May 2014- Chitra -Canada
I spent a week with Geneviève at her bright and lovely home. I studied French on weekday mornings and explored the region the rest of the time. Geneviève was recommended to me by a friend and she has all the qualities to which the testimonials attest. She is very professional, a good teacher who tries to understand what you need and to make the best use of your time.
I must confess that I had moments of strong anxiety the day that I arrived in Nice. I asked myself how I could spend a week with a person I did not know at all. Would we get along? What on earth would we talk about? But I need not have worried. Geneviève is very hospitable, a good cook with a down to earth sense of humour. She took good care of me and our conversations turned out to be more than mere exercises in French. We talked constantly about everything – cooking, travel, family life, even touching on religion and politics. And she introduced me to my two new favourite foods, socca and beignets d’aubergines.
I didn’t have any homework, which might seem to be a defect in a French course. But I was on vacation, visiting Nice for the first time, and wanted to spend my free time exploring the delights of the du Côte d’Azur. If I had been working towards a certificate, I would have had to allow more time for study. It’s worth discussing the goals at the very start and reviewing them from time to time. The program is flexible, and depends to a large extent on what you ask for.
All in all, a week of immersion in French language and culture in the incomparable Côte d’Azur turned out to be one of my most memorable vacations.
