Brieuc – The three-masted Le Français serves as a workshop to educate young people about the fragility of the poles

Much more attractive and exotic than a classroom, the interior of the Le Français sailboat has been welcoming school groups since the beginning of December in Saint-Brieuc who come here to touch on the reality of what is happening at the poles, fragile places and seriously threatened by climate change.

The three-mast – 47 meters long and weighing nearly 500 tonnes with its double solid oak hull – seemed ideal for this mission. Kaskelot, its first name, was originally a traditional Baltic ship. Built in 1948 in Svendborg, Denmark, it served in the 1960s of fishing support vessel in the Faroe Islands. Redeemed to UK in 1981, he appeared in numerous television and film productions, such as The Three Musketeers, Shackleton and David Copperfield. Bought by a group of investors, it has flown the French flag since 2018.

As for his new name, the French, it does directly reference to the first French expedition to Antarctica led from August 1903 to March 1905 by Jean-Baptiste Charcot aboard the three-masted schooner Le Français.

Offered as part of the Polar School mission, these workshops intended for the youngest have one objective: to inform them about the warming which particularly affects the Arctic (it is heating up more quickly than the rest of the planet) and to show that the melting of the ice will have consequences that could affect us all, especially if global warming reaches + 2 ° C. As we say Michael Mann, American researcher at the University of Pennsylvania “What happens in the Arctic … does not stay in the Arctic “.

Léa, a CAP student, is well aware of this : “It makes you want to improve all that, for us, for the animals and for everything” dshe simply said. Awareness that is a good start. “LYoung people are more and more sensitive to the environment believes the director of the Polar School, Mathieu Klitting. But they are often a little lost because there is a lot of information coming from everywhere. Our role is to put in order lots of elements that they have seen and heard in order to put them back in the right boxes. And behind to work with them so that they leave with concrete solutions that they can put in place at school or individually to know how to act on their own scale.

An approach hailed by teachers. “It’s important to know what’s going on on earth insists Marianne Layec, head teacher at Lycée Jean Moulin, even if it is believed to be thousands of kilometers away. The consequences, we have them every day. For me, it’s important that they notice it ”.

After Saint-Brieuc, Le Français will leave for Rouen. In total, the boat will make 5 stopovers in 2022 and 10 partnerships organized with schools.