At the weekend we stayed with our families. Some of us met up in groups and others did separate activities with their families. For instance Scott went to a party, Caelan went sea kayaking in the Med, while Alise and Nicola went to a dance show at the Albi theatre. Others visited the nearby medieval town of Cordes sue Ciel.

On Monday we took the train to Toulouse then the Metro and the bus to the Cité de l’Espace ( Space City). It had replicas of rockets. We watched a film in the Imax theatre about the Hubble space telescope. There were lots of interactive activities to do and we also enjoyed the play park. We went into the Mir space station and the weather station. Scott was our weather man!

After the visit we bought souvenirs in the shop.

On Tuesday we went to the theme park Cap’ Découverte with our French pen pals. There were lots of sporting activities. We started with the paintball then had lunch with our pen pals. In the afternoon some of us tried the zip wire called “Tyrolienne”, the ski lift, the bob sleigh and the downhill go kart. Mr Graydon went on the zip wire four times and Mrs Lundbye screamed her head off and Nicola and Scott were deaf afterwards!

At 5 o’clock we visited a mining museum and foud out about the life and working conditions in coal mines. We went down in a “cage” the lift that miners would have used to go down. On the way back from the museum, the Albi Sporting Club ( rugby) bus picked us up and we went back to the school in style!

On Wednesday morning we visited the Lapérouse museum, a famous French explorer who was born in the town. We had a guided tour of the museum in English and we learned about expeditions, life, conditions and the purpose of expeditions. We even saw the paint box that Lapérouse used when he was traveling. After the visit we had a goodbye meeting at the school when Madame Catalo the headmistress presented us with a polo short or Tshirt with the school logo. We drank some watermelon and melon smoothie or orange juice, ate pizza, shrimps, cakes etc… Afterwards we went into town with our pen pals to have lunch and buy last minute presents.

Due to an air traffic controller strike we arrived back at Edinburgh airport in the early hours of the morning.