For my school tour in May, we went to Torquay in the South-West of England. The trip lasted a week and I couldn’t wait! I was going to another country with my best friends for a whole week.

On Friday, at 6 o’clock, we were all in front of the school with our bags, waiting to get going. We travelled through the night, and arrived at Le Havre at 8 o’clock on the Saturday morning.
Nobody really slept that night, we were all way too excited. After waiting for about an hour at the port, we finally got onto the ferry. It was a really nice one too. We had breakfast on the boat: Hot chocolate, orange juice, croissant, bread and jam. It was lovely! We had 6 hours of journey ahead, so we went and investigated the boat.

At about 2 o’clock (English time) we arrived in Portsmouth. We all had our cameras out, ready to take pictures of anything unusual. We got straight back into the bus, for another 5 hours before arriving in Torquay. We got there at 5.30pm and our ‘English families’ came to collect us around 6 o’clock, at the meeting point.

Everybody was a little nervous. What could they talk about? Would the family understand them? Everybody was checking their English with me before they left: “How are you? I’m fine thanks, and you?”

When my ‘English family’ arrived (I was staying with two of my best friends: Audrey and Laure) we couldn’t wait to meet them! I was a bit nervous too, even though I could speak the language. The people were very nice. They had a ten-year-old daughter, with whom we got on very well.

After getting settled, the family told us that the bus would come and get us every morning at 8.30, and bring us back at 5. We couldn’t wait until the next day, to go and visit Torquay!

The week flew by. We visited Torquay itself, a miniature museum, an aquarium, two old villages– we even had a ride around Plymouth on a pleasure boat! We also spent a day in Exeter, where we visited a museum, and spent the afternoon shopping. My friends and I had a great time with our ‘English family’. They were really really nice to us!

We were a little sad when we had to leave them, but happy to get home to our real families! We left Torquay at 9.30 on Thursday and did the same trip the other way around, only this time, we all slept on the way back.

On the Friday morning, at about midday, we arrived in front of the school, where our parents were waiting for us, all looking so happy to see us. I loved Torquay. It’s a really nice place. I’d love to go back some day, because it was brilliant!