Minooka TAP

TAP Adventures is excited to announce that we are back. After taking a break for a few years, we are excited to travel the world again with local students and teachers!!! In June of 2024, we will be spending 8 glorious days traveling through Costa Rica, checking out all the sites and learning Spanish!!!

TAP was started in 2007 as Minooka TAP – or the Minooka Travel Abroad Program – by a group of teachers from Minooka Junior High School (but the group is not, and never has been affiliated with any one school or school district). Over the course of the next 13 years, we traveled with over 500 students to 35 different countries on 5 continents including Germany, France, England, Ireland, Japan, Spain, South Africa, Italy, and Greece. In 2016, we began including students from other communities, and we’ve now traveled with kids from Plainfield, Naperville, Batavia, Aurora, Oswego, Channahon, Yorkville, and Chicago. Any students from grades 7-12 that are interested in traveling with us are welcome. That same year, we changed our name to TAP Adventures to reflect the larger community our travelers come from.

This Costa Rican Adventure will be our 14th trip abroad with students, and we hope to build a great group of kids that can learn from one another. With each group, we prepare for nearly a year before travel – holding monthly meetings to help get the students ready to explore the world. These meetings focus on academics like culture, history, science, geography, language, food, music, and art – as well as digging into logistics like passports, packing for a trip like this, getting through the airport with a large group, how meals and hotels will work with a big group… We also spend a great deal of time looking at the financials – helping students understand foreign currency and how to budget their spending while on tour.

The final aspect of learning we focus on pre-travel is the social aspect. Many of our students don’t know one another before joining the group, but we want everyone to return home from Costa Rica missing a place that isn’t home and feeling like people that were virtual strangers a few days earlier are like family. The roots of that begin at our meetings here at home.

Since 2010, TAP students have published their own books. From that very first year, we saw students and teachers lugging around thick, heavy travel guides – most of which were stuffed with loads of information they didn’t need. So, starting with our Ireland 2010 group, we began helping students research, write, edit, format, and publish their own books. These books are focused on the things our students are most interested in learning about – along with activities and journal pages to help them reflect upon the things we’re experiencing our tour. Nearly 400 TAP students have been able to put on their college applications and resumes that they are published authors!!!

Our 2024 Adventure in Costa Rica will focus on learning the Spanish language. Each morning, our students will participate in language workshops focused on different aspects of Costa Rican life: food, music, ecology, the rainforest… then we will take excursions to practice our Spanish. For example, on food day, we’ll learn food, farming, and cooking terms before heading to the marketplace to shop for ingredients and head to a Costa Rican cooking class. Other excursions will include dance lessons, a tour of the rainforest canopy, kayaking, white water rafting, and a visit to sea turtle breeding grounds. The trip will be 8 days in June of 20214 and will be open to any students from the area who will have finished 7th grade that spring. Because of the language classes and the size of the busses in Costa Rica, this trip will be limited to just 26 students. Check out the detailed itinerary here.

If you are interested in joining the adventure, fill out our application at the link below. Fill out our student application here or reach out to us at Minookatap2 @ gmail.com if you have any questions.

We are very excited to announce our next two student adventures. TAP Adventures has been traveling the world with local students since 2007. We’ve been to Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, but in 2021 we will be making our first trip to North America and in 2022, we will make it to our sixth continent with a trip to Australia and New Zealand.

We have chosen to announce two trips at the same time for the first time in TAP’s history to give families a few options to choose from.

Our 2021 adventure in Costa Rica will focus on learning the Spanish language. Each morning, our students will participate in language workshops focused on different aspects of Costa Rican life: food, music, ecology, the rainforest… then we will take excursions to practice our Spanish. For example, on food day, we’ll learn food, farming, and cooking terms before heading to the marketplace to shop for ingredients and head to a Costa Rican cooking class. Other excursions will include dance lessons, a tour of the rainforest canopy, kayaking, white water rafting, and a visit to sea turtle breeding grounds. The trip will be 10 days in June of 2021 and will be open to any students from the area who will have finished 7th grade that spring. Because of the language classes and the size of the busses in Costa Rica, this trip will be limited to just 26 students.

