Sunday, 31.03.2019

At 6 a.m. we met at Bremen airport to catch our flight to Amsterdam, where we changed planes to Marseille. Shortly after arrival the transfer bus took us to the St.-Charles train station, where we had a few hours to discover the beautiful city of Marseille. After a train ride to Nimes we changed to the bus to Alès, where we were welcomed by a school representative. The students were picked up by their hosts and the teachers got to the hotel.

Monday, 01.03.2019

On the first day of the mobility we met in our host school ‘Lycée Jean-Baptiste Dumas’ and were welcomed by the director. We got to know each other by some icebreaker games. Then we made a tour through the school and were shown the workshops. In comparison to our school, the host school has many practical classes. This is due to the fact that the car mechanics training in France is mainly held in school for three years with internships of about two months each year.

Afterwards we had lunch in the city center of Alès (the s is pronounced - which we learned today).

In the afternoon we went to the Alès Film Festival and watched a movie called 'Captain Fantastic'. The movie is a comedy drama about a family living in the forests, who is forced to reintegrate into society.

Tuesday, 02.03.2019

Today we received our packed lunch at school and a bus took us to Nîmes. We visited the University of Nîmes, where we were shown their reseach on batteries, self-manufactured electric motors and electric vehicles like karts and a green tractor. The professors demonstrated a green tractor. It is fully electric, even the power steering. The batteries can easily be taken out to be charged or replaced. It was an impressive visit and we learned a lot about their research. They took the time to explain everything and answer all our questions.

Afterwards we met the guys from Tele Bleue at the arena in Nîmes. They provided an escape game, in which six teams explored the city with a backpack full of riddles. All nations worked together as a team to solve the riddles and put all the pieces together.

Exhausted and hungry we went to the Jardins de la Fontaine to have a picnic.

On our way back to Alès we stopped at a karting circuit where we met the scientists of the University of Nîmes. They let the teachers test their electric kart, which was awesome. The kart has a self-produced 20 kW brushless AC motor. It is powered by a 60 V battery and accelerates the car to a maximum speed of about 90 km/h.

Wednesday, 03.03.2019

The third day started with a teacher meeting while the students visited the sciences and technology department of our host school. As discussions make hungry we had lunch in the school canteen.

Then we set off to the IMT Mines Alès where we were shown their research in electric vehicles. Besides the plans and a model for the green tractor we saw yesterday, they showed us an electrically powered car and an electric bike study. The bike will get a cover like a big helmet, so that it serves as a vehicle for commuters to get sheltered from the train station to work for example.

This visit was followed by a guided city tour. We learned a lot of interesting background about Alès as a mining location, a silk production site and the birthplace of Jean Baptiste Dumas, after whom our host school was named. He was also the professor of Louis Pasteur, who found out that silkworms had infectious diseases. The tour was held by the headmaster's assistent simultaniously in English, French and Italian.

In the evening the teachers were invited to dinner at one of the host teacher's place. The food and the company was awesome and we had a lot of fun.

Thursday, 04.03.2019

Today we visisted the Pôle Mécanique Alès Cevennes, an area consisting of different racetracks, companies and a Kart circuit. We were shown a Caterham 7, which will be modified into an electric car. We also had a tour at Duqueine Engineering, where beautiful racecars and carbon parts are built.

We had a great race at the Pôle Mécanique Alès Karting circuit. We could take a look in their workshop and saw that everything is a bit smaller there like the little tire mounting machine. We were shown a professional Kart used by Formula 1 drivers during winter. Then it was time to form mixed teams of three persons. Students and teachers fought together for the win. We first had a training session of ten minutes for each driver, where almost everybody found out that those brakes on the Karts are fierce. You could see a lot of drivers spinning and getting off the track. But for the one hour race, almost everyone was prepared and fully concentrated. We all had so much fun on this awesome race track sourrounded by a wonderful landscape.

Two German students and one teacher were among the first three teams and all German students and teachers were among the first six of fourteen teams. 💚

Friday, 05.03.2019

On our last day in Alès we visited some other workshops in our host school. The students produce for example boilers, cutted sheets, automated systems and even sample parts for Eurocopter on customer request. They use water jet cutting or plasma cutting machines, automation technology and the usual metal working machines. First year students start with simpler tasks and enhance in further years of training. Computer aided design (CAD) is used to plan the projects in the first place.

In the well equipped classrooms the students learn a lot through practical tasks. They build and program robots to cross a test area autonomously, the architecture students plan, build and test bridge design by applying a given force the bridge must withstand. Another department deals with aeronautical engineering.

Afterwards we received our Erasmus+ mobility certificate in the town hall, where we took a last European group picture.

Our Erasmus+ mobility officially ended with a very special cinema experience. Old comic movies accompanied by live music. A great idea!