Edwards Coach Holidays and Ecole parties are currently enjoying themselves in Disneyland Paris taking in the Welsh festivities of Disney’s St David’s Welsh Festival. With 13 coaches travelling to the magical festival including 9 schools the Welsh have really turned out to make the weekend a truly Welsh occasion.
With the sun shining over the
We are working towards next year’s festival so please contact the Ecole team to register your interest for this magical event.
Highlights of the festival may include: concerts, choirs and solo artists performing traditional and modern Welsh music (as part of the Welsh music festival); a Welsh Craft & Street Market, a Welsh parade with Mickey and Minnie in traditional Welsh dress; live Disney shows and performances; with the festival ending with a spectacular fire works show in traditional Welsh colours.
As a preferred operator of St David’s Welsh Festival we have the experience and knowledge to get you the most out of your trip without breaking your budget.
Welcome back to the new school year 2010/2011. In the previous academic year, and in one of the most economically challenging years, École has continued to grow, and is proud to be celebratrating it's 5th birthday in November.
Whilst many families have chosen a 'staycation' during the last 12 months, educational establishments have provided many students the opportunity to travel, to experience differenct cultures, and to explore our historic past.
From skiing in the Austrian Alps to London Theatre Breaks, École continues to tailor make your tour. The Opal Coast has seen a resurgence in popularity this year especially amongst Primary Schools, keen for Year 6 pupils to experience a taste of French culture, and, a firm favourite for École, the Disney Welsh Festival was a sell-out for 2010, for which Edwards coaches is a preferred operator.
With a wealth of experience and also a catalogue of good standard hotels, we can organise tours to suit your budget, age range, subjects and curriculum, with the guarantee of luxury travel on board one of our award-winning EDWARDS Coaches and all the safety regulations that brings.
In this economically adverse climate, we are actively working with our suppliers to reduce costs and looking for innovative ways to off-set increasing fuel costs. With the benefit of being a subsidiary of EDWARDS Coaches, you can be assured that your tour is value for money and focussed to your requirements as well as giving you securiy and piece of mind working with a member of the Bonded Coach Holiday scheme.
Thank you for your continued support,
The École team.
The newsletter provides details on possible itineraries, emulating the success of our 2010 tours - contact École for further details.
Last March, Ecole took over five hundred happy pupils from
The event is always seen as a highlight on the Ecole calender and this year was no exception with some lucky pupils travelling onboard the Luxury Touring Coach as used by the Welsh Rugby Union Team 'The Red Dragon'. Throughout the event the 'Red Dragon' was on display at the park for all to see.
After the success in 2010 we are pleased to announce our 2011 dates:
Departing: Thursday 3rd March 2011 from only £138
Highlights of the festival may include: concerts, choirs and solo artistes performing traditional and modern Welsh music (as part of the Welsh music festival); a Welsh Craft & Street Market, a Welsh parade with Mickey and Minnie in traditional Welsh dress; live Disney shows and performances; with the festival ending with a spectacular fire works show in traditional Welsh colours.
As a preferred operator of St David’s Welsh Festival we have the experience and knowledge to get you the most out of your trip without breaking your budget.
ÉCOLE NEWS – DECEMBER 2009
Since the Disney Welsh Festival in March this year, it's been a busy few months for the École team with tours to London, Holland, France, Spain, Belgium, Austria and Germany.
An increasingly popular tour is the World War I Welsh Connection, based at Ypres. These have run over 3, 4 or 5 days and have included visits to the “In Flanders Fields” museum located inside the Cloth Wall, impressively rebuilt to its exact original design after being completely destroyed in the first World War. Our tour of the Flanders area takes in, the German cemetery at Langemarck, the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the resting place of nearly 12,000 Commonwealth soldiers who died in the battles at Passchendaele. Also at Zonnebeke is the150metre long Memorial to the Missing.
The Somme Tour will involve a full day with a local guide. An early start takes us down to the Valley of the River Somme in northern France, where we visit Mametz Woods, which was the objective of the 38th (Welsh) Division, losing about 4,000 men during the First Battle of the Somme. The wood still stands today, surrounded by farmland. Overgrown shell craters and trenches can still be made out. There is a memorial to the 38th Division nearby. It takes the form of a red Welsh Dragon tearing at barbed wire.
The Newfoundland Memorial Park is the biggest battalion memorial on the Western Front and the largest area of the Somme battlefield that has been preserved. The park covers over 80 acres of ground that the Newfoundland Regiment advanced over on the 1 July 1916 - the First Day of the battle of the Somme and has been left much as it was at the end of the war.
On one of the evenings the group will attend the Memorial Service held at the Menin Gate. The Memorial was erected in memory of the 90,000 British Army members whose bodies were never found or identified and now lie somewhere under the Ypres Salient. At exactly 20:00 hours up to six members of the regular buglers from the local volunteer Fire Brigade step into the roadway under the memorial arch. They play Last Post, followed by a short silence and then play Reveille.
From 11 November, 1929 the Last Post has been sounded at the Menin Gate memorial every night and in all weathers (except during the four years of the German occupation of Ypres from 1940 until September 1944). The daily ceremony was instead continued in England at Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey. On the very evening that Polish forces liberated Ypres the ceremony was resumed at the Menin Gate, in spite of the heavy fighting still going on in other parts of the town.