Our 2022 adventure will take us to New Zealand and Australia. We will start our journey down under in Aukland, New Zealand, touring the city and visiting national parks nearby. We will participate in a traditional Maori feast, learning about far away cultures – and a lot about ourselves. After a few days, we will transfer to Sydney, Australia, visiting the zoo, the famous Opera House, and cruising through the Sydney Harbor. Our last stop will be to norther Australia, where we will take part in an aboriginal ceremony full of dancing, music, and food, before meeting a local marine biologist and taking a snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef – where we hope to find Nemo! This trip will be 12 days long in June of 2022 and will be open to any students from the area who have finished 7th grade by that spring. This trip will be limited to just 48 students.

If you are interested in joining the adventure, fill out our application at the link below. Fill out our student application here.

Hannah Jackson is a sophomore student at Oswego East High School.  Getting ready for her trip to France next year, Hannah has been watching movies, reading books, and doing tons and tons of research.  She’s always wanted to travel the world,  so now that she’s got her chance, she’s going to make sure she gets the most out of the experience by being prepared beforehand. 

Below is Hannah’s review of “The Hundred Foot Journey,” a modern movie about life in France and clash of cultures.  If you’re a member of TAP and would like to publish your work here, just let the TAP teachers know.  

The Hundred Foot Journey is a movie that takes place in France in modern times about a feud between two restaurants that are across from each other in a small French town: one operated by a recently relocated Indian family with Indian cuisine and the other a Michelin-starred French restaurant. The Indian family restaurant’s goal was to spread their culture through their cooking to the French countryside, and in the process becoming a well known restaurant. The popular French restaurant of many years, run by Madame Mallory, strives for the 2 star restaurant status while strictly preparing traditional French dishes. The two restaurants compete for business until the family’s second-eldest son, their head chef, begins to work for Madame Mallory and starts to incorporate Indian spices into the French dishes and makes them better. The restaurants then work together for a common goal: making the best dishes and spreading their cultures. The movie shows much of the beautiful French countryside as well as giving insight to the French culture and its food delicacies. The collision of the two distinct cultures built off each other in the movie to give even more light to the true cultures as they combined into one.

I truly enjoyed this movie as I love cooking and eating food, and that was the main focus of the movie. It got me excited for all the new and different foods we will get the chance to try on our trip. I also loved how the plot built up to the two cultures coming together. It was very interesting to learn about both cultures and to see them assimilate into one. The scenes in the movie were very beautiful, showing the French countryside, and it illustrated what France is like and what life there is like.

I learned a lot from this movie that will better my experience on this trip. First of all I learned a lot about French food, restaurants, life, small towns and the French countryside. The French culture was illustrated very nicely in this movie by taking place there. I learned a bit about the French language because it was spoken frequently throughout the movie in short phrases like “thank you” and “hello.” Most of all, as the movie continued to combine two different cultures into one, I learned a lot about how it will be for us traveling to another country and experiencing a new culture. The movie demonstrated how simple it is to assimilate to a new culture and how to make a better experience by combining your culture with the new one. This message from the movie is great to learn while traveling and experiencing new cultures.

Sometimes it’s difficult to pick just the right movie of the month for our program.  We want to use movies that are going to give you some insight into the history and culture of the places we’re going to be visiting, but those don’t always seem to be the goals of the Hollywood movie studios who make these movies.  Some movies are super realistic, but boring as can be – while other movies are fun and exciting to watch, but so full of factual errors that there’s no point to watching.

In researching the many different Joan of Arc movies that have been made over the years, we found several that were exciting, action-packed modern movies that you guys would probably love… but… they were full of historical errors, political bias, and “just plain wrong”-ness that we couldn’t pick them.  On the other hand, we found a French made movie, that critics claim is one of the best movies ever made and has one of the best female performances of all time in it, AND, at the same time, historians say that it’s incredibly accurate, because the script is taken directly from documents that have survived from Joan of Arc’s actual trial.  So we watched it, and it was… well… pretty unwatchable for modern audiences, plus it only tells the story of her trial, not the battles and leadership that make her such an important historical figure (we did include this one below so you can be the judge).

In the end, we chose a happy middle ground – a movie that tells the entire story of Joan of Arc – in a more modern way – and, while it takes a few Hollywood liberties with the story, it is far more accurate than the Joan of Arc movies made in recent years.

This movie, Joan of Arc, starring Ingrid Bergman (rated one of the top 4 female movie stars of all time, thanks to her roles in Hitchcock’s Notorius and the WWII drama Casablanca), and directed by one of the most respected filmmakers of all-time, Victor Fleming (director of The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind).

