On the weekend ahead of Bastille Day, old boys from Riverview's Class of 1995 and 1996 had a 30 year reunion dinner to remember their student exchange to the Jesuit College of Le Caousou, in Toulouse, France, which took place during the Christmas holidays of 1994-1995. The experience is fondly remembered by all those who took part and was organised during Madame Puechberty's era as head of French at Riverview and Monsieur Guillaume's era as head of English exchanges at Le Caousou. Eight of the original 19 were able to be in Sydney for the dinner at Bouillon Entrecôte, which featured the obligatory garlic snails, vin de Bordeaux and copious servings of nostalgia. 

Three decades ago, La Depeche newspaper reported the group's attendance at a reception in the famous rose brick town hall of Toulouse, noting that the boys from the far side of the world had "fallen in love" with France thanks to their experience of the city's architecture, literature, culture and history. Time would seem to have proved the paper correct, and many toasts and impersonations were offered up in honour of the the faraway rose city. 

The 1990s exchange continued with a contingent of French students coming to Sydney from Le Caousou and nearby St Joseph's, Toulouse. This included, we think, the first girls ever to join classes at Saint Ignatius' College Riverview, including a young Julie Besnard, who attended the reunion as one of those rarest of breeds - a French "Old Girl" of Riverview. Julie fell in love with Australia on her trip, and now teaches French at St Aloysius College, completing the circle of Jesuit connections. 

When the author of this piece was setting out in the summer of 1994 for Toulouse at the age of 16, his elderly French neighbour introduced him to the wise observation of Charlemagne that "Avoir une autre langue, c'est posséder une deuxième âme" ("to have another language is to posses a second soul"). Riverview's former French master Mr Robert Head would no doubt take great pride in learning that former pupil Anthony O'Hea, for one, has retained remarkable fluency in the "second language" he attained in Toulouse, demonstrating repeatedly on the evening that he could still translate the English words "menu" and "restaurant" into French. 

The dinner ended with firm plans for a forty year reunion in Toulouse itself, with hopefully all 19 of the original travellers in attendance! 

Pictured is the original tour group at the remarkable medieval city of Carcassonne, near Toulouse, 30 years ago - and the reunion group in Sydney in July: squatting front left are Chris Hall and Geoff O'Neill and standing back are Julian Liddy, Theo Clark, Greg Hudson, Jon Cook, Ashleigh Wilson, Anthony O'Hea, and Julie. The reunion also received apologies from England, the USA, Canberra, the Central Coast and Fiji, proving that the adventuring spirit of this group of Old Ignatians continues to the present day.