From Oct. 13-28, Libertyville High School students participating in the French exchange program hosted students from France.

The exchange program consisted of five weeks in total. This past June, Libertyville students stayed in France for three weeks. The first two weeks were spent living with the students in Angers, and the last week was spent separately in Paris. This October, the French students came to stay in Libertyville for two weeks.

For about the past 20 years, Libertyville High School has been partnered with a high school in France, Lycée Auguste Renoir, for this exchange. LHS French foreign language teachers Christophe and Laura Guiard have run the program for several years.

While there are different reasons for students to participate in an exchange program, many come in with the goals of improving language skills, building lasting relationships and experiencing different cultures. 

“There are so, so many cultural differences, so I feel like just being open to their culture and being aware that what is normal for them is different than what is normal for us [is a good thing],” said Emma Hollinger, a junior at Libertyville who participated in the program.

While in the United States, the group participated in multiple tourist activities in and around Chicago. Some of these activities included a Chicago Bulls basketball game, Fright Fest at Six Flags and Richardson Corn Maze.

The Libertyville students did their best to give the French students experiences of American culture and daily life. Hollinger took her exchange student to a variety of places , such as high school soccer games, different restaurants like Chipotle and Portillo’s, and locations such as Gurnee Mills, Independence Grove and Didier Farms.

Besides activities outside of school, the French students experienced class at Libertyville High School by shadowing different students.

Suzanne Perthu, a French high school student who stayed with Ellie Barnett, a junior from Libertyville, explained the differences between her school in Angers and LHS. According to Perthu, school in Angers is on a blocked schedule, meaning classes are at different times each day. Perthu’s school also starts and ends much later Libertyville, with the ending time sometimes at 5 or even 6 p.m.

Over the summer in France, the group attended school for a couple days at Lycée Auguste Renoir in Angers. Along with that, the students participated in many tourist activities. Some of the main attractions that the students visited were Notre Dame, the Louvre, Mont Saint-Michel, the Eiffel Tower, Château d’Angers and Giverny.