day 0: Departure day

Ms. SaraGrace Kimball writes our travel journal entry for Friday, February 27, 2026.

At 1:30 PM, the bus for France departed from campus. We hit our first snag just 45 minutes later when the bus had to pull over, and we determined we couldn’t continue safely. Not to worry though because the Woodberry communty rallied for us, and a wonderful driver named David came and picked us up from Wawa in Gainesville, VA. 20 minutes later, we arrived at Dulles.

While several boys were graced with TSA Pre-Check, they selflessly forwent their privilege to stay with the rest of the group. The theme of the day was truly whatever line we chose ended up being the fast one. I guess we are lucky like that. We breezed through security and sat at gate A20 for an hour and 20 minutes. In that time, the boys used their per diem money to get dinner. Chick-Fil-A and Five Guys were the popular choices. 

We were one of the last groups to get on the plane which meant very little idle sitting on the plane. The ride was smooth, but I don’t think anyone got more than 1-2 hours of sleep. We touched down in France around 7:45 AM, which felt like 2:45 AM to us. Exhausted but also invigorated to be in France, we somehow again chose the quickest Customs line and skipped what appeared to be at least an hours wait in other lines. Stay tuned for more details from Liam covering Day 2’s action!

George proudly shows off the sculptures he made from the airplane Babybel cheese wax.