Bellamy's internship in Deauville

 "I had an amazing time! My housemates were great and we became as close as we could be in the limited time we had. My boss (at Les Franciscaines in Deauville), Madame Berangere Descamps, and the others in our office were wonderful and very supportive and engaging. My responsibilities included creating materials for and assisting with facilitating summer workshops for young children, following tours of the building and exhibits, directing visitors, acting as a translator, and otherwise assisting my colleagues. 

I also had the chance to explore our area of Normandy and the Calvados department with my housemates. We visited Caen, Honfleur, Le Havre, Lisieux, and Pont Leveque and got to see many interesting sites, including William the Conqueror’s castle and the tomb in Caen. In Deauville, I enjoyed the beach, the architecture, and the quiet community. 

Altogether, it was an incredible experience."

-Bellamy Martin, University of Kentucky student, Deauville Internship participant summer '26

Maryn's takeaways from a week in Normandy

 During this whole trip, my newly-made friends and I kept making jokes about the crazy never-have-I-ever statements we’d have when we got home. For me, at least, I’m pretty sure that was my way at not freaking out over the unbelievable reality I was a part of. 

One of the evenings on this trip, we went to a gala dinner with everyone involved in the program: from students, to normandy officials, to the veterans and their caretakers. It was decided that the students and young people should mix in to the tables, so we got to meet plenty of people that night and learn even more. It was there I heard someone discussing how, on a program like that one, it’s almost impossible to explain the emotions that you experience. 

In my essay I wrote to apply to be selected for this program, I wrote about how freedom in our lives is easy to overlook. I wrote about how as I grew up, I began to define, for myself, what freedom is, and what it looks like in my life now, ranging from seemingly small things, like wearing what I want, all the way to big things, like being able to vote, and how it is our responsibility to notice, acknowledge, and remember the costs required to get us this far. 

The biggest takeaway from this experience, for me, at least, is our collective responsibility to remember. Remembering, not in the sense of numbers and statistics, but of the seemingly little stories, that remind us of the humanity that we all share. Just like how it’s easy to look over our liberties, it’s easy to forget about humanity. 

82 years later, many of these stories are a breath away from being lost, and as those stories go, so too will be the reminder of what so many fought and died for. It’s up to us to research, learn, and remember everything that got us here. 

-Maryn Weber, "Freedom in Flight" scholar 2026

Spring Break with Chloe Adams

 Hello from Deauville! Winter is turning into Spring, and I couldn’t be happier! We are just coming back from spring break, which was two weeks long. During the break, I went to Milan as an animatrice with L’espace Jeune de Deauville. We were three adults with 16 young adults of ages 12-15. We visited Verona, the lake of Come, and even went to a soccer game! The young adults practiced their English while discovering the city. 

During our first few days back at school, I sang songs, played games, and had a lot of fun. After a break, it is always so nice to see the children at school again. This year I am working in the maternelle and the primary school, so my students are aged 3-7. They recounted stories from their break, and were happy to see their friends again. With the warm weather, recess is outside. I love seeing the children run and play outside.

It is the last period of the school year! This year has gone by incredibly fast. I am so happy with the progress that the children have made so far, and I am so excited to see what these final weeks hold! 

-Chloe Adams

Krista Lea's Experience in Jeju City, South Korea

 "As much as my husband loves to tell everyone I went to South Korea just to go riding horses and play on the beach (which I also did), it was actually a very busy business trip. The trip was sponsored by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and Keeneland and in partnership with the Lexington Sister City Commission, with the goal of exchanging knowledge and ideas, strengthening the connection between Lexington and our sister city, Jeju City and encouraging the sale of American horses to the Korean racing market. Those are big ideals for a single extension specialist, so my focus specifically was simply to meet with farmers and talk about how forage production is managed in Jeju, and how that compares to Lexington. Even with some research going into the trip, the similarities and differences were surprising to me in many ways. My itinerary included a trip to a thoroughbred auction, a training facility, a few breeding farms, two museums, a garden, a large-scale hay production farm, a tangerine orchard, a sit down with the mayor, and a workshop with horse farm managers where I talked about forage production in Kentucky. Thankfully, I brought bourbon for everyone!

