In the Autumn 2007 term it was announced in assembly that students studying French at Saltus Senior School would have the opportunity to join a school trip to Normandy, France, in January/February 2008.

The plan was for students and staff to stay at the Chateau de la Baudonniere.

The glossy brochure boasted that the Chateau was situated in the La Manche region, 90 minutes from Cherbourg and Caen and 30 minutes from Coutances and Le Mont St. Michel in the north of France.

The Chateau was described as having an orchard, cider press, boule pitch, farmyard, river, assault course, climbing wall, archery range, wood, volleyball court and stables within its 90-acre site.

It sounded like a great trip and so, having pleaded with my parents to pay the deposit and let me go, I raced to school the next day only to find that the 30 or so places available were being snapped up fast and I had literally to run to Kate Ryan's classroom to secure my spot: Number 27.

Within an hour of the registration period opening, all the places had been filled, and there were many disappointed kids who didn't make it in time.

And so on Thursday, January 24, at 5.30 p.m., we all gathered at the Bermuda International Airport ready to start our long journey.

The flight was full to capacity, and even though it was a night flight, we could hardly sleep for excitement about the week ahead.

After landing in Gatwick, we were taken by coach to Portsmouth where we were supposed to catch the ferry to Caen.

Once we arrived in Portsmouth and preparations were made to get us through passport control, it quickly became obvious that there was a problem.

After quite a bit of hanging around, the teacher explained to us that the children with Bermuda passports were not being allowed to go to France because the French officials had a problem with our passports.

We learned later that despite the intervention of the British Home Office, the French authorities had been adamant that they would not grant entry to us.

We were told that the other members of the group would go on ahead to France, and we would have to stay behind until they could get things sorted out. It was so disappointing.

Our teacher checked us into a hotel close by and then later on we all went to McDonald's for supper, which made us feel a whole lot better. On the way back to the hotel, one of the girls in our group slipped and broke her tooth. What else could go wrong!

We got through the rest of the night without any more mishaps and the next day we heard that the French authorities were going to let us all through except for one girl who had a Bahamian passport.

She had to complete paperwork to get a visa, and joined our group a few days later.

Once again we prepared to go on the ferry across the English Channel and were finally allowed to board at 8.45 a.m.

A coach dispatched from the Chateau met us at Caen, and we arrived at our destination in the early evening.

The group that had arrived the day before had been learning how to make goat's cheese.

Fortunately, this wasn't something that any of us minded missing because goat's cheese is pretty smelly and doesn't taste good at all.

On the Sunday after our arrival we had a day out ¿ the theme war.

After breakfast we were all taken on the Chateau's coach to see the Bayeux Tapestry Museum.

I had no idea what a tapestry was, let alone that it could be so huge.

It is in fact an embroidery, stitched in woollen yarns on linen. It is 70 metres long and about 50 centimetres wide. It was once even longer but part of the tapestry at the end ¿ after the bit about the Battle of Hastings ¿ has been cut off.

The tapestry contains about 50 different scenes and tells the story of the Battle of Hastings: why William the Conqueror felt he had to invade, the preparations made for the crossing and the battle itself. In the afternoon after a picnic lunch we visited the D Day beaches of the Second World War, and the American War Cemetery where those who had died during the campaign were buried.

It was quite sad really because there were so many war graves, and many of them didn't have any names on them, so that means they don't know who is buried there.

On three of the days we stayed around the Chateau we were split up into three groups and rotated through a series of activities.

My group began by learning circus skills like plate spinning and juggling and photography.

I quite enjoyed the circus skills, and learned lots of new things, like how to juggle.

In the afternoon, we climbed a climbing wall on the Chateau grounds.

Climbing was fun because I had never done something like that before.

On the other days, we got to do an assault course, archery, fencing, orienteering, and even had a few French lessons.

Overall, archery was my favourite activity because I had never had the opportunity to do it before.

My least favourite was the assault course because it was freezing cold, muddy and wet.

As a bonus we also got the chance to taste cider, but I don't think I should have done that. I ended up getting a huge headache the next day ¿ I'm not going to drink anything like that again!

On another day we went to a typical French market, where they were selling many different things like scarves, jewellery, fruits and even live chickens!

After that we went to Mont Saint Michel. It only has 80 residents, and it was interesting to see the way they lived.

Later we went to a hypermarket, the French equivalent of a shopping mall with a huge supermarket at the back.

You could buy anything you liked from there.

Staying at the Chateau really made me appreciate some of the things that I take for granted at home.

For instance there was no soap in the bathrooms, and the showers were not that good because we had to keep on pushing a button every 30 seconds to make them work and then we never knew whether we were going to get hot water or cold water.

A lot of us got colds while we were there and we had to use toilet paper because there weren't any tissues.

Also, the weather in France in the winter is so cold and dreary.

I couldn't wait to get back to the nice warm temperatures in Bermuda and to not having to wear all those heavy clothes all the time.

The good part about the visit was that it really improved my French.

Our teachers and the Chateau staff spoke to us in French the entire time we were away and we were encouraged to write a journal in French every night.

It helped us to get a better understanding of the language because we heard it being used all the time and we had to use it to do everyday activities.