Celebrating Thanksgiving in France!
On the day of Thanksgiving, my school and I visited Lycée d’Hotelier Dinard, a French high school which specializes in hotel and restaurant management!
Quick French school system lesson😉: For high school in France, you can choose different paths depending on what profession you want to take on in your future. Once path is a Lycée Professional, which is what the Lycée d’Hotelier Dinard is! A professional high school is meant for students who want to quickly start working directly after high school. Similar to a trade school, you prepare and learn a profession that involves working with your hands. The students still have their normal high school classes, but learn their intended profession in the curriculum as well.
The specific high school we visited focuses on hotel and restaurant management through cuisine, serving, and learning hospitality. When we first arrived the students greeted us, and we were split into small groups with French and American students. They planned a sweet Thanksgiving quiz for us and we toured around the school. Then we had the opportunity to make crêpes and pastries! The culinary students taught us how to make crêpes and roll pastries. It was so fun because I’ve wanted to try a baking class in France, and now I can say I have! Imagine being graded on how tasty your crêpe is or your cake design, how cool!
After cooking it was almost lunch time! But before the feast, we learned how to set the table with the students learning how to become servers. Then we all seated for the Thanksgiving lunch in the dining room. The culinary students prepared this special Thanksgiving meal for just for us which was so kind, and it was delicious! We started off with a first course of butternut squash soup and bread. The main meal consisted of chicken because it is very difficult to find turkey in France, plus this Thanksgiving meal was for over 70 students! With the chicken we had a French rendition of mac and cheese, sweet potato puree, and raspberry sauce. For dessert we had the tastiest pumpkin pie with a raspberry filling which made the pie absolutely exquisite. I really enjoyed this Thanksgiving meal because 1. The food was delicious, but 2. the tables were mixed with American and French students for ✨immersion✨. There were four French students at my table all focusing on different professions in the hotel/restaurant business. Talking one on one with these students gave me the experience of meeting French teenagers in an authentic setting, this is the real French immersion which you cannot only find in a classroom. I loved hearing about their lives and interests while they also enjoyed hearing the perspective of an American! Even though we’re from two different countries with two very different cultures, we still found similarities in each other and became friends🙃.
After our Thanksgiving meal, we played two group games of Kahoot with our groups from the beginning of the day. It was another point in the day where I met more French teens who were fun to talk to😁. Before we departed on our way back to Rennes, we ate our snacks we made in the morning, the crêpes and pastries. They turned out so yummy and were the perfect treat before our bus ride home.
Our day at Lycée d’Hotelier Dinard was definitely on of my favorite field trips so far! Visiting a hotelier high school was a day I could never experience in the US and it was so different from any schooling experience I’ve ever seen. Activities like these give me knew insights of the world, allow me to meet new people, and expand my horizons in interesting ways. In the spring, these students will be coming to my school campus in Rennes; it will be an exciting day which I’m looking forward to in semester 2😎.