The movie is based on a successful Broadway play called Joan of Lorraine, which also starred Bergman, and was adapted for the screen by the original playwrite himself.   Bergman had wanted to play Joan in a movie for many years, so this was considered a dream project for her.

Both Bergman and her co-star, José Ferrer (making his film debut the Dauphin) earned Academy Award nominations for their parts.  The film was acclaimed director Victor Fleming’s last project — he died two months after it was released.

Even with much acclaim, and later the Academy Award nominations, the movie was not a big success at the box office.  Bergman was a huge Hollywood name whose star had recently been tarnished by rumors of an extramarital affair, and audiences stayed away from the movie, because many people felt it was blasphemous to have an adulteress playing a saint on the big screen.

One of the important things we have to do while watching Joan of Arc, is differentiate the fact from fiction, and before we head to France next June, have an understanding of what the real Joan’s story was like.  This is important, because we will be visiting Rouen, the site of Joan’s trial and execution.  Her story is important to understand the history of France, so please take the time to read this post carefully, to watch the videos we’ve found for you, and to understand (not just watch) the movie Joan of Arc.

100 Years War

To give you a little context as to what the world was like during Joan of Arc’s short life, you need to have a basic understanding of The 100 Years War.

The Hundred Years’ War was a series of conflicts fought by England and France between 1337 and 1453 to gain control of France.  All told, five generations of monarchs from the two countries fought for over a century to control the throne of the largest kingdom in Western Europe. It really shouldn’t be called a Hundred Years’ War, though – that’s really a misleading name for it.  Instead, it was a series of wars, with good-long chunks of peace in the middle (9 years of peace, 26 years of peace…) that all had the same goal – England wanted to control France, and France didn’t like that idea.

To help you understand the Hundred Years’ War, we’ll break it down a bit…

Norman Conquest

It all begins with the Norman Conquest.  As you know, Normandy is a region in Northern France – we’ll visit Normandy to see the D-Day beaches from WWII.  Normandy was a region of France settled by descendants of the Vikings, and in 1066, in full-on Viking conquest mode, the Duke of Normandy – William, because of some disputes as to who was the rightful heir to the throne of England, decided to invade England and conquer.  He did.  Afterwards, he was known as William the Conqueror.

After the Norman Conquest, the kings of England were vassals (which pretty much means they were assistant kings, running England, but answering to the Kings of France).  Over time, the French royalty reduced the amount of land and property the English kings in France were able to control.  This, of course, led to some animosity.  Combine that with the fact that England kept going to war with Scotland (see Braveheart, a great movie that takes place around 1280) and Scotland was France’s ally.

As you can see, the fighting between England and France started long before what historians call that Hundred Years’ War, way back 271 years earlier.

Here’s a quick video to help you understand the Norman Conquest a bit better.

 

However, The Start of What We Call the Hundred Years’ War Was a Pretty Big Deal

In the early 1300s, after 270+ years of on and off fighting, the poop really started to hit the French and English fans when, in 1338, Charles IV, the king of France died.

You see, when royal people die, most countries would look to the “line of succession” to determine legally who is the next to take the throne.  That doesn’t always work so well, because sometimes a king doesn’t have a son, then the rules of “who’s next” get all muddled (that’s why William the Conqueror invaded England 200 years earlier).

At the time of the French king’s death (remember, that was Charles IV), he didn’t have a male heir to take his throne.  His sister, Isabella, however, had a son named Edward.  A few decades earlier, Isabella had been sent off to marry Edward II, King of England, to bring peace to the two countries for a while.  By now, though, her son was King Edward III, King of England, and (she felt) the rightful heir to the throne of France, too.

Isabella was her son’s biggest fan, even helping overthrow her husband (Edward II, who was Edward III’s dad) to get the English throne for her son (really, to make herself more powerful, too).  The French did not agree – something about not being able to inherit the throne through a female relative, so Phillip VI became king of France.  All was good for about nine years, but Phil kept sticking his nose in Ed’s Scotland business and the Hundred Years’ War began.

The Hundred Years’ War: Phase One – Team Edward

The Hundred Years’ War, as we know, wasn’t just one big war – it was a series of wars that historians now lump together with a really cool name.  Those historians, simply because they can’t agree with their own selves, also break those 100 years of war down into three phases (why that’s not three separate wars, I don’t know).  The first phase of the war is known as the Edwardian Phase (because of King Edward III) and lasted from 1337-1360.

