Isabelle K’s Travel Award Report 2024

After winning a travel award, I had the opportunity to stay in La Rochefoucauld, Charente, for just over two weeks this summer. As an A level French student, I wanted to improve my French speaking skills as this is the hardest part of language learning for me. As well as this, I wanted to gain work experience, especially in a French speaking company. This trip was my first time travelling alone and having to use my French to communicate – I was surprised by how many people were not able to speak English, especially once I reached the smaller towns outside of Bordeaux – which was difficult, but very useful for improving my speaking as I wasn’t able to ‘fall back’ on my English.

The family 

37 years ago, my dad stayed with a man named Jean to work at his factory and learn to speak French. I had always wanted to follow in his footsteps so went to the same town and stayed with Jean’s son, Olivier, and his family (his wife, Laetitia, and 9-year-old daughter, Jeanne). They have a lovely house in the countryside filled with animals, including a crazy dog, several cats and rabbits, a parrot and many fish. The family was extremely kind and always made me feel welcome. Olivier spoke a little English but Laetitia and Jeanne could only speak French, which was great as I had to speak in French to communicate with them. Jeanne will be starting to learn English at school this year so we practiced some basic English vocabulary, including colours, animals and numbers, which she enjoyed.

Home life 

We always had breakfast, lunch and dinner together as a family, which was a great way for me to practice speaking French. The family often had friends over for lunch so I had the chance to speak to many different people, which I loved! Jeanne loved horse-riding and was at her equestrian club almost every day, so after work we often went there to watch her. I really enjoyed meeting the family’s many friends as it gave me the chance to practice speaking as well as gain confidence speaking to strangers in French. At home, they had a small paddling pool as well as badminton rackets, so Jeanne and I spent time together in the evenings, swimming and playing badminton. Jeanne was probably the person I had the most difficulty understanding as she spoke extremely fast and used a lot of slang – her parents were constantly telling her to speak more slowly (“doucement Jeanne!”). However, by the end of the trip I was able to understand almost everything she said (even when she forgot to speak a little slower for me) and I think I picked up a lot of new vocabulary from her, especially in terms of everyday spoken French. I really appreciated how kind everyone was and how they made me feel like I was truly a part of the family.

Work

During my time in France I worked at Olivier’s company, Rondinaud, which produces the famous Charentaise slippers using authentic materials and traditional manufacturing techniques. All the slippers are handmade in a factory close to La Rochefoucauld and sold in hundreds of stores across France as well as online. The company is looking to expand to the UK and other European countries so needed their entire website translated into English, which is what I did! The translations I did included legal documents, product descriptions, an explanation of how the slippers are made and more. The most interesting translation I did was a document about the history of the company. Olivier’s great grandfather, Theophile Rondinaud, was a shoemaker who started the company over 100 years ago and now Rondinaud is the last remaining manufacturer of authentic Charentaise slippers. Furthermore, I found the translations about the manufacturing process very interesting. For example, the materials used to make the slippers originally came from reusing the by-products from other local manufacturers. In the Angouleme paper mills, absorbent plates made from compressed wool were used to dry freshly made sheets of paper. After absorbing too much water, the plates eventually became stiff and so couldn’t be used in the mills anymore. Local shoemakers discovered that this seemingly unusable by-product would be the perfect material to use as soles for their shoes. Additionally, at the time, the French royal marines were stationed in Charente, so their uniforms needed to be made locally. The top part of the slippers was made from scrap felt left over from making the uniforms. 

I was surprised that I was able to do most of the translations without any help, and only had to look up the specialist vocabulary relating to manufacturing as well as specific legal terms. A fun challenge was trying to translate French idioms that had been used on the website – after some very funny explanations from some of the employees I managed to convey the meaning in English. Furthermore, having the opportunity to translate legal documents was really interesting for me as I am looking into the legal field as a post-university career option. I spent almost 9 days translating the website and my translations have now been sent to a web designer, who will create the English website. It was great to experience what it is like to do translation work and doing the translations definitely boosted my confidence in my knowledge of French vocabulary and helped me learn even more.

I did the translations from the company’s office, which is connected to their factory, warehouse and storefront so during my time there I was able to speak to lots of the other employees, who were all very kind and welcoming – one of the women working there even made me a cup of tea each morning after learning that I was visiting from the UK. I really enjoyed speaking to so many different people, all of whom had great stories to tell about their lives and the town. 

As well as gaining invaluable translation work experience, I also learnt a lot about how businesses are run. When I first arrived, Olivier gave me a tour of the factory and explained the entire production process, from choosing the fabrics to sending the finished slippers to consumers. I found the tour very interesting as I was able to see each and every step of the manufacturing process. Each craftsman and woman had a unique job and helped with a single step of the process, e.g. one man cuts out the soles, someone else sews the slipper together, another man turns the Charentaise the right way using an ancient tool known as the ‘chèvre’, i.e. the ‘goat’, another person does the packaging etc. etc. The craftspeople all use machines from the original Charentaise factory, which Olivier restored. He told me that one day he would love to open a museum dedicated to his family and their Charentaise slippers. During my time at the company, Olivier taught me about how their business is run, including fulfilling online orders, following fashion trends and calculating costs versus profit – I never realised how many factors need to be taken into account when calculating production costs. I also had the opportunity to attend a meeting with representatives from L’Eclerc supermarket, who were looking to sell Charentaise slippers in their shops. In the meeting, they discussed prices as well as which patterns would be most popular with their customers. At one point the they even asked for my opinion about which patterns would be most popular amongst younger customers. 

Outings 

Whilst I was there, the family took me out to a few local French restaurants so I could try some traditional food, cheese and cider from the area, which I really enjoyed. Another day, they took me to a go-karting track with Jeanne, who loves go-karting – I had never done it before and had a great time! 

I also had the chance to visit some beautiful historical sites and explore both La Rochefoucauld and a nearby town, Angouleme. One evening we went into La Rochefoucauld after dinner as there happened to be a small, town concert happening that night, which was fun. On my days off work, I visited the chateau and cathedral in La Rochefoucauld and learnt about the history of the village. The Chateau was amazing and we had the opportunity to tour the library there and see some old handwritten French books. Another day, I explored Angouleme and visited the town’s museum, cathedral and art gallery. The town is famous for its cartoons, archaeological digs and paper mills!

Personal Development 

I gained so much from my trip to France this summer! Most importantly, by being fully immersed in the French language, I was able to improve my French speaking skills so much during my time there. I started off barely being able to communicate with the family to having a near fluent conversation with a border control officer at the airport. Although my French is far from perfect, I definitely improved my fluency during the trip and gained confidence in speaking the language. This will be extremely useful this school year, especially in terms of my A level French speaking exam, and beyond.

As well as this, I gained invaluable work experience, both in terms of doing translation work and learning about how a business is run. I now have experience working in France and also know so much more about sales, marketing and running a profitable company. 

Finally, I really enjoyed learning more about French culture, both through the people I met and by visiting historical sites to learn about the country’s rich history. This was very interesting in itself but has also improved my knowledge of French culture and history, which is an important aspect of the A level course.