Internship Report

 

Mitchell and I did our internship in Le Sénat. Le Sénat is an institution which, with the help of the National Assembly, votes and changes the laws that the government or a Senator proposes. It is composed of 348 senators elected for a period of 6 years. Senators are elected by other directly elected representatives. There are 150,000 electors (who represent municipal, departmental and regional areas). Thus the senators represent municipalities, groups of municipalities, departments and regions.

 

The first day we visited the preview of the exhibition Joséphine, commemorating the bicentenary of the death of the Empress Joséphine. Then we visited the Palais du Luxembourg, where Le Sénat is located. The architecture of the palace is classical, with an Italian inspiration under the request of Marie de Médicis. Next we went inside. During the visit we saw the library, its annex, the Chamber, the room guestbook, the conference room, and finally the Staircase of Honour.

 

On the second day, we visited Public Sénat, a channel created in 1999 but broadcasting since 2000. This channel was created at the same time as that of the National Assembly. We were able to watch the shooting of The Municipal Journal because the local elections took place late in March 2014. After that, we went to see how the programmes were made. There were tens of screens. Everyone knew what they had to do and their work schedule. This visit allowed us to learn more about broadcasting and communication.

 

Finally, we observe the work of a committee dealing with regional issues. There were two senior Civil Servants speaking in front of senators, about the issue and how to solve it. Then the senators asked questions to learn more about the problem.

 

This internship was extremely informative and very enlightening.

 

Amine Farassi, 1ère S