Beginning on March 28th, fifteen students and two teachers from Nantes, France will get to experience the American lifestyle, Seattle tourist attractions, and the amazing Seattle Prep community.

During their stay, they will go to the Museum of Flight, the Space Needle, and Chinatown.

Madame Davis is especially excited because she hopes that the students from France will “make speaking French a reality beyond the somewhat artificial walls of our classroom.”

Other Prep students should also be excited for the exchange students to arrive because it will give them “contact with people from other cultures, which helps us all understand the cultural differences and historical experiences that may divide us, as well as the common values and humanity that unite us,” according to Davis.

Students participating in the French exchange from Madame Davis’s French classes have been preparing for the French students’ arrival for weeks. They have also been communicating with the French student they will be hosting in order to get to know them better.

Sophomore Gracie Cole expresses her excited feelings as she prepares to host a student named Pauline Macé. Cole says that it is Macé’s first time in the United States and she is excited to see Seattle and go “to her first concert.”

Students from Prep are participating in the exchange by going to France in the summer and staying at French family homes. Sophomore Ithay Cortes-Quiroz says she is excited to go stay with her French exchange student named Florine and “very excited to learn about a different culture.” Cortes-Quiroz has been communicating with Florine and is very enthusiastic about trying new foods and seeing all the opportunity France has to offer.

Sophomore Lulu Dawson will be going with Cortes-Quiroz to France this summer and is thrilled to go for the first time. Dawson has heard “positive things from Prep students that have travelled in previous years, and it sounds like it is always a really good experience.”

Cole will also be traveling to France with other Prep students. She went to France last summer and got to see a lot of the tourist attractions but is excited to stay with a French family and experience their lifestyle. Cole is also looking forward to “trying new food, shop, and work on [her] French speaking.”