A TEACHER flew to France for lunch and says it was cheaper than a typical day out in the UK.
Claire Howard flew to Beauvais, France for a day of sightseeing and sunshine – while still being home before midnight, and spending less than £80 all in.
Claire Howard spent just over £70 on an entire day trip to France
The 48-year-old spotted return Ryanair flights for just £27, which left Birmingham at 7:30am and returning at 11pm.
She managed to skip the expensive airport taxis, with her husband dropping her off at the airport before a £1.80 bus.
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Claire says the whole excursion including flights, buses food and drink cost around £70.
“I’ve been to Paris a few times and didn’t want to travel in from Beauvais as Paris is really pricey and busy,” Claire told creatorzine.com.
“I just wanted to see what was actually in Beauvais itself for a relaxing day of wandering, eating and drinking.
“It’s exciting to go to a different country just for lunch or to explore for a day.
“It’s just a different feeling abroad – it makes it feel much more like an adventure than just going somewhere at home.”
She added that it was much cheaper than a day trip in the UK, where a trip to the cinema and lunch out can easily be £50 alone, before factoring in travel.
The English teacher spent the morning at the city’s weekly Saturday market while enjoying coffee and a pain au chocolat that set her back £4.
Then she relaxed with a drink in the town square while listening to live music before taking a £10 Uber to Plan d’Eau du Canada, a popular lakeside spot.
She has already been to a number of cities in Europe on a day tripOther day trips she has been on include PortoCredit: Alamy
Lunch was an £8 French picnic of supermarket baguette, cheese and a small bottle of wine while reading and sunbathing by the water.
Her itinerary also included visits to Beauvais Cathedral and the nearby Musée de l’Oise, both of which offered free entry.
The day ended with a Pad Thai dinner at a local Thai restaurant costing around £10 before she headed back to the airport for her evening flight home.
She also bagged an £8 bracelet to help her to remember the day.
Claire says she has become hooked on cheap day trips abroad after discovering bargain flights from Birmingham Airport – and flies to a different city nearly once a month.
Just this year, she’s visited Bergamo, in Italy, Malaga, in Spain, Valetta, in Malta, Poznan, in Poland, and Porto, in Portugal.
And she’s already bagged return flights to Poland and Berlin in August for £70.
Claire said: “I’m just led by what is possible and affordable.
“I can’t take time off at all in term time but I have Tuesdays off so I do like to make use of them.
“I just love the way you can do and see so much in the same time that you might waste a day at home just watching Netflix and doomscrolling.
“I usually find the best prices four to six weeks in advance.”
Students and supporters of a Luxembourg teacher fired over social media posts held a demonstration for her this week. Fatima Kurtic was fired in October over a post deemed anti-Israel. She told Al Jazeera about the motivations and costs behind her pro-Palestinian activism.
ANGELINA Jolie’s ex Jonny Lee Miller has found love once more.
The 53-year-old is romancing a 27-year-old Pilates teacher with the couple having enjoyed a sun-soaked holiday together.
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Angelina’s ex-husband Jonny has bagged himself a new girlfriendCredit: GettyJonny was seen with his glam new girlfriend earlier this yearCredit: Instagram/@manueladiago
Actor Jonny was married to Angelina in the late 90s for three years before the pair’s split.
But now, according to the Mail, he has been secretly loved-up once again for almost a year.
The publication reports that Jonny and glam Manuela Diago have been dating since June 2025.
Earlier this month, he shared a loved-up snap of them on Instagram as they attended a pal’s wedding.
Angelina and Jonny had a famous romance in the 90sCredit: GettyHe is now happily loved-up with his new girlfriendCredit: Instagram/@manueladiagoAngelina is understood to have always remained on good terms with JonnyCredit: GettyJonny is understood to be settled with his new partnerCredit: AFP
Angelina’s ex has had his eye on his new flame for some time – liking her social media content as far back as October 2024.
In addition, several of her snaps seem to be taken in Jonny’s New York abode.
The couple also holidayed in Malta in March – two months before news of their romance became public.
The Sun has reached out to Jonny for comment.
Jonny’s best-known romance was with Angelina.
They married in 1996 but split 18 months later and went on to formally divorce.
Despite splitting, they have remained relatively close and even sparked romantic reunion rumours in 2021.
That year, they were spotted on several outings together.
Around the time, there were reports he had also begun to bond with two of her sons – Pax and Knox.
Meanwhile, between 2008 and 2018, Jonny was married to Michele Hicks and the pair have a 17-year-old son, Buster.
The small Little Lake school district, which serves mainly low-income families in southeast Los Angeles County has become the setting for one of the longest teacher strikes in state history — reaching the the 10-day mark on Wednesday — as its 200-member union takes on significant issues straining districts throughout California.
The teachers have walked out over health costs increasing by $14,000 a year for some, crowded special education classes and proposed class size increases in a district grappling with declining enrollment and unsustainable past spending. The teachers aren’t asking for a pay raise — but their high-cost benefits are tantamount to a big pay cut.
While a settlement appeared close with negotiations to resume Wednesday afternoon, the dispute has taken a toll. Although schools are open with substitutes, the strike has consumed about 6% of the academic year. Most parents have kept children home, while scrambling to manage disrupted work and home routines — especially difficult in a school system where about 80% of students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch because of family poverty. Teachers have typically lost several thousand dollars of pay that they are unlikely to get back.
