French - not hip-hop English - bubbled out of about 50 French exchange students gathered in Nantes Park on Admiral Way.

They'd come from West Seattle High School, University Prep Academy and Bainbridge High School for a tree-planting ceremony to celebrate the high school exchange program. The setting was the pocket park in the 5000 block of Admiral Way, named for the city from which some of the students hail. Nantes and Seattle are sister cities.

Seattle City Councilman Tom Rasmussen welcomed the students to West Seattle and told them he'd been to France many times. Then he was joined by Jack Cowan, the French consul of Seattle, along with officials of the Seattle-Nantes Sister City Association to plant a magnolia tree at the northern edge of the park to symbolize the long friendship between France and the United States. The American and French flags were displayed behind the planters.

Small plant starts sent to Seattle from Nantes will be nurtured in a greenhouse until they are big enough for transplanting, said Bunny Schmidley, president of the Sister City Association. It's not easy to send plant material from country to country these days, she noted. That's why they decided it would be better to use a magnolia tree for the ceremonial planting.

Another arboreal event occurred Saturday when 50 trees were planted along the Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail near Southwest Thistle Street and 25th Avenue Southwest. It was one of 100 "NeighborWoods" planting events held throughout the country during October.