My first trip to France: The setup

The French teachers from Warren Township and Libertyville high schools arranged for a student exchange with a school in France. Forty-five students from the schools’ French classes traveled to Sallanches -- a town in Haute Savoie – and stayed with families between Saturday, March 28th and Tuesday, April 7th. Then the French students who hosted us came to the U.S. and stayed with our families from April 10th to the 28th. (1992)

Pairing up the students and families would have been difficult under any conditions, but it was even more complicated because of a gender imbalance. To even things out, some students had to stay with students of the opposite sex.

But who was safe enough to do that? Well, me. At the risk of ruinin’ my rep, there was almost certainly a conversation to the effect of, “You don’t have to worry about Bryan. I can assure you that kid has NO game.” And so it was. I stayed with the family of a girl named Chrystèle, and she in turn stayed with mine.

Here are Chrystèle, her parents, and her brother Frédéric.