This summer, over 50 students will board buses, planes and even boats to explore the sites of the Old World.

“One of the really neat things about this trip is students get historical education,” chaperone Jennifer Marlow said. “They also get cultural education, and every place we go provides a different experience for the students.”

According to Marlow, the students and their six chaperones will visit all the major sites of these cities.

Paris

The group will first go to the Eiffel Tower, the palace of Versailles, the catacombs, the Louvre and other monuments.

“I’m really excited to see the Eiffel Tower. I think that’s probably the thing I’m most excited for, and just the whole city of Paris will be really pretty,” senior Samantha Miller said.

Senior Zachary “Zach” Post, who is also going on the trip, said he, too, is excited to explore Paris.

“I’m excited to go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower and just going out of (the United States) in general. I think it’s really cool how different everything is (in Europe),” Post said. “I’ve heard a lot about the catacombs, so I want to do that.”

Normandy

Afterward, Marlow said the group will travel to Normandy to explore the beaches that played a part in World War II.

“That becomes a really neat time for students to hear about the World War II stories and actually be at the place where a lot of those things happened,” Marlow said.

Miller, who went on the Europe trip last year to Munich, Austria and Italy, said she liked the trip because she could learn about the history of the places she visits.

“I got to see a lot of cool things (last year), but I also learned so much because I was with teachers and with the tour guides rather than being with my family, so it was cool to learn stuff while I was there,” she said.

Every year on the Europe trip, the students visit an American cemetery. This year, they will visit one in Normandy.

“That’s a very touching and very moving day for the students,” Marlow said. “It’s probably my favorite part of the trip just from the standpoint that it’s not something that you can experience here obviously, and each year on the trip it means something different.”

London

The group will then take a ferry to London, where they will visit Dover Castle and the main attractions in the capital of Britain, according to Marlow.

“We’ll hit all the really neat cultural things seen on television and (heard) about, but (the students) actually get to experience it in person,” she said.

The students also have the opportunity in each of these cities to go to places not on the group’s itinerary. Post said he wants to see “Les Miserablés” in London and visit some of the soccer stadiums there.

Miller said she also loved the chaperones on last year’s trip.

“We weren’t being babysat,” she said. “We didn’t feel like we were constantly being watched, but they definitely did a good job of making us feel like we could do what we wanted to.”

Post said he has high hopes for the chaperones.

“(Social studies teacher Matt) Dillon, the one on the announcements, I think he’s going to be hilarious. I like (Assistant Principal Amy) Skeens-Benton and all of them, so I think we’ll have fun,” Post said.