Lydenburg will come alive with French flair at JamJar

LYDENBURG – The countdown to one of the most prestigious events in town has begun. It is exactly two weeks and three days before Bastille Day and the public should prepare for a France night experience.

It is an eight-course French-theme dinner which will be held on July 14 at JamJar Lounge. The food, music and the entertainment will also be French.

This is the first of its kind and the organisers promise nothing but the best.

This is a fund-raising event and all the money will go towards an overseas trip for local pupils later this year. They plan to leave on December 18 and will return on January 2.

They will explore many exciting places and will start in Amsterdam, the Hague, S’Hertogenbosch, some of the small towns like Delft and then Edinburgh in Scotland and Paris in France.

Most people only dream of travelling abroad, but that has changed due to a teacher and tour guide who believe that some dreams need to come true.

According to Nadia Lamprecht, a local teacher and tour guide, she started travelling abroad in 2012. This year, however, the exchange rate is not in their favour.

“The rand-euro, rand-pound exchange rate has skyrocketed and it is doing its best to set us back. We then had to come up with ideas on how to overcome this sudden change which badly affects the amount the parents had budgeted for since 2015. This is when Bastille Day came to life, and the best thing about the event is that this method of raising funds gives learners the chance to bond.”

The parents had planned for a trip that would cost R36 000,but because of the weak rand, it is now R40 000.

“What most people do not understand is that the parents had already set aside a certain amount for the trip and some had already paid. They cannot simply suddenly afford an extra R4 000.”

During her tours Lamprecht, takes one or two learners who really cannot afford to pay for the trip.

“We make sure that we start an initiative so that we do not leave them behind and the money raised will also go to those learners.”

For the 2016 tour, she will travel with 12 learners. “By taking the youth on tours, and watching their faces light up with genuine pleasure, is truly special. It makes me feel like I am doing something right, not only as a teacher. These kids come back enriched, and much wiser than they were before and that makes it worth it.”

Any pupil who is a true ambassador of his or her school and is trustworthy, qualifies to be a candidate.

“Unfortunately, I cannot take troublemakers because of safety reasons and I do not want to spend time worrying about students sneaking out.

So I must say the following, both schools (in this case Hoërskool Lydenburg and Entheos Christian School) support these tours. We do not travel under a name of any school due to external departmental reasons.”

Her love of Europe inspired her to start this initiative with local pupils.

“Experiencing the tour for the first time is always amazing, and the students are awestruck to see new things such as the Eiffel Tower. It is truly special to re-experience it through them each time I travel with them.

I do not only to Europe, every other year I tour South Africa. In 2015, for example, I lead a tour to the Cape, nearly 10 000 kilometres and we loved it.”

Two of the well-known local chefs, Leon Roelofse from JamJar Lounge and André du Preez from Café Crust are working together to prepare the meal of a lifetime. If you want to be part of the French experience call 076-052-6074.

The French National Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, an important event in Paris in a violent revolution that had begun two days earlier.