Day 4: The Mouse did not disappoint! The children had an incredible day of roller coasters, Disney Characters and the obligatory queuing. Every member of staff commented on how brilliantly behaved the children were, even in queues of up to an hour. It's as Magnus Jubb said "well we are British, so we are used to queuing". 

We all went on Thunder Mountain Railroad together as a first ride. Several members of staff now have pierced eardrums due to the screaming from some of the children.  It go no better on the Indiana Jones ride, however in the queue Oli Moore had the staff in absolute stitches with his comments. One of the most printable being: "I wish I could go back in time to tell Walt Disney not to invent this ride.... I should be telling myself to stop walking towards this death trap". 

We slowed it down slightly and went on the Buzz Lightyear ride. Mrs Kelly zapped more aliens than anybody else for the second France residential running. After a lunch of Mickey burgers and fries, we split up into 3 distinct groups. The thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies who went to the Aerosmith ride (twice) and the Tower of Terror.  The chillaxed group, who wanted no more out of life than a spin on the Mad Hatter's Teacups and a blast round Small World. Finally, the princess group, who sought out Belle, Snow White and Aurora with a passion. 

We came back together via the Slinky Dog ride, Ratatoille, Pirates of the Caribbean and so many more. The park was absolutely heaving with people but we managed so many rides. 

We had an excellent speck for the parade and the children absolutely loved it. Special mention to Josie Reiss, who turned into the biggest screaming, Disney fan girl. She almost managed to get a prince to take home as a souvenir as well!

You'd think after 8 and a half full on hours in a theme park, the children would be absolutely shattered. Guess again, they went in the pool for another hour and all currently asking to stay up to watch the Lionesses V Norway. Not many people slept last night due to the heat, the law of averages says these children have to sleep soon!

Today has been an unforgettable experience for all. The adults have had as much fun as the children. They have lived and loved every minute of it (step count 20,092).

Day 3:  Happy birthday Riyan!

Just when day 2 thought it couldn't be beaten on steps, up comes day 3. Well, the Eiffel Tower was always going to be in with a shout!

The day started with Akshay navigating the Paris Metro superbly once more. Today we were serenaded by an accordion player who was busking on the train. We will never get tired of double-decker metro trains.

We arrived at the Eiffel Tower and to the dismay of many children, the top floor was closed, so we just walked to the second floor. All 700 steps of it! Special mention for the children who were scared of heights, but still went up the tower. The children were able to identify all of the land marks that they had visited yesterday. This was especially impressive when one boy said that he could see the Taj Mahal. Er... that would be Sacre Coeur then. From the second floor, we noticed that there were several fountains on Trocadero and a large wading pool, so we headed for it when we got down. The children had all been told to bring dry shorts and tops, so they charged into the water to cool down from the 35 degree heat. It must have been warm, Muneeb had taken his jumper, vest, t-shirt and joggers off. We think we made it onto the local news because they were filming at the time! The children dried off almost as soon as they came out of the water.

A long but beautiful walk along the south bank of the Seine brought us to the Louvre via a water station in the Tuilleries. Everybody drank a bottle full of water and refilled. We managed to get into the Louvre via the shortest queue since Mrs Eagles convinced the doorman that everyone complied with the U26 age requirement! There was only one place to be and that was in the room with Mona herself. Having walked past several statues of men with plenty to boast about, the children were ready to look at a woman instead. Nobody knows what the fuss is about but at least the kids can say they have seen it now. Mrs Eagles turned into an art buff as she went into raptures looking at some of the art that she had studied as part of her French degree. We all know about Eugene Delacroix now (insert eye roll emoji).

Metro again and this time Mr Chapman decided to go a different way from everybody else i.e. he got lost. The only problem was that he had all of the tickets.  You can imagine the cheer, when he came down the escalator literally seconds before the train arrived back across Paris. It's a good job we met up with Mr Chapman because the fiercest ticket collectors you have ever known happened to be on our train. Five of them on a mission to ruin people's sunny days. 

Before going back to the hotel, the children went shopping in Auchan hypermarket. It was touching to see how desperate they were to buy gifts for their families, or in one child's case, 2.5 litre of coca cola! Back to the hotel for our evening meal and Mrs Eagles got told off because we were late. In perfect French, she lied through her teeth and told the hostess that the Metro had broken down and we had been trapped.... in the heat..... with no water.... children in tears.... blah, blah, blah. The hostess was nearly in tears and showed us to the best seats in the restaurant! Several parents Facetimed into our dinner from a meeting at Abbey Grange. No child cried, but several of the parents were in bits. An evening swim and 32 very excited children went to bed after one epic day (25,358 steps). 

M.Mouse is going to have to go some to beat today. Not really sure what Riyan is going to do for the other birthdays he has to come! Maya did say 'This is the best day of my life'. See you tomorrow Mickey.  

Day 2: The lunch line was managed with amazing efficiency by the staff, especially given the fact that most children had only had a few hours sleep the night before. Metro into Paris was easy, mainly due to Akshay's fantastic navigation skills. Starting at Notre Dame, the children walked past the Louvre, Place De La Concord, and up the Champs Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe. We then went on the metro to Sacre Coeur. Zach was fond of telling us how warm it was, and it REALLY was when we yomped up the steps to Montmartre. Sadly the street artists have priced themselves out of the year 6 budget, so no caricatures were bought this time. 

Back on the metro to the hotel and the moment that all the children had been waiting for, they went for a swim. Tea and chill out time: some children took the opportunity to go to bed early, others destroyed a Scottish high school at football.  We managed to clock 24,550 steps in 35 degree heat, an astonishing achievement. 

Left the terminus at 6:20 having waited for a member of staff to arrive..... Gerald the driver was very fond of the microphone and talking into it... at length. However, he wasn't so talkative when he realised he had left his passport at home. We thought he was joking... he wasn't. He decided that he was going to blag his way through passport control: this idea did not go down well with the staff. We stopped at Peterborough for the driver to have a break and several members of staff to have McDonald's breakfast, the children were drooling and outraged. The child who decided to put all of his belongings in one of the rubbish bags on the coach which was then emptied by the driver when we went to the loo wasn't popular but at least fished all of the contents out of the public rubbish bin himself! Out of Peterborough at 9:32, and the films went on. Mary Poppins, Spiderman, The Cat in the Hat and Angry Birds, ensured that the children were entertained and kept quiet. At the Dartford crossing, all of the children cheered because they thought we were in France, although one of them did say "have we gone past York yet?" Very smooth ferry crossing, which was spent mostly outdoors on deck in fresh air. Equally so the drive down to the hotel was event free. Getting off the coach and we walked into a hair dryer, it was so warm! The children were delighted by the buffet and even though they had grazed all day on the coach, they still managed to pack away a mountain of dinner. Evening walk, shower, bedtime.  

Over the next year in school we will work with The Lunchbowl Organisation. Here is a link to a short video detailing the amazing work they do and why we are so passionate about this fantastic charity. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzInSMBuK8Q