Picture this: You’re sitting with lifelong friends, tantalizing your tastebuds with a perfectly crisped jambon-beurre, the ham-and-cheese baguette sandwich somehow one of the best things you’ve ever tasted.
You’re talking, you’re laughing, and you’re marveling at the latticed wrought iron of the Eiffel Tower, soaring into the cerulean sky above you.
Does this Parisian paradise sound too good to be true? Well, for six Mt. Laurel Girl Scouts, that iconic lunch was just one of many extraordinary experiences that shaped their recent trip to Paris.
The Troop 21904 Scouts — Emma Moroski, Katherine Pappas, Ashleigh Phillips, Katie Quinn, Annamarie Rodier and Devin Roskoph — traveled with their moms (and a couple lucky younger sisters) to the City of Light in early November. The trip was a long time coming, the culmination of years of fundraising with car washes; clothing drives; and, of course, Girl Scout cookie sales.
“It’s always been our vision, from day one, to save for a major excursion for when the girls were old enough to appreciate it,” Troop Leader Karen Moroski said. “I thought it was an amazing trip.”
On a recent afternoon, the six friends got together to reminisce about their journey. Ashleigh and her mom, Joyce, brought homemade French desserts — delicate raspberry macarons and sugar-dusted madeleine cakes — that the group learned how to bake during their trip.
The Lenape High School sophomores talked animatedly about their expedition: the food, the museums, the people, the food, the transportation. And did we mention the food? They laughed through some memories, such as a brief but heart-stopping separation on a Paris Métro platform during their first hours in the city.
A favorite experience? It was hard to choose.
“Seeing the Eiffel Tower. You learn so much about it your whole life,” Emma said thoughtfully, adding just being in France, period, was an amazing opportunity. “You’re experiencing a totally different culture than you’re used to.”
Katherine smiled, admitting most of her favorite memories had to do with food. Her friends nodded enthusiastically in agreement.
“The cooking class,” Katherine decided.
The private cooking session was a resounding favorite with both the teenagers and their moms. The chef instructors, Patrick and Pierre, taught the group a myriad of savory and sweet recipes, including macarons and tarts, quiche and dressing. They also learned chopping skills and found it interesting when the chefs instructed them to measure ingredients by weight, not volume.
“I was surprised by how much we made,” Ashleigh said, while her mom added the experience made her determined to take a cooking class wherever she travels from now on.
The girls were also pleasantly surprised by the patient, charismatic instructors.
“I thought they’d be stereotypical chefs from France, like in ‘Ratatouille,’” Annamarie said to a chorus of her friends’ laughter.
Even though the group needed to be mindful of spending to make the once-in-a-lifetime trip a reality, it turns out in Paris, it’s easy to keep meals inexpensive, yet decadent. Every morning, breakfast was a warm, buttery chocolate croissant. The Troop tried escargot (“It wasn’t that bad,” Katherine admitted, as Katie added, “but hard to eat!”), and they ate at different French cafés every day. They splurged on a dinner cruise on the Seine river and the private cooking class, and as they were the two favorite experiences, it seems the expense was worth it.
Cultural tours were also on the docket, with a double decker bus tour and trips to the Louvre Museum, Palace of Versailles and Musée d’Orsay, known for its robust collection of Impressionist art. And yes, they did see Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, considered the most visited piece of artwork in the world.
“It’s smaller than so many of the other paintings, but not really that small. It’s just by itself on the wall,” Katie said, remembering how the group filed through in a timed line to see the masterpiece.
Of course, traveling abroad is not always sunshine and rainbows, as the troop learned when taking the Metro to the Seine dinner cruise. Even though everything was fortunately recovered, an incident with pickpockets made the group aware they needed to be even more cautious and cognizant of their surroundings.
Even with that rather upsetting incident, the Girl Scouts maintained their positive attitudes and strong moral compasses, demonstrating life skills on the trip they learned through their years of Scouting.
“The girls behaved beautifully. They were so supportive of each other,” mom Marina Pappas said. “All the Girl Scout training has come in handy. It came to a good culmination.”
Marina is a troop co-leader along with Joyce and Tracy Roskoph. Kim Quinn and Andrea Rodier also took part in the trip. The moms have bonded through the years of Scouting as well, since most of the girls joined the troop by elementary school.
“We’re an extended family,” Marina said.
While they meet less frequently now — all of the teens are involved with various sports and intramural activities — they said they still meet occasionally, with some of the girls eyeing their individual Gold Awards in the coming years, the highest achievement attainable in Girl Scouts. They earned their Silver Awards with a group project benefiting the Mt. Laurel Basketball program, providing first-aid kits and illustrated instructional cards on how to treat common injuries such as nose bleeds or concussions.
“We’ve also done a lot of community service,” Emma added.
Karen discussed specific projects: decorating the Ronald McDonald House for Halloween and sponsoring local families during the holidays, among others. Over the years, the troop also has collected items for the Animal Welfare Association in Voorhees, supported the Cathedral Kitchen in Camden and made Cozies 4 Chemo.
“It’s a great thing to support your community,” Annamarie noted. “With so much going on these days, it’s important to spread the love.”
“We’re fortunate to have a lot of things, so we can help those people who don’t,” Katherine added. “That’s a good thing.”
Through it all, they also were fundraising for their future trip. Even when saving up for their big cultural excursion, the Scouts did travel locally, taking day trips or short sojourns to New York City, Washington, D.C. and Hershey, Pa. When they honed in on Paris for their overseas journey, they scouted the best airfare, booked an Air B&B to save money, and figured out the best way to make the trip work with their fundraising.
The biggest challenge, Karen admitted, was finding a time conducive to everyone’s schedules. When early November looked promising, the trip was booked and the rest, as they say, is history.
While they were only there for four-and-a-half days, the travelers quickly learned how to navigate the foreign country, working around the language barrier, understanding the money system and figuring out public transportation.
In fact, when enjoying their lunch of jambon-beurres partway through the trip, watching a local gym class exercise on the nearby lawn, they almost felt “used to it,” Katie said with a smile, like local Parisians snacking on baguettes.
Annamarie nodded, then thoughtfully added, “But then you think about it, and you look up, and you think, ‘We’re at the Eiffel Tower.’”
And that’s how quickly the moment of normalcy would pass, and the amazement of their well deserved, once-in-a-lifetime trip returned.
