We were so happy to welcome our European friends in Ecueillé last week!

From April 1st to April 9th, 42 participants of the Erasmus+ Home Sweet Home project were welcomed in the little town of Ecueillé by the students of collège Calmette et Guérin and their families.

- 4 students and 2 teachers from Turkey.

- 8 students and 2 teachers from England.

- 11 students and 2 teachers from Greece.

- 11 students and 2 teachers from Spain.

Saturday April 1st : A coach picked  up the Erasmus+ teams  at Roissy or Orly airport in Paris and took them to Ecueillé where they arrived in the evening. The students were dispatched in the French families and the teachers to their cottages in Faverolles.

Sunday April 2nd : The students spent the day with their French host families. (My House, My Culture)  The teachers visited  the castle of Chenonceau and Clos Lucé in Amboise, where Leonardo Da Vinci spent the last three years of his life. (Houses of the Past and Houses of Famous People)

Monday April 3rd : All the teams were welcomed at Collège Calmette et Guérin which had been decorated by Mme Duvault, the Spanish teacher and the assistants, Katia, Solène, Christelle and Valérie. Then, at the salle des fêtes, the French students talked about their Erasmus+ experience, their Houses of the Future activities and the results of the questionnaire about their habits concerning the protection of the environment, they had worked on with M. Iacono, their Maths teacher. Year 7 students performed a little play they had created with Mme Lanfant, their French teacher, and Mme Kawa, the librarian, about the House of Gods.

 The choir, first trained by Mme Bidault, their music teacher, and then by M. Marville, the History and geography teacher, sang the song written by the Greek teacher, M. Vassilis Agrokostas, entitled "Home Sweet Home". Then the ambassadors spoke about how they felt about their Erasmus+ experience so far and also about the results of the survey/ questionnaire about energy in their homes.

In the afternoon, there was a sports tournament organised by Mme Gastessous, the PE teacher, while the teachers had their meeting to talk about the project and its future, followed by a treasure hunt in Ecueillé.

Tuesday April 4th : The European visitors and their French hosts visited  the castle of Chambord http://www.chambord.org/en/and the city of Blois. http://en.blois.fr/283-some- key-figures.htm  (Houses of the Past)

Wednesday April 5th : In the morning, the Erasmus+ participants visited  the castle of Valençay, the house of Talleyrand. (Houses of famous People)

At 3.00 p.m. they went to Mme Sinic's place to visit her farm where she makes goat's cheese.

And at 5.00 p.m. the mayor of Ecueillé, M. Jean Aufrère welcomed all the  Erasmus+ group at the town hall of Ecueillé with Mme Isabelle Bruneau, the local Member of Parliament. Mme Renima and Mme Chrétien gave little presents to all the European participants.

Thursday April 6th :The European visitors and their French hosts visited the Futuroscope (near Poitiers) : a theme park for new technologies.

https://en.futuroscope.com/ (Houses of the Future)

Friday April 7th : The European visitors and their French hosts visited the Beauval zoo https://www.zoobeauval. com/en/ (Original Houses)

In the evening, they enjoyed the party, wonderfully organised by the French parents.

Saturday April 8th : The Turkish, Greek and Spanish teams went to Paris where they enjoyed a sightseeing tour of most of the monuments and also made a boat cruise on the river Seine. The British team went straight to the airport.

Sunday April 9th : The Spanish and Greek teams  continued to visit Paris till it was time to leave for the airport.