 

The climate of Jeju is similar to Lexington: the summers are just as hot and humid, but the winters are not quite as cold and snowfall is rare. The soils contain volcanic ash, so they are well drained and contain less clay than ours. Compared to mainland South Korea, Jeju island is much more productive. Several of the farms we visited relied heavily on Italian ryegrass as their main pasture and hay crop and would be similar to the perennial ryegrass we would be familiar with in Kentucky, though it is managed more similar to a European style of regular tillage and replanting. Other farms were planting in perennial mixtures of Kentucky Bluegrass, orchardgrass, and tall fescue, the same mixture that I plant on my own farm and recommend to farms throughout central Kentucky. This mixture appeared to be thriving in Jeju. Also similar to Kentucky, farm managers were still unsure how to identify these grasses in the pasture which was a great opportunity for me to do what I do best and show them how to!

 

Space was a major difference that Korean farm managers are challenged with that Kentucky managers generally aren't. Pasture and hay land is Jeju is very limited. Very little horse quality hay is grown in S. Korea, so most is imported from the US, making hay feeding very expensive. Pasture is also very limited, and what is available must be intensively managed and frequently replanted to be maintained, also making it very expensive. In some cases, feeding more concentrate and minimal amounts of forage is more economical, a stark reversal from the US. 

 

This was a truly incredible trip and I am so grateful for the opportunity to go. What I hope anyone who reads this takes away is a bit more curiosity for our sister city of Jeju, South Korea, and a greater appreciation of the riches of soils and pastures that we are blessed with here in the Bluegrass."~ Krista Lea, University of Kentucky Extension Specialist

Isabelle and the holidays in Deauville

 

Bonjour! 

It’s Christmas time in Deauville and the town is shining like a star! Last week was the illumination ceremony in the town square where the town gathered to celebrate the season, the kids caroled, and the school created a Christmas market for all the families. It was such a fun and joyful night, and I was so proud of the kids because I had been teaching them “Jingle Bell Rock” in English class. They definitely rocked the night away!

I’ve been in Deauville since the end of August and it’s been such a beautiful fall here. In class, the kids learned about Halloween in the United States and the town celebrated with the annual haunted house at Villa Strassburger. Going into November, we discussed Thanksgiving, why we celebrate it, and what we’re thankful for. Then we went to the kitchen to make apple pies! 

Since I’ve arriving here, I’ve been able to travel around Normandy and France quite a bit! I’ve been to Rouen, Caen, Honfleur, Étretat, Paris, Toulouse, and Montpellier. 

I’m excited for the holidays here and to see what’s happening in the coming months!

-Isabelle Helton, Teaching Assistant in Deauville

Maelia's first semester at the University of Kentucky

 

Hi everyone!

 

I am doing amazing! Everything is going great, the classes, and the new encounters with people!

 

It's been already more than three months that I've been in Kentucky, and I am living one of my best years of my life. All the experiences are crazy, with new encounters and people from everywhere all around the world. I learn new things everyday, such as new food, new experiences with friends I made and so much more! 

It is overall a wonderful experience, first of all to improve my English, but also to become a new person!

Katherine's Summer Update as a Deauville Teaching Assistant

 Bonjour! We are finishing up summer and heading into the new school year here in Deauville.

The school year starts the first week of September in France, and typically teachers will start the

week before to get ready for the school year. Between organizing rooms, cleaning and lesson

planning- there is a lot to do!

Summer passed by quickly with not only work but vacation as well! I had all of July off for

vacation and I went to Pornic which is on the coast by Nantes and on the border of Brittany.

Afterwards I worked the first two weeks of August at the Centre Loisir- “Club Ado” that is run by

the city of Deauville. There, we work with adolescents, kids 12-17 years told. It’s kind of like a

day camp in the United States.I got to participate in all sorts of activities from board games and

beach volleyball to crossfit. They had a theme this past summer of “USA” which made it fun to

incorporate American food and activities into the schedule. We played cornhole and did some

country dancing. At the end of each week they have a “soirée” and the week that I was there we

ended the week with a trivia game, “Burger Quiz” that had American-themed questions such as

“Who was the first President of the United States?” “Burger Quiz” was a trivia TV show that was

popular in France and so for our soirée we played the game while eating burgers for dinner.

I am excited to be starting the school year again and ready to welcome the students back!