Bonjour Bordeaux…

In October, three students had the opportunity to travel to the French wine city with Erasmus+. Bordeaux is known for its delicious wine and quality of food. 

On 7 October, the students flew from Prague airport for an amazing adventure to families who hosted them for 14 days and gave them company. The families surprised us with their hospitality, welcomed us among them and together we discovered French cuisine with traditional habits. We were surprised by many unusual things, such as the fact that they don’t take their shoes off in their homes, dinners together with lot of food are in the late night hours, and even some families have their house cleaned.

Although you wouldn’t say it, the school system is very different from the Czech one. School starts at the same time, but unlike here, it doesn’t end until 6:00 pm. French high schools have only three years of school years and Wednesdays are more free, kindergartens are even closed. We often heard questions like, ‚Do you have a sea in Czechoslovakia?‘. This made us think of the French people’s knowledge, as well as their lack of English language and the resulting communication barrier. Therefore, we had to adapt to their language and further improve our language skills. 

Our families made up for the long school days with pleasant weekend moments. We tried to tame the waves during a surfing course, and wine magic took us to the largest wine museum in Bordeaux. Apart from visiting the vineyards, we were also amazed by the French architecture combined with exploring the city. The smells coming from the bakeries attracted us right down to the fresh, crusty pastries. Over the past 14 days, we have developed a slight addiction to French delicacies. 

For this incredible opportunity, we are grateful to the Erasmus+ project which supported our entire stay. 

And cheers to the baguettes 🙂

Magdaléna Dubová, Valérie Dubová a Alžběta Kudelová