After a long trip from Nîmes on Tuesday, it was a pleasure to be welcomed by the Croatian students, our Erasmus partners, waiting for us beside their school. It was a nice surprise to be greeted with eagerness and curiosity, shared by French students too. The place of study and working conditions are so different, it was eye-opening for the French students. After a warm welcome speech by Tonci Males, the headmaster, the students began their activities in Franco-Croatian workgroups about the objectives of the UNESCO World Heritage project.It was an opportunity for the students to share about French and Croatian cultures and discover unusual traditions such as Moreska: a folkloric danse or the carnival bell ringers' pageant from the Kastav area. We realised we had similar traditions in France.

It was now time for students to discover the Geoproject software they need to use for their final product: a blog but also a paper edition made during the Croatian stay in Nîmes in April 2023. Mr Simonet, the designer of the software, was kind enough to accept having distance training with the groups. The French had their personal Occitanie region computers and the HUG had provided us with suitable computer equipment but it was really ambitious to lead this training on an unknown tool in French, English and Croatian!!! However, the students managed to effectively use this new tool the next day after their tour of Zagreb.

We all had lunch together in the pretty school yard with a delicious strukli ("chtroukli" for a French ear!) offered by the HUG, a culinary specialty classified as a UNESCO world intangible heritage. Sweet or salty, there's something for everyone!

Could we dream of a better introduction to our project?

How do we value our common heritage through UNESCO World Heritage in order to to build our future in the European Union?

Caroline Bruguiere - Virginie Dubois -