Opal Parle is our most flexible and accessible language immersion trip and gives students the chance to practise their French while enjoying a mix of fun excursions led by native-speaking staff at our own centre near Boulogne.
The Opal Coast is home to one of Voyager's own residential centres, Hotel du Moulin aux Draps, and our French language immersion programme, Opal Parle.
Just a short hop across the Channel from Dover, the Opal Coast features historic towns, vast sandy beaches, chocolate factories, goat’s cheese farms and everything in between making it very popular with French learners and first time visitors to France. Our experienced French-native animateurs will guide your school tour and provide a full evening programme to create an immersive French experience. They'll build your students' confidence and encourage them to speak French at every opportunity. But perhaps above all else, they are here to make sure it's fun!
A brilliant optional extra to our programme is the opportunity to spend a morning or day at a local French school. Using our local knowledge, we will pair you with a French partner school that matches the age and language experience of your children, giving your group the unparalleled opportunity to practise their language skills with their French peers. Contact us to find out more about your options.
For a more personal and in-depth language experience, check out our winter camp programme. Available between November and February, the Moulin's winter camp offers more on-site activities and games such as breadmaking and science experiments, all led by our brilliant lead-animateur, Justine.
What teachers say - click here to read about Leventhorpe School's French trip to Moulin aux Draps!
All activities, excursions and evening entertainment is conducted in French by our experienced animateurs. Don't forget to ask about our winter camp, an intensive language programme with more on-site activities and fun.
Located less than an hour from Calais and within very easy reach of the stunning Opal Coastline, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Le Touquet, Arras and the WWI battlefields, our Moulin aux Draps centre is the perfect destination for schools looking for an affordable/short French language immersion school trip. The language centre is exclusively for the use of school groups meaning there are few distractions for students.
Our local French staff have considerable experience in looking after British school trips and catering for the needs of British teachers and pupils. The centre is contained within 22 acres of car-free French countryside, giving students plenty of space to run around and let off steam. Supervision is easy as the grounds are within view of the main building and teachers can relax in the evenings as the Voyager team will deliver a programme of evening entertainment for your students.
Click here for more information about this residential centre owned by Voyager School Travel.
© Monica Arellano-Ongpin
At a local boulangerie, a baker will perform a baking demonstration for your group in French. Students will walk away with a croissant and a pain au chocolat each!
To maximise your group's language learning, your animateur will lead our interactive tailor-made town trail through Boulogne, encouraging your students to read, understand and speak French in situ.
© Steve Smith
Visit a French confectioner and get a masterclass in sugar! Students will watch the sweet makers at work and a few volunteers will get to try their hand at it themselves. Your group will get the chance to sample the sweets too.
Nausicaá is the largest marine life centre in Europe with 1,600 species within 17 million litres of water! The centre promotes sustainability and marine management and is an educational and scientific visit suitable for cross-curricular groups.
Visit a local market with your animateur where teams of students will be given money to buy food for lunch. Students will be tasked with ordering in French, creating a great opportunity to interact with the friendly stall owners in their native language. Students will also have free time to pick up some souvenirs.
© Damian Entwistle
This huge concrete dome amongst the hills was built in 1944 to house jet-propelled rockets. It is now an exceptional war museum and interactive planetarium. La Coupole is a great choice for groups studying WWI and WWII.
© Alec Brown
The seaside town of Le Touquet has miles of white sandy beaches for school groups to enjoy some down time on. In the centre of the town, you will find quaint cafés and confectionery shops.
A fun and unique equivalent to a walk through the woods, the Rando Rail is a four-person bike that runs along an old railway track. Students team up and pedal 10km through the French countryside.
© David Nicholls
This massive war memorial is a moving tribute to the 72,000+ servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme in WWI. By visiting the memorial, students can get a very visual understanding of the scale of loss in the war through the inscribed names and white crosses on the lawns.
Our Opal Parle French language immersion programme includes:
Extras to budget for
The winter camp programme at the Moulin offers a greater depth of French learning with exclusive on-site language activities which aren't available at other times of year. The programme has been designed by our centre manager and lead animateur, Justine, a creative ex-teacher, with a knack for getting the most reluctant students to speak French.
She combines an interactive programme of activities, such as bread-making and science experiments, with fun games that engage the students in French, offering a unique opportunity to interact and test their skills with a native French speaker. Familiar games have been turned on their heads and given a French spin - guaranteed fast-paced fun, creativity and silliness to enthuse your students to speak more French!
Our winter camp runs from November to February when many groups enjoy sole occupancy of the centre and receive extra special attention from the fantastic Moulin team. If you are looking for an in-depth and personal French language boost for your group, with learning benefits which you can build on throughout the school year, then the winter camp programme is for you.
Contact our MFL trip experts for more details.
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Book an inspection visit
Join us on a subsidised visit to see the Opal Coast programme in action.
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