The Paw Print

By Elena Whitford, Arts & Culture Editor

From March 7 to March 17, instead of sitting in AP Gov classrooms and attending scholastic bowl competitions, seventeen Payton students and three teachers completed the second half of their French language exchange: a trip to Paris, complete with daily field trips and stays with host families. 

After a tiring overnight flight, students hit the ground running with an early afternoon arrival with their host families, followed by a weekend with their families. From Monday through Friday of the next week, planned activities included the requisite visits to the Louvre museum and the Eiffel Tower. Other excursions included free time in the Montmartre neighborhood and a visit to a soccer stadium.

The group was made up of past and present French students, as well as French and dance teacher Mme. Lewis, biology teacher Ms. Ang and diverse learning teacher Mr. Potter, who has accompanied many other Payton trips abroad. The Paw Print talked to several of such students to find out highlights and potential improvements for future trips.

Maya Shah ‘26, who dances at the Joffrey Ballet, said without hesitation that her favorite field trip was a guided tour of the Opéra Garnier — a beautiful, 19th-century opera house that regularly hosts ballet performances. She added that she had also enjoyed “spending time with my family and my [exchange student’s] siblings on the weekends.”

The most meaningful part of the trip for many students was the cultural immersion. Ana Beckman ‘26 told me, “My favorite thing was getting to see how a typical teenager in Paris lives her life.” 

Similarly, Olivia Prowse ‘25 said, “It was very cool to understand what [the French students’] day-to-day was like and how it compares with ours. I also loved spending time with the family, it was really fun to talk to them and they took me to see things that weren’t as touristy.”

Every person the Paw Print interviewed was largely satisfied with the trip, but when asked what they would have done differently, Beckman said she would have liked to try more traditional French food, while Prowse said, “Next time I’d love to explore the city side of Paris more.”

And what about the educational aspect? While six days of school may have been missed, the trip wasn’t entirely a vacation; full French immersion can do wonderful things for language skills. Prowse told me, “I haven’t taken a French class since AP French sophomore year, so I was a bit rusty before the trip. However, I soon found that I was able to have conversations and hold my own in the language again.”

As Beckman put it, “I’ve learned more vocabulary and slang that we wouldn’t have learned in French class.”