Article N° 3 – published in Paris Marais
LEARN TO REALLY SPEAK FRENCH,
and in gorgeous surroundings
If you’re looking for an exciting experience, both human and intellectual, look no further. Head South to one of the gems of the French Riviera, the picturesque fishing village of Villefranche-sur-Mer, between Nice and Monte Carlo. There sits, overlooking one of the Mediterranean’s most beautiful bays, the world renowned Institut de Français. This renowned French language school has been offering since 1969, with unwavering success, a unique French immersion program of 8 1/2 hours a day for 2 to 4 weeks. Adults have been coming from all over the world to take part in this highly commendable endeavor to learn to speak French in a short time and have fun doing it.
What’s astounding is the incredible mix of people of all nationalities and professions who want to learn French in France and gather at the Institut every month to submit stoutheartedly to the challenge. One month, you could be sitting in an audio-visual classroom with a Norvegian petroleum engineer, a US judge, a Ghanaian doctor, a Russian student, a Swiss salesman and Australia’s former prime minister. Another month, you might be having lunch (besides your teacher) with a Japanese cook, an Irish computer consultant, an Estonian translator, a German psychiatrist, a Brazilian pensioner and passing a delicious fish soup to the Duchess of Gloucester !
Still another month, during a linguistic guessing game held in a beautiful living room, you could be putting questions to an Austrian lawyer, a New Zelander diplomat, a Chinese engineer, a Jamaican air hostess, a US housewife, a Finnish secretary or, at that moment, try to guess a fictitious profession of … none other than the Queen of Norway (it happened twice) !
To complete this French immersion program, evening group outings are organized
(with a teacher) to a theater, an opera or a restaurant and enjoyed in such varied and interesting company.
These seem to be just run-of-the-mill goings-on every month at the Institut de Français on the exciting Côte d’Azur, which make learning French in France an exciting and unforgettable experience.