After a few years of raiding and taking control of the northern regions of France, Edward was very successful, thanks, in part, to the supporters he’d bought on the mainland.  The Battle of Sluys was the first big battle fought in the Edwardian Phase.  It was a sea battle fought on June 24, 1340.  The battle took place near the town of Sluis, in what is now south-western Netherlands.  Most historians agree that the French navy outnumbered the English ships, but the battle went to the English, destroying almost the entire French navy and giving Edward III complete control of the English Channel.

Afterward, though, Edward overtaxed his sailors and merchants, weakening his naval defenses.  It wasn’t long before Phillip had the French navy rebuilt and regained control of the Channel.

Because the world is awesome, the video below is a recreation of the Battle of Sluys done with legos.  

 

The Battle of Crécy

In August of 1346, another major battle in the Edwardian phase was fought.

The battle was fought near Crécy in northern France. An army of English, Welsh, and allied troops from the Holy Roman Empire led by Edward III of England engaged and defeated a much larger army of French, Genoese, and Majorcan troops led by Philip VI of France. Having learned a great deal of new military tactics, strategy, and use of terrain from battles with the Saxons, the Vikings, and the Scots – along with new weapons (the longbow and the cannon) the English army was outnumbered, but far more experienced than the French.  The English won a decisive victory.

This one doesn’t have legos, but it shows the Battle of Crecy to help you better understand it.

 

This battle was critical, because it allowed the English to take the city of Calais (the closest French city to the British Isles – a great strategic holding).  The English held Calais for the next 200 years.

Shortly after these decisive English victories, the Black Death began spreading across Europe and fighting ceased.  Phillip died in 1350, giving his throne and control of France to his son John, who became known as John II.   There was a treaty signed in 1360, and, for the most part, the war ended for the next nine years.

Hundred Years’ War: Phase Two: The Caroline War

During those nine years of peace, John II, the king of France, was captured by the English.   His son, Charles V, took over his throne and attempted to ransom his father, but John II died while in captivity and Charles had the excuse he needed to return to war.  This phase of the war, known as The Caroline War, was named after Charles V (nope, I don’t understand either), because Charles broke the treaty and restarted the war in 1369, taking advantage of Edward III’s old age and The Black Prince’s illness.

Edward III was still in charge in England, but his son, Edward the Black Prince (who may have had one of the coolest names of the middle ages) was one of his military leaders and being groomed to take over the throne (unfortunately, Edward the Black Prince died before his father and became the only Prince of Wales not to become king).

Anyway, in May 1369, the Black Prince got a message from Charles V demanding he come see him in Paris.  It was kind of a rude message, and the Prince didn’t take too kindly to demands, so he refused.  In return, Charles V declared war.

Charles immediately began trying to regain the territory France had lost in the first phase of the war.  Several battles took place, and France dominated, regaining almost everything they’d lost in the first phase.

In 1376, the Black Prince died.  His father reached out to make a peace treaty with Charles V, but Edward III also died before the truce could be reached.  A ten year old boy, the Black Prince’s son, Richard II, was now the King of England.

Just a few years later, in 1380, Charles V died too.  His twelve year old son, Charles VI, was now king.

With two children on the thrones of England and France, and their advisors – both boys had their uncles really running the country – the war petered out over the next few years and ended in 1389.

The In Between Years

 From 1389 to 1415, there was peace.  A lot happened in those 26 years, but we’re not going to get into it except to say that it wasn’t just 26 years of nothing.

By now, after a whole lot of upheaval in England, Henry V was now the king.  Henry V really didn’t have any legitimate claim to the French throne, but that didn’t stop him from wanting it.

Charles VI was still the king of France, and he was known as Charles the Beloved, but thanks to some questionable behavior in the next few years, he’d soon be known as Charles the Mad.

The Hundred Years’ War: Phase Three: The Lancastrian War

Alright, here’s the simple version of phase three (called the Lancastrian War, because Henry V was from the English House of Lancaster).

Henry invaded France and won some major victories very quickly – especially in the Battle of Agincourt, which was made famous in Shakespeare’s first play, Henry V.

This awesome video does a much better job than I could of explaining that battle.

