Au Revoir: A final look into the beloved Swiss teacher’s life
By KYRA DE LA BARRERA MARQUEZ
The Tower
On August 29th, 2025, Madame Touchon helps out an ELD student on their test.
MANTECA – Inside the only French classroom at Manteca High School, there is always Madame Touchon.
Walking into her class almost immediately transports you into a French bistro, from smelling the freshly baked pastries to seeing pictures of the Eiffel Tower on every wall.
Her quirky and loving personality makes it impossible to leave her classroom in a bad mood.
“Leaving her class, somedays when I would be down, she would be able to bring us back up during the lesson just to make it fun for us,” said former French student Jaesha Dunn, a senior. “Like when we were learning about food she would bring out food and props to let us learn. Sometimes leaving her class would bring up my day.”
While most people choose to take Spanish for high school, Madame Touchon makes choosing French worth it. She is deeply disappointed by the school no longer choosing to offer French after the 2025-26 school year. Normally, it is a requirement for students to take at least two years of a foreign language to meet the graduation requirements. Other than French and Spanish, there is no other language option to choose from.
Touchon makes her classes special and interactive by letting her French students cook for finals and she makes handmade quilts for every senior who has taken her class.
She learned how to sew at a young age with her mother and joined a group of old women at her local Boys and Girls Club after quitting tennis lessons.
She began quilting after buying a new machine that came with free lessons. She didn’t expect to like it but came to love it and has now incorporated it as a tradition for her graduating students.
“I look for somebody who’s got big plans,” said Touchon. “Like they want to go to one of those [43] French-speaking countries one day; they really want to use it.”
Madame Touchon has been at Manteca High for 32 years and has never looked back. She worked as a manager for a finance company for 12 years before moving on to the teaching world after a friend told her to apply as a French teacher. After looking into it, she started her journey at Delta College and was able to complete her education degree.
French teacher Madame Touchon gives her ELD students directions for their upcoming test on August 29th, 2025.
The Tower had a chance to catch up with the world language teacher to talk more about her journey at Manteca High and her childhood.
The Tower: How did you feel when you found out that the school was no longer offering French?
Clairelyse Touchon: I’m very disappointed but the students were not signing up for it... I’ve been teaching it here for 32 years and when I started, in 1994, they were going to take away French and then the district and the department head, at the time, said “No, no, no. We cannot just keep Spanish.”
TT: Why did you start teaching?
CT: I started teaching because I didn’t like my previous job. For 12 years I worked in a finance company... But I really got to hate it, like a lot. So, when a friend told me “Oh but you speak French,” and I said “Pff big deal,” and she said “Well we teachers are getting kind of older. We need new people to take over.” So, I looked into it.
TT: If you weren’t a teacher, what would you have been and why?
CT: Oh, a baker. Definitely. Ever since I was a teenager, we had a program where we could shadow somebody of different professions, and I picked the baker. I was already in love with that –you know pastries and breads, because I grew up in Switzerland.
TT: How is life in Manteca/Lodi compared to Switzerland?
CT: Here I had the opportunity to buy a house. If I had stayed in Switzerland, it would have been impossible... Oh the distances. Everybody who comes and visits, they can’t believe it, especially when they go to other states. There’s miles of just corn and no mountains or anything. Or deserts. All this variety, that’s fantastic.
TT: Why and when did you decide to come to America?
CT: I was 19 years old, and I had finished l’école de commerce, commercial school which is high school plus one year. I finished that and I really wanted to leave my family. I did not get along with my dad. I did not want to live there anymore, I had to work at the butcher shop all the time. My whole youth I had to work. ...So I wanted out. There was a family in Stockton that was looking for an au pair; you take care of the kids, you do the laundry, and you clean. So that’s why I left, I would have gone anywhere.
TT: What motivates you to be better?
CT: I don’t want to get stale and boring. If I’m bored, then everybody’s gonna feel it. I try to keep it new, for me as well. It makes them want to come back.