“We’re trying to stay positive but every day feels like a punch to the gut,” Sabrina Ireland, a 6th grade math and science teacher, said on the picket line Wednesday in front of her campus, Lake Center Middle School. “I’m losing sleep… We have some teachers that both the husband and the wife teach here. They have no income right now.”
It’s hard for Little Lake to be noticed alongside the mammoth L.A. Unified School District, which has about 390,000 students. An L.A. Unified strike was dramatically averted with hours to spare on April 14 in a conflict that commanded local and national attention for weeks.
But this district — with seven elementary and two middle schools — is enduring a crippling strike, affecting about 3,400 students drawn from Santa Fe Springs and parts of Norwalk and Downey.
In terms of lost instructional days Little Lake ranks high. Earlier this school year, teachers went out for 12 days in the sizable Twin Rivers Unified School District in north Sacramento County. Teachers in New Haven Unified in Union City in Alameda County struck for 14 days in 2019. And an Oakland teachers strike in 1996 lasted about a month.
Teacher demands statewide
Numerous shorter walkouts and near strikes have unfolded throughout the state this year, part of a loosely coordinated effort by the California Teachers Assn. to align unions’ contract expiration dates and benefit from collective force. The union dubbed the effort as “We Can’t Wait.”
The issues surfacing in Little Lake echo the dynamic in L.A. Unified and elsewhere.
“Up and down the state, educators have won life-changing healthcare benefits and support for special education and have forced districts to create the safe and stable classrooms our students deserve,” said Gabriella Landeros, a spokesperson for the California Teachers Assn.
In the broad picture, district budgets throughout the state are likely to be a little larger, level or somewhat smaller — and schools could yet receive a big boost by the time the state’s budget is adopted in June.
Martin Gonzalez,13, left, a seventh-grade student at Lake Center Middle School, and Sebastian Escobedo, 11, a sixth-grade student at Lake Center Middle School, join striking Little Lake teachers at Lakeland Elementary School on Wednesday in Norwalk.
(Gary Coronado/For The Times)
But cost pressures have escalated quickly in many regions. In Little Lake, as in L.A. Unified, the cost of services for students with disabilities and percentage of students identified as having disabilities has risen sharply. Healthcare costs also have gone up fast.
Meanwhile, enrollment is declining, offsetting the benefit of state increases in spending per pupil. Inflation hit hard in recent years, while prompting employee groups, especially in urban areas, to fight for wage boosts to keep pace. This comes as one-time pandemic relief aid has expired.
Thousands more for healthcare
In Little Lake, strike supporters say they are fighting over issues that justify the sacrifice. Starting in January, the monthly premiums for the health plan used by many teachers rose from zero to $1,400 a month paid over 10 months each year — an enormous reduction in take-home pay.
To back off from that charge, district officials proposed raising average class sizes in kindergarten through fourth grade from 24-to-1 to 28-to-1, according to the district. Union negotiators want to keep class sizes where they are.
District officials acknowledge their proposals are painful, but said they face an unsustainable financial situation.
“We are at a point fiscally where the district can no longer support 100%,” of healthcare premiums, said Acting Supt. Monica Martinez-Johnson, a career district employee who started as a teacher.
A fact-finding report endorsed that account, but also noted that the district suddenly ended health subsidies on January 1, when a previous agreement expired. Employees were immediately forced to pay about 40% of the cost of their monthly premiums.
“This decision … has soured the relationship and [affects] all aspects of this reopened negotiations,” said Donald S. Raczka, who prepared a fact-finding report, issued April 12, as chair of a panel that included district and union representatives.
Jennifer Conforti, center, a teacher at Lake Center Elementary, pickets at Lake Center Middle School in Santa Fe Springs on Wednesday.
(Gary Coronado/For The Times)
Dollars and sensitivities
The financial implications of the strike are difficult to calculate at this juncture, but the district doesn’t necessarily lose money. Subs are making $500 a day, but there are fewer subs than teachers and striking teachers forfeit pay.
In-person student attendance has ranged from 18% to 31%, which will mean lost funding linked to student attendance. The annual operating budget of the district is $73 million, of which salaries and benefits are $53 million, according to the district.
Many parents and students have joined teachers on picket lines.
“We’ve stuck it out this long, we wouldn’t want them to fold on an agreement that doesn’t benefit them,” said Melissa Maggard, who has two daughters at Lakeland Elementary.
Therapist Sherry Gonzalez has kept her fourth-grade son at home, rescheduling work hours, hiring babysitters. Her son receives special services for a disability at Lake Center Elementary, and home routines are harder without this support.
“I don’t feel comfortable taking him in during a strike with subs who do not know my son’s needs,” Gonzalez said. “As a parent it’s just been hard. It’s been so frustrating. We feel worn down, tired, and we feel like we’re being ignored and unheard.
“To see this drive a wedge between the community, it feels hurtful,” she added. When asked how she’s been trying to cope, she responded: “Crying.”
What’s next?
The turmoil has included the sudden resignation of then-Supt. Jonathan Vasquez a week into the strike. After a 10-hour negotiating session on Monday, an altercation or a feared altercation — accounts vary — resulted in the district calling police.
A potential deal in the works includes employees paying zero to $630 a month in healthcare premiums — depending on their choice of health plan. Class size would not rise. Budget cuts would be necessary. On the chopping block are six intervention teachers serving students who need intensive academic help.
The union this week was pushing for a one-time $4,000 bonus for its members, but not a permanent increase. The pay scale for teachers ranges from $58,752 to $118,363.
Negotiations resumed Wednesday afternoon at a location considered more secure than district headquarters.
