Lifelong Impact. Meet Inspirational Teacher, France Duval.

Easy To Follow In France’s Globe-Trotting Footsteps? Check Out Adventure In Spain, One Of Her Most-Travelled Tours.

May 25, 2024

Quebec high school teacher France Duval randomly discovered EF Tours possibly the way you are now— leafing through our catalogue in the teacher’s lounge. It was the start of a new millennium and little did she know at the time, the start of what she describes as the “biggest, most satisfying adventure of my life.”

France has been an EF Group Leader for over 20 years. Although she is retiring from teaching, she has no plans to retire from the educational travel program she established at her school. With ever-increasing demand, her original group size of 12 students has grown to hundreds per trip. Witnessing the lasting impact these tours make, coupled with her belief that every student should have the opportunity to travel, France will continue her EF tour-leading legacy.

France’s school tours are subsidized through robust fundraising efforts, which she has mastered over the decades. Alongside a local baker, students make and sell bread, as many as 1000 loaves during peak fundraising. Her commitment to inclusion, however, extends beyond the financial. It is academic, too. A proponent of education beyond the classroom, France always championed travel opportunities for students of all academic standing, including the ones some colleagues deemed too disobedient to take touring.

France has enabled countless students who were not excelling in traditional educational approaches to develop and thrive. Today, her well-loved travel program’s legacy and longevity today are recognized community-wide. Not only are these tours life-changing for her students but as France notes, they are for her as a teacher, too.

This is a departure from when she first decided to embark on her EF tour as a Group Leader, with one key figure telling her, “It will never work!” France said the support from her EF tours team proved the skeptics wrong. She maintains a longstanding partnership with her EF Tour Consultant, Lisa, who she calls a good friend.

In her words, “EF has a great network to help us when we need some help. What I say when I travel is I don’t look for [the] embassy or things like that from Canada. When I travel, I look if they have [an] EF office. I know that if I need something, I’ll just walk in, and it will be there to help me.”

With early criticisms long gone, France is occasionally asked why she chooses cities she’s already toured, or why not kick back in the gallery cafés since she’s seen the collections so often? She replies, “I’m not doing it for me. I’m doing it for the kids. If they want Italy, they will have Italy. Next year it’s Spain … How many time[s] I’ve been there, I don’t know. We do it for them.”

France fondly remembers a visit to Madrid’s Museum of La Reina Sofía. Her student sat crying in front of a Francisco Goya painting, France’s favourite. She was concerned until the teenager, moved by the piece, turned to her and tearfully said, “I see what you mean now.” For France, no matter how many times she visits a familiar place, piece of history or painting, she sees it anew through her students’ eyes.

France’s motivation to open the world to her students reflects our own educational approach: to foster a growth mindset, which leads to a global perspective, personal development, and inspiring action for years to come. Her real-life examples are plenty, from a former student who went on to study in Berlin, others who entered politics, those who became journalists or an eminent photographer, all citing touring with France as their inspiration.

EF Tours Canada is grateful for devoted and determined teachers like France Duval, and hundreds of her former students are, too. France’s legacy will continue to impact students and her story will hopefully inspire others, the way it has inspired us.

Are you inspired to share your love of travel with your class?

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