I've never been to Paris, and have never eaten at an authentic fancy French restaurant.
Some of the best French students from Jackson-Olin High School got to experience real French cooking on a field trip they'll likely never forget.
The good part is they only had to travel about 10 miles to do it.
You can't take a school bus to Paris…..but you can take here, to Café de Paris in Lakeview.
"You never know where life is going to take you, maybe it's going to take you to France one day and you say I've already tried this before, I know what it is," said Serge Pambo of Café de Paris.
Pambo and his cousin and partner Evens Estinfort are both Café de Paris’ trained chefs. Together, they're living a dream, opening an authentic French resturant.
Jackson-Olin French teacher Ashley Copeland wanted her students to have more than just a classroom experience.
"It's about getting out and having life's experiences. You can't really have this experience in the classroom, as much as we role-play and set up and pretend that we're in a café, it's not the same thing," Copeland said.
"Bonjour je mai pel Jasmine," said student Jasmine Ivy. "I'm really interested in French and I really love the class and it gives me a hands on experience to learn more."
"Bonjour ja pair Charles," said student Charles Milliner. "I wanted to learn French and I know how to speak it, and I'm glad Ms. Copeland brought us to the restaurant early because we wouldn't know what we were doing."
"Bonjour ja ma pair Jabria," said student Jabria Hunter. "I always wanted to visit France and by this experience I know what to do and what to order when I go to a French restaurant. In France I won't embarrass myself so I know what to say."
No one was embarassed here. Some had steak, some had chicken, just about everyone had steak and frites…… that means fries in French.
"My students are the cream of the crop and so of course we did have some lesson plans on manners and etiquette and fine dining…so I’m very impressed with how they’re being today," Copeland said.
"So we are really happy to try to do that and share with people in this town that don't have a chance to go over there,” Estinfort said, “and try to bring that to them, it is for us, we can dream about it anyway…it happened to us and we are so blessed to be here.They asked if they could stay all day until dinner, but we have to go back to school."
The French teacher in the story...Ashley Copeland has actually taken students to Paris, and believes that while you must learn in a classroom, so much more can be gained with actual hands-on experiences.
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