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Our pre-Christmas ski tours saw a total of seven coaches transport five schools from south and west Wales to the pretty Alpine resort of Zell-am-See in the Salzburgerland of Austria.
The École team – Julie and Liz, were on hand to ensure that everyone had a great time. Despite a few worries in late November, the snow arrived in time to ensure a good week's skiing and snowboarding. The school groups were able to take full advantage of the slopes, thanks to the knowledge and care of the local ski instructors who accompany all our groups. As ever, Julie had organised a variety of evening activities including bowling, a folklore evening, a visit to the local swimming pool. This year we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy a free Big Band Swing Christmas concert in the new Porsche Congress Centre. Travelling conditions weren't great on the return journey, with snow blanketing most of Europe and problems with the Eurotunnel causing Calais to be gridlocked. So a big “Thank you” to our drivers, who due to their knowledge and diligence, were able to minimise the delays. The whole team did their bit to contribute towards a great holiday. Some of our new travellers were pleasantly surprised at the quality of our hotels. If our January, February and Easter groups have as much fun, they'll have a great time.
Another popular tour at this time of year is the Christmas Markets Tour, especially in Germany, Belgium and Holland. We are offering tours based in Ostend, Aachen, Ypres, and the Rhine Gorge. The latter is especially good value for money, allowing groups to visit the lovely town of Rüdesheim, (probably the liveliest and most interesting of all the Rhine Valley wine towns),as well as the large city markets such as Cologne (7 separate markets), Aachen (the closest of the German markets) or Trier (Germany's oldest city). These are good practical tours for German language groups where students will have the opportunity to use the grammar and vocabulary they have been taught. The Christmas markets in Valkenburg in Holland take place in the caves underneath the castle ruins. The music and lights all add to the atmosphere. Some of the town and city centres such as Maastricht, Ypres and Brugge offer seasonal ice rinks. Some of these tours can be undertaken easily within 3 days, if you base your school group in Belgium, maybe at Ostend, Ypres or along the coast. One group this year has combined a German Christmas Market tour with a visit to Phantasialand near Cologne, and a river cruise through the Rhine Gorge.
Our new leaflet has been printed and outlines the range of school tours, sports tours and general educational tours that École has to offer. It is important that we continue to research new locations and the best deals for our school groups, while still having the capability to deal with our customers and offer a personal service.
# Historic Christmas Markets, held in cities, towns and villages throughout Germany and, more recently,Belgium and Holland, are becoming increasingly more popular, due, no doubt, to the enchanting Festive Season atmosphere they evoke.
A real traditional atmosphere where many gifts are not mass-produced but craft-work of real quality. Here you can buy all kinds of Christmas merchandise and gifts, especially traditional things such as crib figurines, toys, wood carvings, marionettes, candles and lambskin shoes. Many are difficult to resist – the baked apples are very welcome on crisp winter days and for the teachers maybe a glass of delicious mulled wine
The ambiance is further enhanced by the aromas of hot chestnuts, grilled sausages and other tasty snacks. Youngsters especially will be attracted to the gingerbread biscuits known as Lebkuchen, marzipan figures and other sweets. Most Christmas Markets start in the last week of November and run through to Christmas Eve or a day or two before. They are usually open every day from 10am to about 8 or 9 pm.
We're now gearing up for the St. Davids Welsh Festival at Disneyland Paris. This fantastic annual event is growing in popularity every year. The highlights include concerts with choirs and solo artistes performing traditional and contemporary Welsh music; a Welsh craft and street market; a Welsh parade with Mickey and Minnie in traditional costume.
It is also possible to incorporate a visit to La Coupole, near St. Omer in France. The site of was once a quarry, which, during the German occupation of France, was capped and converted into a "bomb-proof" dome where they would have assembled and launched Hitler's secret weapons - the V2 rockets. Now a unique underground museum, it offers an audio visual display of France's involvement in World War II with actual film of the evacuations, the battles, the Resistance, the work camps etc. Located only about an hour from the ferry port at Calais, it's an ideal morning stop before popping in to a Hypermarket ahead of the return ferry.
Our final visit of this day is to the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge, the scene of the first engagement of the Battle of Arras. Also on the site are the labyrinths of tunnels, created and used by both sides, some of which are in their original state and can be explored.
An important Welsh link is the grave of Hedd Wyn, at the Artillery Wood cemetery near Boezinge. Born Ellis Humphrey Evans, the oldest of eleven children of Evan and Mary Evans, he used the Bardic name “Hedd Wyn”, Welsh for "Blessed Peace" (literal translation: white peace). Evans spent most of his life on a hill farm at Yr Ysgwrn, Trawsfynnyd. By the age of 28, he had won four Eistedfodd chairs for his poetry. Evans was awarded the Bardic Chair for his poem "Yr Arwr" ("The Hero") at the 1917 Eisteddfod, but he was killed serving with the 15th Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers. The award was posthumous, with the Eisteddfod Chair draped in black cloth during the award ceremony.
