Students from l’Institut d’Alzon in Nimes, France arrive  Mar. 3 to explore D.C. and shadow students at Potomac Falls. 

From Mar. 3 to the 11, students from l’institut Emmanuel d’Alzon in Nimes, France, will be staying with Potomac Falls students through a Dream-Travel program. 

The Dream-Travel organization has been around for over 20 years and specializes in organizing students’ group travel to Europe, Canada, the United States, China, and Latin America. 

The group of exchange students includes 16 students, alongside their two teachers who will shadow Laurence Bertholet, the Potomac Fall’s French teacher. The students will be staying with Potomac Falls students and the teachers will be staying with Bertholet. 

The students will leave the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport at 1:35 PM and arrive at the Dulles Airport (IAD) at 4:15 PM. At IAD, the students from France will meet their host families for the first time and start their week-long stay in America. 

On Tuesday Mar. 4 and Thursday Mar. 6, the students will be traveling around D.C. with their teachers and visiting several historical sites. On Tuesday the students will visit the National Mall, Monuments, White House, and the Martin Luther King Memorial. On Thursday, the students will see the Capitol, Library of Congress, and Smithsonian. 

On Mar. 5 and 7, the students will shadow their host student and see what American high school is really like. Because both days are B days, the French students will only get to see half of their host student’s schedule. 

Both students from the United States and France are looking forward to the trip. Senior Aleesha Askari, Co-President of the French Honors Society and club, has been brainstorming for weeks about the trip. “I was talking to a friend and we thought that taking our students to the Cheesecake Factory would be hilarious. It’s what a French person would expect from America, a huge menu with large portions,” said Askari.

“I can’t wait to see how the school works, if it’s like in the [TV] series,” said Coline Rodet, one of the incoming students from Nimes.