Students tour Paris in springtime

Matt Wotus
Features Editor

The group in Pontoise.

While many students flock to Florida or local beaches for spring break, 14 Apex High students, including Legacy’s own Matt Wotus and John Santos, had a unique opportunity. They completed an exchange program with Saint Martin de France, a private school in Pontoise, France, located 35 miles north of Paris. Students from Saint Martin came to Apex in early March. The Apex students had an opportunity to live with a host family and see the sites that make Paris the famous city it is today. “It [the trip] was a great experience and a lot of fun,” sophomore Nicholas Madrid said. Sophomore Alex Lange agreed. “It was an extravagant vacation,” he said.

Since the school was not in session on Monday, April 1, for Easter Monday, students spent the three day weekend with their host families. For Easter, Madrid said his family took him to a Chinese restaurant. “Walking in, it didn’t look like a Chinese restaurant,” Madrid said. “It wasn’t really that good to be honest. I prefer the ones over here,” he added. Sophomore Trevor Mehta said his family took him Easter egg hunting in their backyard, a tradition in the United States as well. “I was hopping like a bunny when I found out [we were going Easter egg hunting],” he added. 

For the next four days, the American students toured various locations, seeing sights such as the Louvre and other museums, the Eiffel Tower, and Auver-sur-Oise, the city where Vincent van Gogh spent the final days of his life. Lange, Madrid, and Mehta agreed that the Eiffel Tower was their favorite tourist attraction. “The Eiffel Tower [was my favorite] because you could see all of Paris from it,” Lange commented. Madrid said he enjoyed the landmark because of the overview of Paris and beyond. 

The boys of the group, along with James Kuhn, the French
teacher at Apex, at the Louvre.

Lange also noted a few differences between France and the United States. “All their cars were stick shift, the hallways [in their houses] were narrower, and a lot of houses were made out of stone,” he said. “You don’t really need a car because you can take the Metro and go by bus,” Madrid added.

There were also differences between Saint Martin and Apex that Mehta pointed out. “It was bigger, and they lock their kids inside the school,” he said. “The food was 100 times better. It was like an actual, home-cooked meal, for school,” Mehta added.  “Their classes are much shorter and there are fewer people in them. Also, they have to wear uniforms and only teachers are allowed to drive to school,” Madrid commented. 

The group in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Food is one aspect of the trip many students were excited about. Madrid said that the best food he had while in France was chocolate croissants. “They’re just more crisp and buttery and fresh than the ones over here. We still sell chocolate croissants that are like two days old,” he said. Mehta agreed, saying he had chocolate croissants every morning at breakfast. He also said he tried donkey meat. “It was weird at first, but then it started to taste very good,” Mehta commented. As for Lange, he said he most enjoyed a homemade ham and onion pizza his family made for dinner. “The onions were fresh and she, the mom, made the dough herself so it was legit homemade,” he said. 

 

The exchange program between Apex and Saint Martin will be an annual occurrence. Lange and Mehta plan to return their senior year and Madrid plans to go the next two years.