Tuesday - Versailles and Ceremony for Signature of Friendship Pact/Sister City

Versailles was today's main event.  We took the train from Sucy, clear across the entire city of Paris (east to west) to Versailles, where it was a short walk to the Versailles Palace.  We toured the Palace with audio-guides -- a few courageous students opted for the French version.  It was crowded, so each of us having an individual audio-guide was quite practical.  Of course, a highlight of Versailles is the Hall of Mirrors.   The gardens are also fantastic - in winter, they consist mostly of elaborately carved hedges.  It was actually sunny enough to have our picnic on the steps behind the Palace leading to the grounds.

After a smooth trip back to Sucy, the next event was quite a gala of a ceremony for the signing of the Sister-City Pact between Sucy and Scituate (officially) - Cohasset was nevertheless cited numerous times as an unofficial member of the pact.  There were 2 delegates from Scituate, the head of the Rotary Club and the town moderator, in addition to Pat Jacquart (President of the Sister-City Committee for Scituate) and Jake Kovach (former CHS student/exchange participant, currently living/teaching in Paris).  Though they have been in Sucy since Thursday, we have not seen much of our official delegation because they have been wined and dined and taken on special tours and treated to cultural events galore.

Several hundred people turned out for the signing of the Sister-City pact -- former exchange participants from Sucy and their families, members of the Sucy town government, many Sucy faculty members, host families past and present, all current exchange participants, representatives of many cultural, artistic, athletic, musical and other groups in Sucy.  There are so many opportunities for future interaction between our 3 towns - I encourage anyone who is interested to contact us about the possibilities.

Although the elaborate French speeches by the mayor and her representatives may have seemed lengthy to our students, it really was quite an impressive ceremony with music provided by the local conservatory students and ending up with rousing renditions of both the American and French National Anthems.

Official Sucy site announing the signing of pact with Scituate

Tomorrow morning - a taste of school, Sucy-style, followed by another trip to Paris in the afternoon for Musee d'Orsay and Eiffel Tower.  Time sure is flying by quickly.