17th of August 2013

Today it’s the day before our French friends departure. It will be very special and full of wonderfull activities. We started the day at 12:00 o’clock with the presentation of the “Future Europe” workshop where everybody had to present their ideas and to demonstrate our creativity about this subject on blanc paper sheets, diverse presented, colored and structured.

I had the occasion to invite my friend Rachell at my house and to present her to my family because they were very eager to know her. They prepared a special meal with famous Romanian sarmale. I spend beautiful time with her I was very happy she enjoyed this day at my house.

After this, we all had to give our contribution for the realization of the website and everybody had to do different things and to participate and collaborate with the others.

The last activity of the day was the goodbye party were we all past a beautiful time togheter, we eat, danced, played games, talked and shared our last impressions about the project and the collaboration between French and Romanian people.

Irina Maria Vieru

16th of August 2013

It’s another day in Draganesti-Olt. Gathered all together in the informatic laboratory, we started the day with new workshops. Because my team had some difficulties with the computer, we had to remake the two movies about Brancusi and Ionescu.

Also, today we started to create the “Future Europe” workshop and to put our ideas on paper sheets. We had to talk about three different topics:

1. Critical phase: we had to write about the problems that exist in Europe and try to cover the main reasons for Europe’s difficulties.
2. Utopia phase: in this phase we had to imagine how everything would look like if all the problems would disappear.
3. Realization: in “realization”, we had to find solutions and ways to transform imagination into reality and to make problems disappear.

Today was French evening and our friends went back to the hotel to prepare the best evening that we had up until now. They made wonderful food preparations and cook traditional French food like “Quiche Lorraine”, “Ponche” and “Salade de riz”. Also the arrangements were absolutely lovely and the athmosphere the French people create was one of a kind.

We talked, danced and enjoyed a perfect dinner and after played a funny game named “Loup-Garou”, translated “The Werewolf”. The perfect ending of a perfect day.

Irina Maria Vieru

15th of August 2013

After two days of visit in Bucharest and Târgu Jiu, we created two videos per group to show links between France and Romania through the visit of those towns and two famous person : Brancusi and Ionescu. We devided into 3 French-Romanian group to exploited pictures and videos taken during the last two days.

On the evenning we could appreciate a Romanian party with typical food (sarmale cu mamaliga), music and dance. Two romanians came to play guitar and sing with Ionut. We sang all together traditional songs. There is two Marie on the French group, and in Romania, on 15th of August, they celebrate St-Marie. The two Marie received a gift from Costi and a piece of cake.

14th of August 2013

“Brancusi et Ionescu” – two common assets of our culture

6 AM : Wake up everybody ! Today is a really good day like the previous one !  Hey guys, don’t be bored or tired, because it’s not the moment ! Let’s go to see the Mountains of Carpates !

7:30 at 8:00 AM : Road from Draganesti-Olt to Slatina first.

There we saw the biggest flag of Romania and the place where Statue of Ionescu is erecting behind the House of Culture in Slatina.

Ionescu is a romanian writer who wrote in french in France during Ceausescu.

After this, we go to Târgu Jiu to discover three important sculptures : Gate of kiss, Table of silence and Infinte Column of Brancusi, a sculptor who went in France before 1989 for the same reasons than Ionescu. That’s why this two artist belong to both cultures of our two countries !

At 6:30 PM, we took the road to come back to Drăgăneşti-Olt through Craiova where we stopped to spend good time in the shops and see the place behind the Prefectura of Dolj (one of the 40 departments in Roumania)

Then, we arrived to Drăgăneşti-olt and we went to eat the dinner at in the Magic Restaurant of Comani : a great Restaurant !

13th of August 2013

Le Petit Paris : a link of culture

6:00 AM  : Wake up everybody ! A great day is coming !

7:30 AM at 10:00 AM : Road from Drăgăneşti-Olt to Bucharest, called “ The little Paris”.

10 AM to 1 PM : We visited the Palace of the Parliament. It impressed us because it is so big and amazing. Also, it is the second largest monument of the world after the “Pentagon”. It has a unique architecture and we learnt a lot about Romanian’s culture (about the Romanian revolution in 1989 ,for example).

