Suggestions? Where in France is a good place to go for an exchange?

Question

The south seems like it might be interesting. I have looked up Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Grenoble and I know people in Nice. In the southwest there's Perpignan, Toulouse, or Bordeaux. The cities near Belgium and Germany seem interesting also. I'm just throwing ideas out there.

Do you have any suggestions? I've never been to France but I've studied French in school. I'm a young Canadian guy and I enjoy outdoor sports like running and climbing. I'm leaning towards Aix-en-Provence first, then Nice and Bordeaux.

Answer 1

I debated this too over 20 years ago when I was planning to study in France.

My university had their exchange program in Aix-en-Provence. While it's a nice location, there were complaints that the locals aren't very friendly. They are absolutely inodated with foreigners, foreign students, tourists and now a lot of British and Dutch have second homes in that area. If getting to know the local people, customs and traditions is important to you, skip the south.

I haven't been to Corsica but they do have their own dialect and a distinctive accent. I now live in Alsace and yes, I have some of the local accent when I speak French. When I go to Paris, it sounds a little funny to them. I even took a class to get rid of some of it. Many of the students who come here are doing joint French/German degrees. Here is good for that!

Paris also is overrun with foreign students and tourists. It also may not be the most integrating experience if you want to learn about the French themselves.

Nice and Bordeaux, I think would fit your criteria better. Also consider somewhere like Verdun, Reims or Dijon. Not too big, nice weather, access to the outdoor activities you like. I would suggest the north but I don't think you'd be able to do that stuff as easily. The people are nice but the weather in the North is bad.

I was soooo tempted to go to the French Alpine region. I really love it there but complaints I heard was that you didn't learn much more than ski vocabulary. Serious French language students weren't recommended this area, as beautiful as it is. That nixed Grenoble for me, tough as I had a contact there...

Officially, the Loire Valley is where standard French is spoken. That's why I decided to go to Angers. There was a good program at the Université Cathloique de l'Ouest that is still running.

http://www.uco.fr/

Poitiers also had a good program but I knew someone who had been to Angers and loved it.

The Loire Valley is very beautiful and very, very French. There's lots to see in the region. It has wine and good food, just everything France has to offer.

Look carefully too at what these universities offer those learning French as a foreign language. At Angers, you can take separate classes and aren't limited to a set program. I took buisness French and Translation. Many places offer French 1, French 2, etc.

I recommend signing up directly with the university and NOT going through an American or Canadian university. I saved a ton of money doing it this way. They'll say "but you wont get credit". Forget it. Talk to your department head or counsuler and find out what they can do for you. The scrappy credits aren't worth dishing out the big bucks and quite frankly, they don't do that much for you. CUE set up housing for me. I simply bought my plane and train tickets.

I also really suggest an actual university and not a language school. In Angers, we mixed with French students since the Living Language Department was in the same building. We were keen to practice our French while they sought us out to practice whatever the foreign students spoke. Usually, the foreign students are isolated in their own building or even off campus completely.

So happy researching. Hope you have as good an experience as I did. It helped me get my first job, which ended me up back in France, and then met my French husband...

You never know! Have a good time over here.

Answer 2

You can have a look at the study made by L'Etudiant magazine.

They have scored different cities on criteria that are relevant to students.

http://www.letudiant.fr/etudes/rendezvou...

On the same page, also check the links in the top right box ("LES AUTRES ARTICLES DU DOSSIER").