Convince my parents to tolerate me budge to France?

First off, I'm 13.
My institution is offering a trip this summer for its gifted students to walk to France and Spain for 10 days.

Like most people, my kinfolk is not rich, and the trip costs around $2800. (We can also save a couple hundred if we variety a deposit of $95 by the 31st)

I've alredy asked my mom, and she said it was fine as long as I could convince my dad. What should I do?!?

I really want to be in motion (a ton of my friends are, and I LOVE France) and my dad is rather shrewd next to his money.
Thanks!



Answers:    There are many reason why Paris is an excellent choice as a learning experience for young at heart people from the United States.

History is the big foundation of course. For several centuries Paris has be an important center of world events, the breeding ground of political, artistic and philosophical movements.

You can stop by a Roman amphitheater or see the Roman baths from the days when Paris was section of the Roman province of Gaul.

There is Notre Dame, built in 1163 and an excellant example of Gothic architecture. You can see the 13th century Conciergerie, once the home of the Grand Concierge, a elevated court official that would become a prison during the Revolution and hold Marie Antoinette. There is Saint Chapelle consturcted within 1246 by Louis IX (Saint Louis) to hold the Crown of Thorns and other relics. In the little winding streets of the Left Bank and the Marias you can get hold of an idea of what a medieval city be like.

At Versailles you will see the Ancien Regime at the plane of its power under Louis XIV. You will also be capable of understand the excesses that lead the people to nouns against his great grandson Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. In the Place de la Concorde you can see where they both met their failure on the guillotine.

Paris also played an essential part within the American Revolution. From here Benjamin Franklin mustered support for the revolitionary cause from the French Monarchy. Franklin's favorite cafe, the Procope, is still operating surrounded by the same place it be founded in 1689. You can own lunch at the same table Ben Franklin did. This same place be a favorite of such other famous nation as Voltaire, Moliere, Danton, Robespierre, and Marat.

In more recent history, you can walk the streets of Montmartre where on earth Picasso and Utrillo stolled and eat at the La Lapin Agile where on earth they ate. You can stroll down the hill and see the Moulin Rouge that Toulouse Lautrec, another Montmartre denizen, made fêted with his art.

Walk around main Paris and you'll see little plaques everywhere commemorating the many Parisians who died warfare to free their city from the Nazi occupiers. Behiund Notre Dame you'll find a Memorial to the thousands of general public sent to Nazi concentration camps.

On a happier facts, have a cup of coffee at the Cafe de Deux Magots where on earth Jean Paul Sartre held forth and go to the Cimetière du Montparnasse to see where on earth he is buried.

And while visiting cemetery make sure to check out the Père Lachaise Cemetery where on earth you will find the graves of everyone from Eugene Delacroix, Yves Montand, and Edith Piaf to Jim Morrison of The Doors.

The Museums are another big reason for visit Paris. The Cluny (Museum of the Middle Ages) which contains the famous "Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries) to the Louvre beside is classic art (Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa amongs hundreds of masterpieces) to the Musee D'Orsay (impressionists) and the Centre Pompidu with its collection of Modern Art.

And within Paris you'll get a fondness of a foreign culture that is close plenty to American that it will be understandable but different enough to show you that near are other ways of doing things.

Even something as simple as when you eat dinner is different within France where those typically have their evening breakfast time no earlier than 8 PM. The French need of whiling away a few hours in a cafe, drinking espresso and watching the world shift by is a contrast to the American rush rush rush lifestyle.

In fact, a short time ago being someplace where on earth most people don't speak English is a erudition experience.

I began taking my daughter beside me to Europe when she was a bit younger than you are immediately. I think she greatly benefited from those trips and I'm sure you'd benefit contained by the same means of access.
My first thought when I read the beginning of your sound out was: how feeble are you...and what is your level of old age?

I see that you are a 'gifted' student, which tells me that you are probably grow for your age, since you have what it take to succeed in arts school. But 13 is really young to be in a foreign country, even if it's with other students and hopefully trainer supervision.

Can one of your parents go along next to you? I know it's expensive, but perhaps they can hold out a small loan and pay it final in larger amounts than required.

I'm a mother, and my son is a 20 yr out-of-date, and he's off to Europe this tip out as an exchange student, and I know he's going to be fine, but still I worry.that's what mom's do! *sigh*

I hope it works out for you, but save this year, maybe the subsequent, I 'm sure you will get a arbitrary to visit France someday. Best wishes to you.
tender to do some major work for it! and be unswerving to that work!
Tell them that you will learn just about cultures other than your own, that you may be inspired to swot up a 2nd language, that your palate will be challenge by fare other than that which you will find at McDs, that you will swot up about medieval history and architecture.

And on and on.

Just stay away from mentioning unproblematic women and the fact that they agree to kids drink wine at dinner, K?
I take a trip every year to Europe and pocket students. I meet next to parents at the beginning of the year and communicate them about adjectives the things that students will learn on tour. You will hold a chance to: practice jargon skills; meet family from all over the world; swot up about and experience established sites and places; taste foreign foods; revise to deal near airlines, passport agencies, security personnel; swot up how to navigate in spot on cities with buses, trains, subways and walking; swot up to use foreign currency -- I could go on and on.

You also revise to appreciate things in the US that you have previously taken for granted. It's amazing what these things are -- sometimes they are the same things for population and sometimes they are different.

In summary, this is the trip of a lifetime for most students. I view it as a starting point and hope my students will be impelled to return. Upon their return they will already know how to operate in these foreign cities and can hit the ground running, so to speak.

I sincerely hope you draw from to go!! But remember, except in elevated school, near are lots of opportunities within college for trips and for study abroad. Take help of everything available to you!!

Best of luck to you!!


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