— 15 Jul 2023, 10:46 by Alex Hardy
Friday 14th July
'Egad!' I hear your cry across the breakfast table. 'Parsimonious persiflage on the old French Trip blog today!' And, I fear, you aren't wrong. Apologies for the slim pickings in the evening, we were all quite exhausted - so fatigued, as it turned out, that I didn't even stir until gone 7 am this morning - not the normal 5 am rise and shine, but energy levels are now restored!
This morning was the annual trip to Vermenton (Worm-Chin' in English) market, which was tragically half its pre-Covid size, but still more than adequate for our 40 intrepid explorers. On return, the boys assembled their comestibles, and each table gave a French spoken presentation. The best French speaking went to Seb, Hector, Maxence, Christopher, Obaro, Jonathan, German and Hero, largely for Seb's enthusiastic 'Miam-miam!' The best overall lunch went to William, Archie, Fionan, Hugo, Sam W, Arth, Kit and Oscar S, for some very snazzy knifework and cheese platter.
OMG, its 18.52 and this is the final blog! This is the first time I have been able to sit down since lunch, and yet so little to say. We had a beautiful walk through the woods, learning about the local flora and fauna. On return, it was a mad rush of packing, lost property, found property, more lost property, then all remaining property put on a table for boys to check one last time, and then repeat. As ever, we finished the week with the MCF prize giving for all the various events. Biggest round of applause for the two 'Ambassadors', the LP boys judged by our hosts to have been the most cheerful, helpful and kind of the bunch. It must have been an awfully hard decision, but a HUGE well done to Thomas Pinchin and Oscar Sun, who were, fair to say, a delight among so many fantastic boys.
Before I forget, it is Awais' birthday tomorrow, he just received a card and pressie during supper. (Supper was snails and burgers, yay!)
Farewell to the amazing MCF staff - boys should bear in mind that one of the staff came here as a young girls 14 years ago, so boys could always follow suit when they are of university age.
My final thank yous go to my wonderful, beautiful, helpful colleages; Jane, Carol, Leanne and Bel. The trip simply couldn't happy without them. Please please please, if you are reading this before picking them up tomorrow, don't let them leave without saying a big thank you to these four wonderful ladies.
So until this time next year, I am signing off the blog. Thank you for reading it and for your kind feedback, it makes it all worthwhile!
