One of so many methods of educating their students in San Andrea School is by giving them the opportunity to travel and read the world book pages outside the classroom walls. This scholastic year, a group of students aged 12 to 15 took up the opportunity to visit Normandy.

The trip started with a short visit to Paris before travelling by coach to Caen in Normandy. The students were ecstatic to get a close look at the dominating Eiffel Tower and take snapshots to immortalise the moment.

The coach driver treated us to a short but fabulous tour of Paris before heading to Giverny, a village made famous because it is where one finds the house where Claude Monet once lived and the flower-filled garden where he produced his famed water lily series and impressionist paintings.

This was followed by a very interesting and enlightening visit to the nearby Musée des Impressionnismes. The guide provided the students a brief yet engaging explanation about Impressionist art as they viewed the paintings of the lesser known but equally skilled neo-Impressionist Henri-Edmond Cross whose work at the museum.

We set off from Giverny to our hotel in Caen, a pretty port city and capital of Calvados in northern France’s Normandy region. This central location made it a natural hub to travel to the surrounding places planned during our five-day trip.

The following day, we visited the wonderful Unesco site of Le Mont-Saint-Michel. This architectural gem built on an island hill is set in the mesmerising bay where Normandy and Brittany merge, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. Since the weather was clear, we were lucky enough to spot the magical island from quite a distance from the coach.

The students will carry this learning experience with them long after they have left school

The island is topped with a gravity-defying Gothic and Romanesque monastery. Through­out the visit to the monastery the students were in awe of the place, especially the cloister garden.

It was also very interesting for us Mediterranean islanders to learn about the strange phenomenon of the tide and how it moves. The unique location of Mont-Saint-Michel and its winding, narrow paths, surrounded by the tide, will last forever in the students’ memories.

A bite of the mouth-watering ‘Croque Monsieur’, the typical toast on cheese, was the cherry on the cake for such a wonderful time well-spent.

One of trip’s highlights was a visit to the Unesco site of Le Mont-Saint-Michel, an architectural gem built on an island hill is set in a bay, topped by a gravity-defying Gothic and Romanesque monastery.

We could not leave Normandy without visiting Livarot, named after the production of its famous Livarot Camembert, Neufchatel and Pont L’Eveque cheeses. The students had the opportunity to visit the cheese factory and tickle their taste buds by nibbling at these four different cheeses while getting a thorough explanation of the care and long process taken in order to produce the Livarot cheese.

We then carried on with our travel to Honfleur, an old, beautiful picturesque port, whose slate-covered houses and old fishing boats and yachts, throws one back to the pirate era. Here, we had a pleasant stroll along the port with just enough time to taste a crepe before it started raining cats and dogs.

The last visit of this packed day ended in the town of Eretrat, with its striking rock formations carv­ed out of its white cliffs, including the famous arches and sea stags that dot the coast of this unique town. The students enjoyed the shooting photos of the breath-taking views that surrounded us.

As always, every trip has to come to an end, but no visit to Normandy would be complete without a visit to the Caen Memorial Museum  and walking along one of the famous World War II D-Day beaches, better known as Gold Beach, in Arromanches. It was on this beach that, during the invasion of Normandy immediately after D-Day on June 6, 1944, that the Allies established an artificial temporary harbour. The students had the chance to take pictures of the remnants of the bunkers left by the US, Canadian and British forces as a backdrop to the bay.

During a short visit to Bayeux, we stopped to see the famous 70-metre Bayeux Tapestry, which dates back to the 11th century and depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England. It is considered almost miraculous that the fabric, consisting of some 50 scenes with Latin tituli, embroidered on linen with coloured wool­len yarns, has survived almost intact for over nine centuries. Its exceptional length, the harmony and freshness of its colours, its exquisite workmanship, and the genius of its guiding spirit combine to make it endlessly fascinating.

The educational trip enriched the students with knowledge concerning the history of the world, art and architecture, geography and the art of making traditional local products, and last but not least, ample exposure to the melodic French language. The students will carry this learning experience with them long after they have left school.

Lara Muscat is a teacher at San Andrea School, L-Imselliet.