Last week, our Franco-German Youth Exchange took place at the beautiful Domaine du Ciran — a nature-rich, rural site surrounded by forest, offering perfect conditions to experience nature, tranquillity, and community.
Our German group from the European Youth Education Centre (EJBM) travelled with 13 participants and two group leaders, warmly welcomed by 13 French young people and their accompanying team. For many, it was a joyful reunion after the first youth exchange had already taken place in Magdeburg back in April.
The week was dedicated to the themes of democracy, peace, remembrance culture, and intercultural exchange. Together, the young participants worked on a geocaching project focusing on remembrance, democracy, and international relations in the Loiret département.
As part of this project, they visited several sites of remembrance, including the Departmental Archives and the CERCIL Museum — a museum about the internment camps in Loiret and a memorial to the deported and later murdered children of the “Rafle du Vel d’Hiv”. They also stopped at the memorial in La Ferté-Saint-Aubin, which commemorates the students of the Resistance who were shot in the Sologne region.
Throughout the week, the participants deeply engaged with questions of remembrance, responsibility, and European cooperation — while also strengthening friendships across borders.
