We had windy but warm weather, a wonderful farm to stay on with horses, goats, chickens, alpacas and pot-bellied pigs, wonderful food cooked by Olivier our host and chef, lots of exciting trips, lots of French to speak, and our pen-pals to meet at last! We spent ages trying to decide the best bits.

Our first choice was meeting our pen-pals. We played games with them, including Guess Who, then spent some time sharing local food that the parents generously provided, including artisan cheeses, breads, apple tartes and ciders, and had our lunch with them. It was excellent practice for our French. Hotly contested second choices were the bakery with the scary baker, where we learned how to roll croissants and bread; the Chocolaterie, Etretat, where we saw the amazing cliffs painted by Monet and visited the Maison d’Arsene Lupin; the goat farm, where we learnt about milk production, cheese making and met the goats, including Muncher our special goat, who loved us so much she escaped through three fences and tried to climb aboard our coach; our farm and the French market where we managed to spend our remaining Euros! We have learnt so much apart from confidence in speaking French and we loved every minute of our week away.

Visit the Photogallery for this trip