For the second time, the cities of Gennevilliers and Trostianets have joined forces to provide a group of Ukrainian youths aged 7 to 17 with a month of respite in the Norman countryside.
On January 19, a group of 40 youths, accompanied by three accompanying teachers, departed from Trostianets, a city in the northeastern part of Ukraine located a few kilometres from the Russian border. After three days of bus travel and a few hours stopover in Dresden, Germany, the group arrived on January 22 in Menilles, in the Normandy region. They were welcomed there in a castle owned by the city of Gennevilliers.
Deprived of classes in Trostianets, the group finds themselves in a serene learning environment, also enjoying sports and artistic activities organized by their host municipality: pyrography, concerts, swimming pool, badminton...
Weekends are dedicated to exploring the Normandy coast, the Palace of Versailles, and the capital. Emphasizing intercultural exchange, the stay facilitated interactions between the Ukrainian and French children and teenagers, from Menilles and Gennevilliers. Those involved in hosting the group also seized the opportunity to embrace Ukrainian culture, participating in the preparation of the traditional borscht, a beet soup probably cooked for the first time in the kitchens of the Menilles castle!
