Au secours! Ideas for entertaining French exchange student?

[gramercy]

A French boy is coming to stay with us for a week shortly. He is 14.

We live in a very boring place - not unpleasant as such, but far from exciting. Not near London or any other decent metropolis. The French party will be doing heavy duty tourist trips all week (the schedule sounds exhausting, frankly) but we have to entertain the boy for a weekend.

Anyone any ideas or any recommendations of things that went down well with an exchange person your dcs had? I am really scratching my head to think what there is to do in a suburb in March.

The best thing we did on our French exchanges' visit was to take him for a cooked breakfast. He loved it and took lots of pictures.

You may want to ask your son what his idea of a good day out ....go karting, swimming,

Shopping in SuperDry.

Never had to entertain an exchange person myself, but thinking about typically British things:

• a walk in the countryside (obviously in the pouring rain!)
• afternoon tea in a hotel (sandwiches, cakes etc, all posh like)
• any morris dancers nearby?

I know these may not be the most exciting of suggestions, but was just trying to think of things he might not do at home. Otherwise things like bowling, ice-skating...?

Play a board game like Monopoly - my (French) DSSs love Monopoly - it doesn't require too much English.

Yes, I have already dusted off some board games. I think most of them cross the language barrier!

Afternoon tea... yes, that's a good one, and the cooked breakfast idea.

A country walk would be good BUT it is bound to be pissing it down all weekend.

When I was in France my exchange took me swimming and bowling. It wasn't particularly French (or particularly English), but it was a way to fill the afternoon and you can speak as much or as little as you want.

You could also put a DVD on (with French subtitles if his English isn't brilliant or he is homesick).

Surely rain is all part of the country walk experience?

I would go for indoor sports - swimming or ice-skating or bowling - over a country walk in the pissing rain!

Friend took her DS's French exchange to Go Ape! Pricy, but they had a great time apparently. There are plenty of them up and down the country.

A professional football match, if you have a local team and he likes football! With a cup of bovril and a pie at half time! Or cricket if he is coming in summer. You don't have to stay all day.

Pub lunch.

Get together with your DS's friends and their exchanges and take them to a laser quest type place.

I am interested in this, as we have a Spanish girl coming to stay in the summer!

Sadly sport is out. The French boy was particularly paired with ds as they both said in their mini personal statements that they detest le sport. Apparently French boy is from a family of eco intellectuals (!!! eeeek !!!) Probably the lad is dying to get on an X Box/eat a McDonalds.

Oh mon dieu. Have an exchanger coming for almost two week in September!!!

We've had nine exchanges and all jolly good ... costs an arm and a leg but just do what you'd be doing with your own anyway plus a few treats. If they've been well-paired it will be a doddle. And give them access to computer so they can Facebook if they get lonely. School always told my DSs to do their language homework with exchanges too.

Maybe a BBQ at home for a group of them.

Is your son going to France first? Just so you could see hoe the French family entertain your son.

We had a French boy for a week last May and have a French girl coming this May.

Take them for fish and chips (at the seaside if you live near the sea) eaten out of the paper.

We live near enough to London that we were able to go for the day, and I made sure we went on a double decker bus, on the Tube, a boat down the river and in a black cab, plus the normal sights.

Do some cooking with them - we did a big fried breakfast, a roast dinner followed by trifle, toad in the hole etc. Take them to the supermarket to do the weekly shop.

Visit any local National Trust/English Heritage type places. Maybe a funfair if there are any local to you, will it be too early in the year for any local fetes?

That's the trouble.. in the summer we could do a picnic, seaside, bbq etc etc, but in March ... Perhaps we could see The Artist at the cinema (j'adore Jean du Jardin...)

The seaside etc is always a bit dodgy in England for French exchange students, who are (let's be honest) used to an entirely different quality of seaside experience, in particular the weather and the temperature of the water.

England is above all a destination for heritage and cultural tourism, but if he has been hiked around cultural sites all week, he won't want that. Shopping and family time sounds OK to me.

We have a Canadian exchange student in ten days time.

Ah, but Bonsoir, you are in Paris. We are not. We do not even have a Cafe Rouge (!). The French boy comes from a gorgeous part of France, too. I doubt whether he'll be impressed with the lower-middle class monoculture that is - .

Don't you have a 15th century gastro-pub serving local lamb chops and sausages?

Our exchange is coming froma fairly rural part of France. We intend to spend a lot of time in London with her. Poor thing might be terrified.

15th century gastro pub. Hmmmm. How about a 21st-century chain serving pizza and pasta? Or for something really quaint, the redoubtable charms of the Early Bird Special and salad cart hostelry, sited most picturesquely alongside the ring road?

The Artist is a good idea (and respectful to the French). Take him to a Norman church too. Avoid Cafe Rouge.

Play Boggle. French boy has to use English words. Your DS uses French words.

And you need to give him le rosbif.

A carvery perhaps? He would not see many Yorkshire puddings, over cooked vegetables etc at home.

Do you live on an island in the middle of spaghetti junction, gramercy ?

isn't the touristy stuff covered during the week? so what you need to do at the weekend is 'entertain'. the point of an exchange is to improve language skills i think, so anything that gets them doing something so they can talk if they like/need to, but not if they don't is ideal.

my dds are still young, but i remember as a child i and my brother both did exchanges, can't remember what i did with mine at all, but my brother and his partner definitely went bowling (with the whole family), played le ping pong at the local sport centre, going to the cinema is good.

ah one thing that was a real hit with my (very homesick) exchange partner was a day at some friends of my parents house, they had 3 young daughters who just loved my partner and made such a fuss of her that she completely forgot she was miserable. not much use for OP, but a suggestion nonetheless - small girls for big girls!

The supermarket is a good one, and then cook whatever weird concoction he fancied from there. I always loved going to the supermarkets and looking at what was different.

Is there time for your DS to write (I guess it's email these days!) and ask if there's anything your guest would like to do/try?

A film? And making their own pizza afterwards?