Vauban

I spent this morning in a College that was built 2 years ago. It is situated in a low socio-economic area and is something special to see I was told.  The Principal had heard I was in Maubeuge and asked the Notre Dame Principal if I could come and speak to their Yr 7 & 8 European section (the classes who do more hours of English per week).  Kids can't begin in a European section until they are older in other schools, so this is innovative at Vauban.

Vauban outdoor area

It was so strange to see wide open, clean and new spaces in a school! It is fantastic and the teachers all love it. Walls have big colourful murals on them inside and they have far more computers available for use and the room I used had a whiteboard as well as a  fancy data projector and lights etc so it could be used for a production. The school has 560 students.

Wall outside Principal's office

I've never seen the likes of this in a french classroom before!

The Principal was a stunning woman of about 40yrs. She was a younger, darker version of Madame Mezaour from New Caledonia! Danielle had filled me in on her background. One of the office staff left her husband and two little kids to live with her two months after the school opened!  Apparently this would never have been tolerated in a private school. The staff were so nice and I definitely recognised a few 'types' of kids throughout the morning. They have a range of problems because of the area they are in. The downtrodden-looking woman waiting at reception when we arrived was sporting a black eye and that is not uncommon apparently.

I was taken back to Notre Dame after having lunch with the staff and spent the next couple of hours with Year 7s. The french may be able to teach us a few things about history and war sites, but man could I teach them a thing or two about control of students! It's so frustrating watching them trying to get kids to be quiet and stop talking in class! It's the same in every school. These students were the worst by far and so much time was wasted while the teacher stopped and growled. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from ripping into them because that would have been very rude and not my place at all to interfere with discipline.

I had a couple of hours to spare before my ride home to La Longueville was available so I walked into town and then around the ramparts. Maubeuge was a fortified town like Le Quesnoy, two of 50 towns in France that were fortified because of their strategic position. These two towns are near the border and Louis XV wanted to guard France from attack at these particular sites.

Maubeuge town is pretty ugly really and has none of the charm of old buildings I've seen elsewhere. The town centre was completely destroyed by the Germans in WW2 and after the war, they rebuilt it as quickly as possible with the cheapest, easiest materials apparently. The country had so much re-building to do, there was little choice. There only remains one old building and there is a war  memorial next to it.

I finally arrived home at 6pm and half an hour later was taken to an AFS meeting. It was incredibly boring but they wanted to say goodbye to me and have an aperitif after the meeting. I also received a small gift to help remember the North of France by - an address book with some of Matisse's paintings in. They are all very kind people who do so much in carrying out the AFS motto - connecting people, sharing cultures.

I eventually got home at 9.30pm for dinner and I was absolutely shot, hence the blog wasn't written last night! The Regniers had people for dinner so I couldn't just bolt straight to bed when I'd eaten. I had made a pavlova for dessert and they thought it was fabulous! So my pav recipe has been spread over a fair part of Northern France now! Danielle tells everyone about it.So...... I got to bed at 11pm. One thing I won't miss is the late nights!

                                                         Notre Dame de Grace College