CDL in the Mountains ✨

This weekend, we took the entire Collège du Léman Boarding community to the Swiss mountains and had a fantastic time!

Our students went to the popular town, Verbier, where they were spoilt with blue skies & endless sunshine 🌞

There were a range of activities available including; mountain biking, zip lining, ropes course, hiking, rock climbing, mountain scooters and plenty of traditional sports, which meant there was something for everyone 🏀🏓🏸

It was great to see our students discover and enjoy new activities 🛴🚴‍♂️

Sangeetha bravely opted for the zipline! Starting at 3,330m, with a vertical drop of 383 m and a total length of 1.4 km, the Mont 4 Zipline the highest in the world and the longest in the Alps.

 

Well done, Sangeetha! We are very proud of you! 🎉

On Sunday morning, everyone participated in the Mountain Mini Olympics 🥇🥈🥉

In groups of 10, the students had to work together as a team to try and win the overall competition 🏆

And of course, the best ‘Fancy Dress Photo’ station was a clear favourite from our students! We very much enjoyed their style and creativity 👗🎩👒👑

All in all, the students made lovely wonderful memories and new friendships over the course of the weekend. A weekend we won’t forget! 🧡💛💚💙💜

 

House Competition 🏆🏀⭐

Today, the whole boarding community came together to take part in the first house competition of the year! And what a competition it was! ✨⭐🙌

Following tradition, we started the House Competition with our annual Sports Day! 🏀

Spread across the Concha gardens, there were 6 different games to participate in, all of which required a different set of skills 🏸

The challenges included: three legged race, badminton rallies, basketball shoot out, musical chairs, ping pong spoon race and finally, the most competitive of them all, TUG OF WAR!

Our students worked together as a team and fought brilliantly in the games. The results will be revealed later on in the week, but whatever the results may be, we are extremely proud of our Louis Degallier representatives who demonstrated excellent teamwork and amazing support towards one another 💛

Well done everyone! ⭐

 

 

Welcome back dinner ✨

Showcasing our first International dinner of the year, and what a dinner it was! ⭐

As always, we kick start the year with a traditional Swiss meal so that we can introduce all the different cultures from our growing community to the type of food enjoyed here in Switzerland 🧀

Everyone got to enjoy a selection of Switzerland’s finest, including:

  • Mini fondue bowls, served in fresh crusty bread rolls
  • Assortment of cheeses from the local regions
  • A platter of locally sourced cured meats
  • Mini Swiss burgers with Gruyère cheese
  • And plenty more Swiss delicacies

For dessert, we got to enjoy macaroons decorated with the Swiss flag, served with a selection of homemade Swiss desserts. But the real showstopper was the chocolate fountain! After all, the Swiss are know for their chocolate! 🍫

The dining hall was filled with Swiss related decorations, even the napkins has Swiss flags on them! All in all, it was a lovely way to welcome new and returning students back to Switzerland 🎉✨🎇

Welcome back! 🎉

Welcome to the new school year of 2023 – 2024! ✨⭐

The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and we can’t wait to welcome you back to Collège du Léman! 🌸

Here at CDL, we have just opened two new outside villas to support the growing boarding community, one of which is located next door but one to Louis Degallier 56, therefore we have new neighbours! Ronan and Philip (pictured below) will be running Louis Degallier 60, a beautiful villa which will house 7 senior boys. And given that we are neighbours, we will both be using this blog to update you on all of the wonderful boarding experiences enjoyed by the students within our two houses!

So, without further ado, we welcome all our new students & families, our transitioning students & families, and of course our returning students & families to our little Louis Degallier community ❤

We wish you all a successful start to the year ✨

Sunday Funday 💛✨🌻

Today was our end of year party and what a day it was ⭐

To celebrate, the school organised a garden celebration with inflatables, bubble football, water slides, bungee swings and rock climbing 🧗‍♀️🎪🎉

And of course no garden party would be complete without Candy Floss & ice cream!

Here is a video of our brave Regina experiencing the bungee ropes! 🗼

We were served some delicious Mexican food from a local food company – burritos & nachos 🌮

The girls had a great day spending quality time with their other schoolmates 😂💛

And to top it all off, the sun was shining throughout the day 🌞

Food is the language of love 💖✨

We are very lucky to have some talented chefs here in the house, and even luckier that they offered to plan & cook a beautiful al fresco meal for our lovely little boarding family! 🥰🌸

Bia (Head Chef), along with Regina & Parisa cooked a 3 course meal for the whole house and it went down VERY well 💕

Making the most of our lovely garden and the warm summer nights, the girls took a break from revision to enjoy this beautifully prepared meal.

