CHOLET EXCHANGE UPDATE – April 6 , 2025
74 JOURS!
Bonjour! For the parents (as well as for the students who may have missed the meetings. or could use reminders), I will soon post a recap of what we discussed at the last couple of student meetings, including the one taking place today. In this update, I have one new development.
Those other costs You’ll recall from the very beginning of this process, I mentioned certain costs that we would need to finalize in the spring of 2025. You can see those on the costs page from our trip website. I can now start to calculate certain costs.
We will leave Cholet for Paris on Saturday, June 28 via the TGV, which is the high speed train. There is a line that goes from Angers (a city that is about 45 minutes from Cholet) to the Charles de Gaulle airport. I’m aiming for the train that leaves Angers at 6:38 am and arrives in Paris at 10:08 am. There we will meet our EF Tour Director as well as any other groups we may be traveling with. The cost of that train will be $72 per person. (It’s actually $64.50, but I anticipate taxes and other possible fees. If I’m wrong, I’ll make adjustments for other collections later.) I will book that train as soon as I collect enough money from you. The total cost will be approximately $2000, which I will charge on my personal credit card (unless I can get approval on my school account - it’s well above our purchase limit, but I’ll see what I can do).
To pay me, you can either use Venmo (@Robert-Hall-191), or write a check to Robert Hall. I can start taking those now. Again, I can't book the tickets until I have your money. So I'll set a soft deadline of this Friday, April 11 for you to pay me and I'll nook the tickets ASAP after that.
Other costs still to be determined I have not yet decided how we will travel from the Paris CDG airport to Cholet on June 20. The two options are the TGV (the cost will be similar to the trip mentioned above) or chartering a bus. I will make a final decision once we know our flight arrangements. I will get estimates on the cost of the bus. I’ll take that total and divide it by 28 people. (Yes, we are a group of 29, but one student will join us a couple days late.) In 2023, the bus cost was roughly $2500. That would be approximately $90 per person - we’ll see what the 2025 price is. The train is slightly cheaper. My only reason for not choosing the train would be the risk of missing the train if our flights are delayed. I’ll get back to you.
The other costs I need to calculate/learn would be tips (Tour Director, bus drivers, tour guides) and if/how much we will pay for activities in Cholet. With a group as large as the one we have this year, we will need to chip in more than in the past. I’ll get back to you on that too.
Facebook Page For the past several exchanges I have created a Facebook page. I have just done so for this year. I will post updates and pictures nearly everyday so the families back home can see what the travelers have been up to. Our students (as well as Cholet students, hosts families and teachers) will also be able to post - it's not just MY pictures that may appear. That same page will continue into the October portion of the exchange and the families of our guests will be able see what's happening here. The students and families are also invited to make posts. Here is the 2025 Fairview-Cholet Exchange Facebook page. It is a private group, so you will need to request to join. If you do that soon, you'll be in quickly. If you wait until after the trip is in progress (and you're hearing from others what you're missing), I'll try to get to you as soon as possible. I plan to have it set so that members can approve others to join. So if our students have grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, etc. who would also like to see what's happening, existing members should be ale to allow access.
|
|