1 PM : Lunch at the Eighteen floors of a Building. The view was amazing that's why we ate like Big king !

2 PM : We went to the Park Herăstrău to spend good time together and we saw the statues of the founding fathers of the European Union. Leaving the Park, we discover the Center of Bucharest sometimes also called the Little Paris. In fact, we discovered the Romanian Arc of Triumph with his big Romanian flag inside. It was really enriching to learn that Bucharest look like Paris : thanks to this, we understand more why the stereotypes are really wrong. Because both capitals have some similarities, links between us are stronger.

During the day (visits, walks in the park, in Bucharest center) we were split in three heterogeneous (french and Romanian people together ) teams. Every team had his own photo camera in order to make  movies the next days.

After this amazing afternoon together, we took the road to come back to Drăgăneşti- Olt, little town in the South of Romania.

12th of August 2013

We began the day with a workshop entitled « A picture of Europe – Say no ! ». The group were divided into 4 parts to find different slogan about different thema : media manipulation, discrimation against immigrants, racism and xenophobia.

After, we saw the film « Open Border » directed by the red cross from GB that introduce different experiences of people who had to leave their country and the reasons why they did it. We made 4 short movies to fight the discrimination about immigrants.

After return to the hostel, French youngsters played football with some Romanian children next to the highschool.

Everybody slept early to be ready and in good condition to spend the next day in Bucharest !!

11th of August 2013

Today, we’ve been split in teams and we had to do some different kind of video such as: interview, Tv news, stop-motion video… The goal of the videos was to counteract media manipulation.

 In the evening after a delicious diner we had to present the videos we’ve done earlier this day. All the movies were good but one attract all the attention. The movie was so hilarious and all the viewers laugh so loud that we were thinking we will have problems with the police. After this we have plenty of free time.

10th of August 2013

Today, we focus our intention on the media, too. We played an interesting game which attracted our attention on the stereotypes between France and Romania, about open the borders and we felt like a member of E.U.

In the evening, all of us went to a bar and we had a good time together discussing about what we’ve done today. It was a great moment. Some of us left the bar and walked on the street, in the park and played funny games.

After that, all of us went to the hotel by foot and we get some good sleep.

9th of August 2013

Today it’s the second day in Drăgăneşti Olt and it was so hot just at the morning! Imagine the whole day! It was very difficult for French people to support the heat but we were able to remark some Romanian people too.

At informatics room, French and Romanian people exchanged about their expectations, fears and contributions for this young exchange. Moreover, we discussed about the positive and negative effects of the media.

Also, we set up the life rules to make a good mood between us. We had to make a movie about the negative aspects of the media. We used the video cameras and we learnt the basics techniques for shooting. 

8th of August 2013

Today, it’s the day where French people arrived in Caracal by the train from Bucharest; it was approximately at 2 in the morning. After, we took cars to Drăgăneşti Olt and we arrived at hotel, it was time to sleep!

When we woke up, we tasted for the first time Romanian Breakfast! It was good. At 12:00 we finally met Romanian people at high school. It was a very strong moment because we meet up, French and Romanian. There is a new member in the Romanian group: Cosmin Drăgan. We played some games.

We ate together and we had a break from 2 PM to 4 PM. When we met again at informatics room in high school, we began another game. The aim was to make us discover Drăgăneşti Olt village by taking photos. At the end, every team made a video with photos support.

Finally, when we finished diner we watched videos created by every team. 

7th of August 2013

For our departure to Romania we had a 9:30 appointment at the social center in Thouarcé. We arrived at 10 AM at the train station of Angers and take the 10:40 train towards the Charles de Gaulle airport, and we take-off at 4:30 p.m..

2:30 hours later we put our first foot in Romania, Bucharest. To go to Draganesti-Olt we had the pleasure to discover the Romanians trains (we’ve spend the journey on our feet between two wagons during 3hours ! )

Finally around 2 in the night we arrived in Caracal and someone pick us up at the train station to take us at the hotel in Draganesti where we slept !