheese, ham and cream for the first time in my life and it was delicious. For a small dessert I bought a chocolate flavoured waffle with bananas.

The longest dinner session I’ve ever experienced

In the evening, we took the train back to Nemours. It all started at around 6 o’clock when my host family together with another host family met together at our house. With another host family coming, I’ve met with a friend from my group. Actually I really appreciated it because I didn’t feel so left out. Not because they didn’t want to talk to me but because of a language barrier. However, in the end we were talking to each other for about 2 hours and I’ve learned so much about everyday life in France.

Then the time for dinner came. Everyone had sat around the dining table and then my friend’s mother brought the food. Everyone got a cup full of shells, salmon meat and shrimps with a soft and creamy sauce. I got one without the salmon, because I asked for exclusion, because I don’t like salmon much. On the other hand, my friend got only the salmon meat, as she had asked for. In the end it was delicious. I’m not very used to eat seafood because it is not common in my landlocked country where I’m from.

Then another 2 hours passed. I slowly started getting tired, but a dessert was still ahead of us. Me and the friend from my group had to wait until everyone tells literally everything they could. It was very chaotic and we had got lost in their random conversations. At the midnight we finally got into “the dessert phase”. I was slightly worried about my digestive system, because it doesn’t make good things for me when I’m eating way too late. But in the end I survived.

To summarize it, the dinner took around 6 hours. Lucky me, that the next day was Sunday and not any weekday.

Sunday – 16.04.2023: Peaceful day

Everyone in my host family slept half of this day, including me. This was our rest day and nobody did anything productive. However, in the afternoon we went for a walk. They took me to a forest with a stunning view to an untouched natural scenery. This forest is mainly located in the Larchant area, and refers to a former Templar commandery in the Grez-sur-Loing area. There are many rocks and stones, including one that looks like an elephant.

Monday – 17.04.2023: At school – drawing

On this day we went to school in the morning. We had Histoire-Géo, Spanish and PE. Somehow I managed not to fall asleep, especially in the Spanish lesson, which seemed super boring to me. After lunch break, both my group and our French friends had a special activity – drawing. We got a black or white paper and we could draw anything we wanted. We just had to bring a photo of something we were going to draw. Despite I’m not very good at drawing, my picture was later placed on the wall of the best pictures… Don’t ask me why, it just happened…

Tuesday – 18.04.2023: At school – interactive chemistry lesson

This was the last day we were studying at the school. In the afternoon we had an interesting chemistry lesson with some basic experiments. It was quite fun, but I was already focusing on my pre-written speech that I later spoke to the French students about the exchange program. I was very nervous because I had to present it in French, not in English. To be honest it was one of my worst presenting experiences. I still have no idea whether they understood me and my other colleagues from my group. Maybe I rather don’t want to know…

Wednesday – 19.04.2023: Au revoir, crêpes and Paris at night

And this was our last day in Nemours. We spent the whole morning at school and after lunch we made a farewell to our French friends. Then we took the bus and train back to Paris, where we spent the rest of the day. We have seen the Notre Dame cathedral, Panthéon, Sorbonne university… Such a nice afternoon exploring the most famous buildings Paris can offer. But I couldn’t wait for the evening – we were told to choose 2 crêpes we want to try (one salt, one sweet). And that was our dinner. I’ve chosen “the salty” pancake with ham, mozzarella, tomato sauce and lettuce – it had an Italian vibe for me and it was delicious. The sweet flavoured crêpes mostly were consisted of Nutella, vanilla ice cream, fruits or almonds etc. These were also really tasty, but I personally enjoyed the salt one more.

Bateaux Mouches

A ride on the boat was our last activity. The boat was sailing on the Seine river for an hour and we could observe all the buildings and people around. At night, Paris felt very magical for me. And just after our boat journey had ended and we went off, the Eiffel Tower had started glowing. I felt like I’m in a dream, but it was actually a reality. I really recommend a boat tour in Paris at night. It isn’t also very expensive – one hour ride costs around 15 euros.

My observations – summary:

• France offers a large amount of beautiful castles and palaces – for history lovers this is a treasure chest full of endless opportunities to dig deeper into French history.

• The education system in France is completely incomprehensible for me. They have way more holidays and free time, which makes me envious. Also I don’t understand why most of young French people can’t speak English on an understandable level despite of how difficult English lessons they have. Well, compared to my mother tongue French is way more useful on international level, however English is a need nowadays. Don’t take it as a complain – I’m just wondering why.

• French food is one of the best in the world. My personal favourites are salt crêpes and generally sweet desserts.

• If you’ve never had eaten seafood before, don’t hesitate to try one in France! You will either love it or hate it but it’s worth to try.

• Don’t go to Louvre museum if you don’t have much time – you will not enjoy it as you might expect. Instead, reserve at least an half-day but still don’t expect you will see everything. As I’ve mentioned before, Louvre is a complex building with various floors and alleys where you might get lost in a snap of a finger.

• The centre of Paris is not that dangerous during the day, but be aware of pick pockets, that often operate in crowded areas (for example in the underground). At night it starts to get worse – if possible, don’t travel around Paris alone during the night time.

• Spring is a great time in a year for visiting France. Flights are usually cheaper, tourist attractions are slightly less crowded and the weather is really nice and warm. The only downside is that during that time, it usually rains a lot here.

• A lot of people say that French people are very arrogant to foreigners. Based on my experience I can’t say that it’s true. Actually French people are very kind and open to you. Especially younger people have respect for others.

Our Erasmus+ group together with French students