August 20th, 2010 | 
Author: Around 40,000 children have arrived in Paris for their first French holiday, thanks to a long-running scheme aimed at helping ‘forgotten’ youngsters.
The scheme, set up by French charity Secours Populaire Français thirty years ago, provides trips and activities for children from around Europe who might otherwise never have the opportunity to go on holiday.
Of the 40,000 children who arrived in Paris yesterday, around 3,000 of them came from countries outside of France. Youngsters from Spain, Poland, Germany, Tunisia, Turkey and Albania all made the journey, according to local news source France 3.
A large picnic took place at the base of the Eiffel Tower yesterday, organised by SPF as part of the Soleils d’Europe festival. Children were given the chance to visit twenty-five of Paris’s top tourist attractions for free, including Versailles, the Louvre and the national stadium, Stade de France.
2,350 children aged between 6 and 14 visited the Palace of Versailles yesterday, according to le Parisien. Around 500 SPF volunteers accompanied the young visitors to help make sure they had a day to remember.
“We’re really lucky to be here. We’d never have had the opportunity to come on our own,” a girl named Anaïs told le Parisien.
The palace was extremely busy throughout the day, and the SPF volunteers had to be on their toes to make sure that none of the youngsters got lost in the crowd. Staff from Versailles praised the charity scheme, and hope that it will inspire many of the children to return again in the future.
“It’s always nice to see a child, who has never been to a museum, get so excited after visiting the Hall of Mirrors,” employee Denis Berthomier told le Parisien.
“With a bit of luck, he might want to come back one day with his parents,” he added.
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