France through the Camera Lens: Lucas Littlejohn

A passage from my post-EIL essay to World Learning:

Since my return from Paris as an Experimenter in France, I have had a week to reflect on my experience, a life-changing four weeks that took me from the epic City of Light to the beautiful northern beaches to some of the oldest abbeys and châteaus in the country. Every day my mind wanders to the little corner cafés, family patisseries, the métro with its sounds, smells, and hustle and bustle, and mansard roofs as far as the eye can see. I cannot forget the pervading morning smells of cigarettes and coffee and bread baking, or the feeling of the ice cold ocean water on the Brittany coast and the image of striped marine style. One of my fondest memories will always be the food - for a month I ate like a king compared to my past American life. I tried as much as I could in four weeks, including crêpes, duck, mussels, “exotic” fruits and vegetables, as many delicate pastries as possible, paninis, cheeses, European candies and soft drinks, and too much coffee, for the sake of abbreviating the list. I came to the conclusion that the French have the “food” part pretty well figured out. But from my entire experience, the fondest memories came from my time with the people in my group.

This incredible experience was given to me because of the generosity of the Wilson family through their language grants. I traveled in France from Paris, to the abbey at Fontevraud, to the beautiful beach-side town of St.-Malo, and then back to Paris. My program, photography, was a perfect choice for me because I was able to see France through a different perspective, through a camera lens.

FIRST STAY IN PARIS - Four Days

Outside the Louvre / Glass Pyramid at the Louvre / Le Seine


Versailles / Ads for Harry Potter 7, Part 2 / Le Champs-Elysees


Le Jardin du Luxembourg / Une Religieuse pastry / Inside le Centre Pompidou (French-Indian Art Exhibit)


Street Art at Montmartre / Outside the Pantheon



ABBEY AT FONTEVRAUD FOR PHOTOGRAPHY LESSONS - Four Days

Fontevraud Castle

ST.-MALO HOMESTAY - Eleven Days

St.-Malo Downtown / With a seal that I named Dixie / Host father



Host mother / Host family's house / Mt. St. Michel


Under a bridge near family's house / Diving block off of beach



PHOTOGRAPHY IN PARIS - Nine Days

Delicious fallafel restaurant / street art / "The street is an art gallery in open air"

From the top of Montmartre / Setting up for the Tour de France / Seeing Aaron Ardisson at the top of the Eiffel Tower

Sparkling Eiffel Tower / My photos for Photography Exhibition