By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

A gathering tonight on Alki marked the end of a 2-week adventure for more than a dozen West Seattle High School students and their families, as well as their new friends from thousands of miles away.

It was the traditional farewell beach fire – s’mores and all – for students visiting WSHS from Seattle’s sister city Nantes, France, in a unique two-part annual exchange program that teacher Douglas Peterman says is the only one of its kind in the city.

WSB visited his classroom earlier this week to meet some of the participating West Seattle and Nantes students, as well as their chaperones and a local host parent. Among the lessons we learned – the real pronunciation of Nantes, and the relevance of an exchange program in a day and age when some say technology has reduced the need to travel. Read on for the story!

We sat down at the school early Tuesday with a group including the chaperones from Nantes, Mariette Cassouret and Isabelle le Corguille, three WSHS students who are participating – senior Collrane and sophomores Maddie and Julio – participating parent David Williams, and – joining us after a while – two of the visiting students from Nantes’ Lycée Talensac, Clara and Clement, both 18.

(We should answer the question first: It’s pronounced Nawnt, as in rhymes with “want” – the “e” and the “s” are silent. And yes, this is the same Nantes that is the namesake of the park along Admiral Way on the hill east of Alki.)

Seventeen students are participating in the exchange, which then is reciprocated later in the school year as West Seattle High School students travel to visit the sister city.

The visiting students have not been sitting in WSHS classrooms for the entirety of the visit – Collrane, who is a veteran of multiple years’ participation in this program, says the recent rains dampened sightseeing plans a bit, but they’ve stll made it to parks and viewpoints. Clara and Clement say their favorite memories are from Seattle Center – the Space Needle and EMP. (On the day we all spoke, they had a busy agenda – scheduled to visit the Woodland Park Zoo, Pioneer Square, and Pike Place Market!)

The student exchange is just one part of a vibrant sister-city relationship, Mariette points out. “Nantes and Seattle have been sister cities for more than 30 years, and a delegation came last July to celebrate Bastille Day together. But what is important is that West Seattle High School is the first high school in Seattle to be really committed to the relationship with Nantes – the teachers here have really done a great job because the kids have become really committed. The first objective, of course, is to discover new culture, and a new way of doing things.”

The “new way” includes, for host families, different routines for such everyday activities as dinner. Host dad David Williams says, “Dinner’s been a lot of fun – we’re sitting down more, taking more time.” Cooking had its culture-clash moments, like trying to translate metric measurements for a favorite recipe.

Collrane agrees the food is a big difference – “Here, everything’s processed, but in France, we would make meals every single day, appetizer and salad and bread and cheese and yogurt in one meal” – while the visiting students are at first a little puzzled by the American tendency to have meals without courses – “they’re waiting for something else!”

We asked about other differences – technology, perhaps? The French teens tend to have nicer computers and cameras, she allows, recalling a visiting student who came with a touch-screen video camera and made a 3-hour movie of the trip, but her thoughts run more toward interpersonal customs: “Instead of shaking hands, you kiss on the cheeks … then there’s the clothing, we wear more casual, laid-back, colorful, while they stick to dark, traditional (outfits). And they walk everywhere, while most people drive here.” (Nantes is flatter, though, she notes, so walking is easier.)

The two cities have their similarities, she also says: Both are port cities, both have the same kind of weather.

Listening to our conversation, WSHS sophomore Julio says he’s really excited about the prospect of visiting Nantes for the first time later in the school year – “I’ve never really been out of the country.”

We ask about the school systems, and how they compare. The chaperones explain that while Lycée Talensac is a Catholic school, it’s owned by the French government. Collrane recalls a much-longer school day, 8 am-5 pm, though “you don’t have class every single day.” As the students from France do while visiting West Seattle High School, the WSHS travelers get to sightsee there – Collrane recalls a big mechanical elephant, “a huge robot,” which we’re told is a Nantes tribute to Jules Verne, who was born there (part of Les Machines de L’ile).

While the Nantes visitors are not announced to the student body at large with an assembly or anything else showy, Collrane explains, “People always know that they’re coming, it’s always the week before Halloween – people say, ‘when are the French kids coming?'” and anticipate the visit.

Halloween itself is an opportunity for cultural learning; Isabelle says the concept never went over in France. But, Mariette explains, “Our first objective (for the visit) is to get them to be open-minded, discover new culture, make friends.”

Nantes students Clara and Clement both indicated they’d be going home with memories of new sights seen – she mentioned a “Ride the Ducks” trip, he mentioned having had a chance to see “a match of American football.”

For the bigger picture, Collrane jumped back in: “You’re experiencing someone else’s lifestyle – you follow them around all day, the cultural immersion, and how difficult it is … you think you (know the language) just because you read it in a textbook, but you get there, and they’re talking in slang, not in formal sentences …”

But they adapt. And not only do the memories last – the friendships do too. In addition to helping host this year’s visitor, Williams’ daughter went to France while a student at Madison Middle School last year, and her dad says she seems closer to her French friends than the ones she sees here in West Seattle every day – “they talk a lot on Facebook and Skype.”

But for the past two weeks, she’s had a “big sister” to talk to in person – and now it’s time to say goodbye. Or, should we say, “au revoir.” A fond farewell, as Mariette explains: “Last year when our group was leaving at the airport, everyone was crying, even the boys. Suddenly a customs officer was giving one of my students a big hug saying, ‘c’mon, you can come back’.”