OFF WE GO FOR A 3-DAY TRIP TO A EUROPEAN CAPITAL ! publié le 04/06/2024  - mis à jour le 05/06/2024

After a preparatory work, some 25 students from the European Section class, specialized in driving, mechanics and logistics at the Lycée Des Métiers JEAN ALBERT GREGOIRE in SOYAUX, CHARENTE, went to Brussels to visit the EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ! 3 logistics, motorbike maintenance and English teachers accompanied the group during this very intense and enriching trip ...
A great moment indeed !

A manifold objective :

• Raising the students’ awareness to the importance of the European institutions and the role of the European Parliament in their daily life,
• Visiting major companies in relation to their future jobs : in mechanics, driving and logistics,
• Encouraging mobility

This trip was made possible thanks to the Charente Maritime Member of Parliament, Benoît BITEAU, who agreed to sponsor the students. This means that Europe took care of an important part of the expenses, from the trip, to the accommodation as well as food expenses.

 DAY 1 :
Departure at 6 a.m by coach from the school. In the afternoon : visit of ROISSY CHARLES DE GAULLE CARGO CITY, the largest cargo hub in Europe. A guide took us around this immense site and presented the different activities and companies operating on the site. After the visit, we took to the road and spent the night in Maubeuge.

 DAY 2 :
After a good night’s rest, we visited the ELECTRICITY RENAULT plant in MAUBEUGE. This plant mainly produces Kangoo E-Tech vehicles and vans but also produces for Daimler and Nissan. We visited the different workshops and discovered the production lines with robots and human operators working together to assemble the different parts of the vehicles.

We then drove to Brussels where we arrived in the afternoon. We stayed at a Youth Hostel : GENERATION EUROPE, situated in the north west of the Belgian capital. After taking our rooms,we first walked to the GRAND PLACE. The students discovered this famous central square, strolled about the pedestrian streets around it in search of the famous Manneken Pis and tasted some specialities : chips, waffles, chocolates or bought some souvenirs.

We then headed to the HOUSE OF EUROPEAN HISTORY , a museum about the recent history of the European Economic Community and the European integration process. The students visited the different floors of the exhibition which shows the recent milestones of the E.U. foundation. This process is illustrated by photos, frontpages, posters, videos and objects of daily life, contributing to making it more concrete.

The evening at the Youth Hostel also gave some students the opportunity to test their English levels with a group of German girls who were staying at the hotel too !

 DAY 3 :
Back to the Parliament institutions district in order to visit the PARLIAMENT. We entered the main building and passed through the security gates.

We started the visit with a conference about the roles and powers of the European institutions, given by a Latvian lecturer. At the end of her lecture, Mr Biteau came for an exchange about his M.E.P mandate. The students felt free to ask him questions about his academic and career histories and the way he manages his life between his farmer’s job and his political responsabilities. They discovered that being a M.E.P is a full-time job, that requires a great deal of organization and involvement !
We finished with the climax of the visit : the HEMICYCLE , with its 750 seats and the cabins for the translators, dealing with the 24 official languages used by the M.E.Ps.

A souvenir photo, a quick picnic and it was soon time to leave for a long return trip to Charente !