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Just for fun, here’s a look at director Kenneth Branaugh’s (you may know him as the director of the first Thor movie) version of Shakespeare’s Henry V.  This scene is the inspirational speech Henry V gives his men before the Battle of Agincourt.  Listen for the line, “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”  Centuries later, Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg made a WWII movie also set mostly on battlefields in France, called “Band of Brothers.”

 

Just an interesting side note for you all – Mr. Curtis’ cousin is really into genealogy and had traced the Curtis family all the way back to a knight known as Richard the Courteous, fighting alongside Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt.

After the Battle of Agincourt, the French began to get scared.  Eventually, John the Good, the Duke of a region of France known as Burgundy, made a treaty with Henry V.  Henry would marry Charles VI’s daughter, Catherine of Valois, and Henry’s heirs would become next in line for the thrones of both England and France.  This meant Charles VI’s son, another Charles, would lose his right to the French throne.

This is where European history starts to get a bit crazy.  Henry V died suddenly at the age of 35 in August of 1422, so his son, Henry VI became King of England.  He was less than a year old.

Over in France, Charles VI died a few months later, in October of 1422.  His son, Charles VII, was (at least according to many of the French people) next in line to become King of France, but his grandson (the baby, Henry VI – remember, Charles VI’s daughter married Henry V or England) was also thought to be next in line for the French throne.

Fast Forward a Few Years

The English were winning the war, big time.  Charles VII was not recognized as the King of France, and the English had a major ally in the Burgundians (French people from a region known as Burgundy had sided with England).

In 1428, everything changed.  Enter Joan of Arc.

The “Real” Joan of Arc

As with any Hollywood movie, the film your about to watch isn’t a 100% accurate version of Joan of Arc.

Joan of Arc, Jeanne d’Arc as she is known in her native French, is thought to have been born in 1412 in the village of Domrèmy in northeastern France.  Her family was a peasant family who valued Catholicism above all else.  In fact, Joan was never taught to read or write, but was taught to have a deep love for her church and its teachings.  At the young age of 12 or 13, Joan began hearing voices and seeing visions of saints and angels, particularly those of Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret, and Archangel Michael.  Joan believed these visitors were sent by God to instill a mission of saving France and returning Charles of Valois (the guy who would be Charles VII) as the rightful king of France.

In 1428, at the age of 16, Joan felt compelled to begin her journey and headed to the town of Vaucouleurs and appealed to the commander, Robert de Baudricourt, to allow her to see the royal French court.  She was dismissed and treated as a joke.  She returned a year later and this time, Baudricourt relented.  Joan was escorted across enemy territory to Chinon and given an audience with the prince/king/Charles VII. During her 11 day journey Joan was given men’s clothing to wear and had her hair cropped.  This was thought as no big deal and a measure to keep her safe during travels, however, this dressing in mens clothing was what eventually led to her conviction and subsequent death.

Upon meeting Charles, she promised to see him crowned king and requested an army of men.  Perhaps at a loss for hope, Charles granted her request, but not before proving she was not a heretic or sorceress.  He did not want his enemies to claim his crown was a gift from the devil.  Joan was proven to be a Christian of the utmost virtue, and set off for the city of Orlèans which was under siege by England.

Joan led several assaults against the Burgundians (a French faction working on the side of England) forcing them to retreat.  Joan’s reputation for success spread across France and in 1429 she was able to lead Charles to Reim, forcing resisting towns to relent, and enabling Charles to be crowned King of France.

After this victory, Joan wanted Charles VII to give permission to try to take Paris back from the Burgundians.  They were unsuccessful and Joan and her men had to turn back.  In 1430 Charles ordered Joan to oppose a Burgundian attack on Compiègne.  Here Joan was thrown from her horse and left to be captured by the Burgundian forces.  In a great amount of display, Joan was brought to the castle Bouvreuil in Rouen.  Joan was put to trial on 70 counts including heresy, witchcraft, and cross-dressing.

In 1431 after being held for roughly a year, Joan signed a confession under duress.   Not too long after that, she was caught dressing as a man again (to protect herself from being assaulted by male prisoners in the castle she was held in), was convicted and sentenced to death.

At the age of only 19, on May 30th, Joan was burned at the stake in the market place in the city of Rouen.  Twenty years after Joan’s death, Charles VII had her retried and her conviction was overturned.  It wasn’t until 1920 that Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan and she became Saint Joan of Arc, the patron saint of France.

Siege of Orleans

It’s worthwhile to take a closer look at Joan’s most famous victory, the Siege of Orleans.  This video, as well as the movie itself, will give you a good idea what it was all about.

