Day 1– Everyone arrived at school on time and ready for the coach journey to take us to Manchester Airport. From there we caught our plane to Geneva. After a few hours traveling, we landed at Geneva Airport and many people spent most of their money on the “discounted” merchandise (chocolate/drinks) the airport sells! The prices were a bit of shock! We all collected our luggage and headed on to the coach which was going to take us to our destination, “Notre Dame de Bellecombe.” Finally, after a long coach journey we got to our hotel, un-packed and ate a traditional French dinner. After dinner we completed our evening activities.
Day 2– On the second day, we woke up very early, got some breakfast and had our pack lunches ready to then board the coach to visit the “Les Gorges du Fier”. The Gorges was created by years of erosion, resulting in a beautiful rock formation, which carves into the land. Once we had arrived, it was a great photo opportunity for all of us, because of the beautiful scenery and footpath inside the Gorge. After a talk about how the Gorge was created by the teachers, we then went onto a half-day excursion to Annecy town. Annecy was very beautiful, with many gift shops, restaurants, historic buildings and more photo opportunities. During our time there, we had to complete tourism surveys but this was helped by eating our 6 scoop ice creams. We had our lunch altogether in front of a huge aqua blue lake in high twenty-degree heat with the Alps in the background.
We later arrived back at the hotel and evaluated on the day and studied the rocks and landforms we had seen. Only two days in and we had already seen some amazing views and had learnt how the Gorges Du Fier was created.
Day 3- We woke up early and departed on a local coach to go and view Aiguille du Midi and to use the highest cable car in Europe. The cable car goes 3800m to reach the top, which gives us stunning views of the Alps and yet again, great photo opportunities! Surprisingly there was a café, restaurant, gift shop and a mini museum. After traveling back down in the cable car, we caught a train at Montenvers Railway to take us up to Mer de Glace Glacier, a twelve thousand year old ice cave carved into a Glacier. To get down to the Glacier we had to take a ten minute cable car. The ice caves were nice, cool and had sculptures, information and mood lighting. It was a great experience. Once we had arrived back at the hotel, we got time to have dinner, pack and get our rooms sorted for tomorrow. We all completed a Mr Machin quiz special for a night time activity and also had time to pack and relax so that we were ready for our early start the next day.
Day 4- All of us had to be down by half six in the morning all ready and full from breakfast for our long day travelling in front of us. We left the hotel and headed to Geneva Airport in the coach getting to see the amazing views one last time. We checked in at Geneva and departed on our flight at about 11:25. We arrived back at Manchester, and took a coach from the airport, back to school.
Some of the highlights of the Alps trip were being able to see just how big a glacier is and go on the highest cable car in Europe. This trip was inspirational and we have been left with many memories as well as educating us about glaciers, fold mountains, gorges and lots more. All of this will help prepare us for our GCSEs. I personally had a great time and would advise the future years to go and explore the French Alps. Thank you to all the teachers involved!
Written by Christian Hough (Year 10)
Christian also created this great video of the Alps trip.