Here is a short video showcasing the special evening 🌸🥰

 

To start, the girls prepared fresh burrata & cherry tomato salads, accompanied with tasty garlic, pesto & tomato bruschetta, topped with parmesan & olive oil 🍅🧀

Next, Bia prepared her signature pasta dish made with chicken, garlic, mushrooms, onions, truffle butter, tomatoes & a touch of her own magic. Creamy, delicious & indulging – definitely a winning dish on Masterchef ⭐

Finally, we were spoilt to some delicious almond & dark chocolate brownies – although these didn’t last long at all… 😂🍫

In a few weeks time, our G12’s will be graduating from CDL, so evenings like this are even more special ⭐

A BIG thank you to Bia for leading this beautiful event, and thank you to Parisa & Regina for assisting – especially when it came to cutting the onions  🧅😂💕

 

 

A weekend full of talent 🎤✨⭐

We had a great weekend showcasing the talent from the girls in Louis Degallier ✨

On Saturday night, Parisa performed a beautiful version of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’.

Accompanied by some teachers from Collège du Léman, this wonderful version was very well received by the audience. This was a ticketed event where all the money was donated to a local charity.

We are all very proud of Parisa’s talents and her commitment to the school’s charitable events 🥰

 

Next, we have Sakura who went to play golf on Sunday with some fellow boarders. As you can see, she showed she had good technique with her golf swing. A lovely way to spend a Sunday morning 💛

Just close to Chamonix, we travelled to a lovely outdoor race track where Beatriz got to go Go Karting! We had a mix of sunshine and showers, but despite the rain, the students absolutely loved it.

Beatriz had 2 x 10 minute sessions on the track and finished in the top 3 for her race. Well done Bea! ⭐⭐⭐

 

 

 

Another rainy Sunday means another day of baking 😍🍪

The weather this weekend has definitely followed the theme of ‘April Showers’, but not to worry – we will make the most of staying inside by creating some delicious snacks at home 🏡 🥰

This weekend, our Louis Degallier chefs made an array of treats, including savoury pancakes, authentic Greek cookies and one GIGANTIC twix cookie to share 🍪✨

Here’s a quick video showing Daria making this delicious cookie mixture – she makes it look so easy!

 

Fresh out of the oven, melted chocolate and caramel – YUM 😍

We half baked the cookie dough, then added the rest of the twix on top as demonstrated by Daria.

Here you can see a photo of the savoury pancakes with melted cheese inside. Makes a change from our favourite Nutella & strawberry pancakes 😂

Traditional Greek cookies, flavoured with orange 🍪

Bia preparing the dough for the cookies. I can confirm, they were very tasty! ✨

 

A week of Celebrations 🎉💖

This week, we have lots of things to celebrate in Louis Degallier ✨✨✨

First of all, a big happpppy birthday to Lisa! 🎈🎈🎈

And what better way to celebrate than with a delicious chocolate cake 🎂 We hope you had a wonderful day Lisa 🥰

Second of all, Parisa entered the school Talent Show with her friend, Garth and together, they came 3rd place!

Parisa has a beautiful singing voice and we are lucky enough to hear her practicing in the house all the time. We managed to film her winning performance so you can enjoy her voice too! 😍

 

We are SO proud of you Parisa, well done! 🎤🥉

 

Sunday’s are for baking 🍪

This afternoon, we baked some delicious Kinder Bueno cookies in the house, and believe me, they went down extremely well! 😍

As chocolate lovers, we found a recipe online that met our chocolate desires in every way possible! 🍫

The recipe uses a traditional cookie dough mixture as demonstrated by our lovely Sakura. 🥰

Once the dough is formed, we added the kinder chocolate and divided them into equal amounts. Somehow, a few bits of chocolate went missing during the process… 😅

Once baked, we added a Kinder Bueno square to each cookie and left them to cool down for half an hour… however, we thought it would be best to try one as soon as it came out of the oven, just to double check they tasted good… 🤭😏

We shared them amongst everyone in the house and I think it’s safe to say we all have a sweet tooth here in Louis Degallier. We just wish we could share them with you across the world! 🌎

Alongside our cookie making, Daria was baking some Russian sweet treats using her Grandmother’s recipe. Lots of creativity in the kitchen today!