French language schools for the summer holidays .

[getoffthattabletnow]

I'm looking to holiday for a couple of weeks in France in the summer.Don't really mind where but I would really like to incorporate the holiday with some sort of ' fun' language school in the mornings .I have 2 boys that have to go through common entrance from state schools and a DD who:s in year 7 and actually ok at French .Any recommendations?

I have no specific school in mind but IME the area to look at would be the Côte d'Azur.

I think there are loads of language schools in Montpelier, both my daughters and my son have been to one of them with school. When my son went last year there were independent students staying there. If you'd like me to find out the name of the school they went to let me know & I'll look in my files. They had lessons in the morning and had the afternoons free.

www.languageinternational.com/courses-french-junior

Accord Language school

www.accord-langues.com/Junior/

Their site seems to have problems at the moment but they are a well established Paris language school who have long offered a summer campus for teens on the outskirts of Paris near a big water park. From recollection families can stay at a nearby Pierre et Vacances, the French equivalent of Centreparcs and younger children (or the whole family) have lessons together. They also now seem to have something in the south of France.

DC never did the summer camp but did have 2-1 lessons with them in Paris when they were about 11 and 9 and made huge progress. It set the foundation for them treating language as a skill rather than simply a school subject.

I also once went here, sent by an employer.
www.cavilam.com/en/

The school is well organised but Vichy is dull and the water foul.

One thing you can do on holiday is enrol kids in sports activities. Sport is normally organised by the town rather than the school and most towns run a variety of summer "stages" or courses for local children. If your DC can bear being the only English children it is a quick way to pick up at least passive French. You can either try the town hall or equire at the local tennis/sailing or whatever club. Places like tennis and golf clubs that in England would appear to be quite snobby and not child orientated often have allow access to courses by children of non members, and there is usually at least one coach who is keen to try out a bit of English.

Choose your city and then your language school.

I would go for a highly thought of one like www.oise.com. EF are also OK. (the company is English First but they offer other languages in situ as well)

OISE is a British run company but markets mainly to France. Not the cheapest by any means, but far superior to many of the bums-on-seats operations you'll find.

Yes please Montpelier that would be brilliant.
Thank you Bobochic.I love the Swiss mountain camp and I suspect my children would too.However I'm not sure how they would take to boarding.
Any more suggestions?

If you fancy combining it with a spot of wine tasting, there's a lovely looking place in Sancerre.

It also might be worth contacting some of the international schools directly as they will no doubt know about the kind of courses you are looking for, if they exist: BIS in Bordeaux, The Old School nearby in Dordogneshire, the ones around Nice, one near Aix I think? the one in Toulouse, for example. Nice holiday locations and go from there.

Ancienchateau I would love to stay in Sancerre but I suspect as we come from a small parochial village my children would like a little more excitement .Thank you for the suggestion to contact the international schools.That sounds a brilliant idea .
Needmoresleep really good ideas.My kids are really sporty and play a lot of tennis.I will look into that.Thank you very much.
Oise.com sounds fantastic - thank you thenlaterwhenitgotdark

Sancerre? Yes, your children will die of boredom.

There's International School of Paris.

Needmoresleep's suggestion is a very good one. Good ones too in Côte d'Azur as Bobochic mentioned.

Ecole Klesse

This is the language school attended by my children.

Another vote for Montpelier - lovely city and loads of language schools.