French Exchange reaches New Heights
This spring the French Exchange broke new ground in several ways. In numbers alone, students and families reached all-time highs: 19 Hackley students traveled to France in March and, between, them 29 families (22 at Hackley and 7 at the Masters School) hosted 31 French students from the Lycée Fabert in Metz. Teachers Jennie Lyons and Shachar Link hosted the French chaperones while Mary Farrell, Danny Lawrence and Semere Baraki chaperoned the Hackley travelers.
This year Hackley traveled farther afield within France. In addition to the home city of Metz, we visited Strasbourg (Alsace), a crystal factory in Bayel (Champagne), the D-Day beaches (Normandie), and Paris. From the old Germanic houses of Strasbourg to the splendors of Paris, by way of the ultra-modern new Pompidou Museum in Metz, we saw a wide variety of sights and landscapes. Almost all of them were bathed in rare spring sunshine. Looking at the Pont Alexandre III blazing in the sun, Kevin DeLaCruz remarked on the real gold leaf on its statues, “That’s so French. Go big or go home!”
History and French lessons came to life as students strolled down to the water of the English Channel on Omaha Beach or looked out of Charles de Gaulle’s study window. We remembered Pocantico’s Union Church with its Chagall windows as we looked up at his Old Testament series in Metz Cathedral, an unexpected link between Westchester and Lorraine.
When the French students came to New York in April, they found Hackley’s classes much smaller and friendlier than theirs; the Lycée Fabert has about 2,000 students. “Everyone knows everyone else here,” one student commented. They even preferred Hackley’s lunches to Fabert’s! The French students were particularly nice this year and quite willing to merge into the student body; they went to classes and lacrosse games. They also visited Ellis Island, mid-town Manhattan, and West Point, where they received individual tours from the cadets. They attended “Anything Goes” on Broadway, a rollicking success.
As usual, though, the heart of this experience, even better than the food, was the friendships forged between French and American students and between students and their host families on both sides of the Atlantic. Of Joséphine, Demelly Batista’s father said, “She was my daughter for two weeks.” Since many of those who went to France hosted the same student here, close ties were formed during almost a month spent together, and farewells were particularly painful. It is our hope that the students will maintain these precious ties for some time to come.
This year we definitely “went big.” Fortunately, we were also able to come home.
M.F.