Here’s a fun TV show called Deadliest Warrior.  This show takes a look at warriors from history, their weaponry, their techniques, and their technology and uses research and computer modeling to see who would win the fight.  This episode pits two French leaders against one another – Joan of Arc, the French saint from the 1420s versus William the Conqueror, the Norman general, and later English King, who invaded England in 1066.  

Finally, because this is the world we live in, and everyone needs a little bit of silly fun in their lives – here’s Joan of Arc vs. Miley Cyrus: Epic Rap Battles of History.  Don’t watch if you’re offended by a few naughty words.  

 

What we’ll see related to Joan of Arc

As you’ll see in the movie, Rouen is the city where Joan of Arc was put to death.  On our trip, we’ll be visiting Rouen.  The city is located on the River Seine in the north of France, has a long history dating back to the ancient Romans. Its location near the Seine led to its development and made Rouen one of the greatest cities in France. It is the capital of the region Normandy and was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in Medieval Europe. Rouen is most known for being the site of Joan of Arc’s execution in 1431.

Rouen is thought to have been founded by the Romans in 3rd century CE and was known to the Romans as Rotomagus. In 841 the Vikings overran Rouen and it became the Norman capital. In 1066 Rouen became the subject to the English crown, but was captured by France in 1204. Then in 1419, Henry the V took Rouen back during the Hundred Years War. Finally in 1449 it was recaptured by Charles VII for France. Rouen remained prosperous until the Wars of Religion when more than half the people left the city. However, in the 19th century the textile trade brought new prosperity to Rouen.

Rouen is a city rich in history and culture, along the right bank of the Seine and surrounded by hills.  There are many historic buildings and museums from a wide variety of architectural styles. Probably the most well-known building is the Rouen Cathedral, one of the finest gothic churches in all of France.  During WWII Rouen was damaged by allied bombs, and the cathedral narrowly missed total destruction.

Another amazing site in Rouen is the beautiful gold faceted Gros Horloge, or great clock, a working street clock. It is a symbol of the past wealth of Rouen from the wool industry. Tourists can travel to the top for a panoramic view of the city.

Other places to visit include the Palais de Justice the gothic law courts of Rouen which were destroyed during WWII and later restored to their original beauty. Visitors can sit in on a court session. While at the Palais de Justice, visitors can also go to Monument Juif, which is the only relic from a medieval Jewish community and is hidden under a staircase at Palais de Justice.

There is also the Artre St. Maclou which is a village that is home to half-timbered buildings built between 1526 and 1533. These buildings, many of which were homes, are decorated with woodcarvings of skulls, crossbones and hour glasses. At one time it was where they housed victims of the plague.

 

Travelers are of course drawn to the Place du Vieux Marche, which is the site of Joan of Arc’s execution.  A cross lays at the exact spot where she was burned at the stake in 1431. In 1979 Èglise Jeanne d’Arc, a modern church known as the Church of Joan of Arc, was built at this site, in remembrance of the Patron Saint of France. It is known for its fish scale exterior as well as ornate stained glass. The glass came from the Church of St. Vincent which was destroyed during World War II. However the windows were removed and stored during the war and remained intact, which adds an element of the past to the modern.

 

Finally, here’s the movie…

So, sit back, relax, grab some escargot and a few crepes, and watch our Movie of the Month, Joan of Arc starring Ingrid Bergman, along with the other videos we’ve posted today.  You can find the movie free on YouTube, so no need to spend any money or rent anything this month.  We’ve embedded the entire movie below, but you can also find a few other Joan of Arc movies online if you’re interested.  The Passion of Joan of Arc, is a French movie from 1928 that takes its script directly from Joan’s trial – it’s well worth watching a little bit of if you have the time.

 

We ask that all of our France/Benelux travelers take the time to watch our Movies of the Month, then come back here to discuss the movie, the history, and the impact this story had on the people and places we’ll visit.  In your response, we’d like you to tell us first what you thought of the movie and why.  Second, tell us three specific things you learned from watching this movie (and reading this post) that you think will make your experience in France and the Benelux countries  even better than it would have been.  Please remember, there is more to this post than watching a movie – you should be reading the post and viewing the other videos to learn about history too – your answers should discuss both the history and the culture you learned about in this post.  The longer and more in depth our discussion gets, the better it is for all of us.