December 2015- Gaby S – Australia
I had the pleasure of staying with Genevieve for 2 weeks in December 2015. A last-minute opportunity arose to stay with Genevieve when a cancellation provided an opening – how fortunate for me was that cancellation, as Genevieve is a very busy and sought-after teacher! My French was very rusty with significant holes in my understanding and application of the language. Genevieve quickly focused on my weaknesses and tailored her teaching to those areas. Genevieve’s generosity as a teacher and a host is truly special. The set teaching hours seemed to fly-by each day, so enjoyable were they, and so filled with an appreciable improvement in my grasp of the language. The true value of an immersion course is that learning does not stop at the end of the dedicated lesson time, but continues non-stop throughout the day for the duration of the stay. My only complaint is that I was not able to stay longer and improve further!
Genevieve’s apartment is well situated to take advantage of Nice and the surrounding area and region, and it is so easy to get about by walking and public transport. There is so much to see and do in Nice itself, and the region in general, and the expeditions that Genevieve arranged were true highlights (and another indication of Genevieve’s generosity, as I know that she had done these things many times before, but still managed to make these visits so enjoyable with no sense of any sort of boredom on her part – a true achievement). Genevieve also met – without a hint of any sort of difficulty – my dietary requirements (vegetarianism in France is perhaps not the easiest thing to accommodate), and provided restaurant quality meals, always varied and always flavourful. In short, this was a marvellous holiday, combining dedicated language instruction with a wonderful, personalised insight into a beautiful city and beautiful part of the world, under the guidance of one of the nicest and most professionally dedicated people you could hope to meet. I am busy saving my ‘sous’ and planning for a repeat visit, though I know I will have to take my place in the queue!
