Mark

If I could take a trip anywhere, my destination would be France. My destination wouldn’t be specific though, because I would love to travel all over France within a month period. I have always been obsessed with Francais and the culture. France, for me, sticks out more than any other country. It sticks out because of the language being the second most studied, aside from English, throughout the world, French food is divine, and there is so much beauty and history throughout the entire country. Also, French architecture is so aesthetically pleasing.


I believe this fascination of France was derived from the show, “Madeline” and the movie, “Marie Antoinette.” When I was younger, I would always watch Madeline on Disney and ABC. The show always kept my focus because it was so different from everything else. I thought the characters were cute, along with the dog, and the way they spoke, their activities, and just the way it was drawn and animated. I believe “Marie Antoinette” came out when I was entering high school as a freshman. The cinematography in this movie was simply amazing, along with the avant-garde costumes. Seeing this, of course, I decided to take French all throughout high school. Although many of the French despised Marie Antoinette, I thought she was just young and naïve, and placed into royalty at too early of an age. Many history books claim that when France was in poverty, she said her infamous line, “let them eat cake”, but this has been proven to be false.


While enrolled in French during my high school years, I had the chance to go to France. I decided against it though, because I wouldn’t want to see the country I have been so obsessed with for a period of time on a school trip, and I wouldn’t just want to go to Paris. Paris is beautiful to me, but I would want to see outside of the tourism and Americanized shops, and actually experience the country of France.


In the book, “Take The Cannoli”, Sarah wanted to escape temporarily to somewhere she wouldn’t run into her seventh grade math teacher within ten minutes of leaving her house. She decided to study abroad, just to get a way for a while. She went to Vienna, Berlin, Italy, Florence, and Rome, Sicily, all on the way to Holland. Holland was her place to escape to.