The team hit the ground running.....just four days ago.

When we arrived in Paris we quickly headed to Le Havre for a wonderful luncheon the clubs in the city organized for the two Governors - Sue Smallwood and Pierre Espinasse. At that time we also met our host families. We are each in separate homes during this stage of the exchange and have experienced the best of French hospitality thus far!

On Monday, we visited the "Cafe Verte" and learned about importing and exporting coffee in France. Cafe Verte is the only remaining coffee importer in France. In the afternoon we went to Honfluer and were treated to a boat ride to see "Le Pont Normandie" and a quick walk around the town. Even in the rain, it was obvious the town is quite charming. In the evening, Dominique Ferme, the leader of the team from Normandy, hosted the entire team and our host families for a lovely evening.

On Tuesday, the group visited the Chamber of Commerce in Le Havre. The building in which it resides is quite impressive and unlike the Chambers of Commerce in the US, all local companies pay taxes that go directly to the operation of the Chamber. In the afternoon, we visited the Port of Le Havre. It is an expansive and sophisticated operation to say the least. And to finish our day's program, we had the happy surprise of seeing President Sarkosy make his first public address since being elected! Apparently, the mayor in Le Havre and the new President are good friends and Le Havre has the good fortune of hosting events like this.

Today, each team member had a professional day. I have not seen the others, but Nick and I spent the day observing the courts in Le Havre. The differences between the French and American justice systems are big and small. It was a wonderful chance to have such a close view!

We apologize for the delay in posting our updates. We are thankful so many of you are interested in tracking our progress. We will do our best to post information to this page every couple days. The days are long and often our minds are ezspecially exhausted at the end of the day from speaking in French, but when we return to Chicago nearly fluent with many new friends we know it will all be worth it!

Submitted by: Margot Vetter, Team Member

The first few days.....

bonjour bonjour bonjour!!!!! c'est monica. we have been very busy so far, but having great fun and many incredible opportunities. our first day we had lunch in normandy with the rc club, le havre de estuaire, and the gse coordinator, the district governory of 1645, and of course our governor, sue smallwood. after that we went with our first host families to relax and recover from jet lag. we've had a tour of the port of le havre, the largest container port in france, we met with folks from the chamber of commerce, and we toured a company that deals in coffee trade ( and tasted 5 different types of coffee with a spoon and slurping.....jane took pictures!!!!!). we went on a boat ride on the river seine and went under (and before drove over) the new bridge of normandy, then walked around the small and colorful village of herfluer (pictures to come). we have eaten many long, nice meals, including at le chez de dominique, the team leader of the inbound team that stayed in chicago. and last but especially not least, we got to see the first speaking engagement of the new president--nicholas sarkozy. when the crowd chanted "nicholas" our nick was very happy :) what an amazing opportunity!!!!! today was our first professional day, and i will have the others report on their experiences. as i said, pictures and more comments to come, from myself and the rest of the team. a bientot!

Two Weeks!

We're leaving in two weeks! We've now all had a chance to meet Dominique, Frederic, David, Anthony and Florence, our new friends from Normandy. They are just finishing up week two of their exchange to Chicago. During their first week, we all went to Rotary International for a tour, and had a chance to meet the current RI President, Bill Boyd. Afterwards, we enjoyed a few drinks and lots of laughs!

As for the next two weeks of preparation? Parlez-vous Francais? Crunch time in our language skill development!

A Bientot!