Student Joe Smallman wrote this report on the trip: 

As part of our ICU activities in Year 7, we went on a day trip to the French town of Boulogne. It was an amazing trip and everybody in Year 7 had a great time. We visited the Old Town, which has some really interesting architecture, the high street and the sea life centre, Nausicaa.

At 2am on Friday morning we met at the Corn Market Hall and got on our coaches. A few of us decided to get a few hours sleep, but the majority of us stayed awake ALL night, chatting and on Facebook.

We got on the Eurostar at about 7:30am, which was odd because you didn't even know you were moving most of the time. When we came out in France at 8am we were surprised how like Britain France is.

After a short drive down the motorway, we arrived in Boulogne at 9:30ish. It was a beautiful town, with colourful buildings and a bustling port. Our first stop was the Old Town and a café. We sat outside to eat our croissant and drink our hot chocolate. French food and drink is perfect!

Next, we went onto the high street to do some shopping! When we got going, we found that French shops are not that different to ours, except for the sweet shop, which has chilli jelly sweets! Which were, not surprisingly, horrid. Our group spent the next half an hour browsing around clothes and souvenir shops.

When we had finished shopping, Mr Tebbutt and Mr Leski took us on a walk around the town walls and then into the Basilica de Notre-Dame, which was magnificent. Inside it is huge and beautifully decorated with statues, carvings, paintings and a giant organ.

The next place on our list was the place that we had been looking forward to the most, Nausicaa! The sea life centre was huge! Jellyfish, sharks, clownfish, seals, turtles, fish, starfish, you name it, we saw it! At the end of our tour was a touch tank, which you could actually put your hand into and touch the stingrays and fish!

After Nausicaa, we drove to the Hypermarket, which is basically like one huge supermarket, about two or three times the size of Tesco. Inside there were pet shops, cafés, mobile phone shops, a supermarket, gaming shops and clothes shops. We spent an hour there buying various stuff, going off in groups of four. We met back at the coach at 3:30pm and set off home.

At 9:30pm, after six whole hours of travelling, we arrived back in Kettering, tired, but having had a really good day.