Twenty-seven Warsaw Community High School students are preparing to embark on the trip of a lifetime.

French students in Anne Slaughter and Christopher Hindsley’s classes will set out for Noirt, France on April 1 to visit students at Lycée Saint-André, a high school with a long-standing history with WCHS. According to Slaughter, the relationship between the two high schools began in 2009, after former WCHS French teacher David Chastain, who had been with the school system for 39 years, met Mr. Chartier-Michael DeLion, a former “superintendent” at Lycée Saint-André, while attending a student’s wedding in France. The two spoke of their respective schools and the idea to create a shared exchange program began to blossom.

Since 2009, students from Lycée Saint-André  have visited WCHS with WCHS French students returning the favor with a visit of their own. The program works in intervals of three years, with an entire class visiting each respective school one year, and two students staying for six week intervals the other two years. Students reside with host families and are immersed in each other’s cultures, eating local cuisine, visiting landmarks and attending courses.

Slaughter explained that this is the largest group of students to attend the trip yet, with attendance growing in both respective schools. Students eligible for the trip must have completed French II at WCHS.

Students will arrive in Paris where they will take a bullet train to Poitier where they will continue onto Noirt. After spending five days with their host families, students will return to Paris where they will see local landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and Versailles.

French students Alexis Walton, Kendra Stutzman and Rebecca Carrillo expressed excitement for the trip, noting that they are looking forward to seeing the students who had visited WCHS in the fall. Though the girls noted they plan to “say yes to everything in order to enjoy new experiences” they stated they do have some reservations toward sampling escargot.