Anniversary: OUR top 7 language stay memories

This group of American visitors will never forget their light lunch in the Lausanne peaks in June 2023… The French students were on a language stay between Lyon and Switzerland and it was time to refuel after spending the morning in French class. They needed a high-calorie meal to prepare them for their busy afternoon in the bright summer sunshine! The perfect excuse for the delicious and indulgent Franco-Swiss dish, Fondue Savoyarde!

This is no place to bury your head in the sand! Mont Saint-Michel Bay is home to quicksand or shifting sand, as our American explorers found out on its sprawling beach that’s nowhere near is calm as it looks. 

Our young French learners joined an expert guide on the legendary strand to follow in the footsteps of barefoot pilgrims who have been visiting Mont Saint-Michel for centuries. 

They rolled up their trousers, buttoned up their waterproofs and dug their feet into the ground to watch their guide slowly sink into the shifting sand. What a heart-stopping experience! The amazing natural phenomenon saw the soft sand give way underfoot and suck the tour guide into sand that reached up to his knees! No need to worry though, there is a limit to this quicksand and your body always ends up floating… You just need enough energy (or a good partner) to get out of the sand beneath Mont Saint-Michel.

We introduced our young travellers to French cheese with a tasting experience in 2024! There are so many to choose from and there’s a real art to enjoying them! That’s why we needed a specialist, a cheese expert to guide us as we tasted everything from the mildest to the wildest! Our American students visited this village cheese shop in Auteuil to sample classic camembert, goat’s cheese, comté, roquefort and even eye-watering époisse!

We took our very first Uzbekistan group studying in Provence to the historical capital of French perfume: Grasse. Our young French students joined a workshop at one of the oldest French perfume brands to become apprentice perfume and fragrance blend experts known here as “nez” or “noses”. They dived into a treasure trove of aromas with over a hundred notes to conjure up their very own fragrance, pairing citrus, woody, fresh and floral families true to the fragrance pyramid: top, middle and base notes. 

Who can forget the delighted Uzbekistan students when they got to name their very own bottle of perfume in the beautiful Provençal village of Grasse. Scentsational!

College students came to Alsace from Gödöllö, near Budapest, to unleash their inner chefs during their stay and master the regional speciality. They came hungry from Hungary! Our visitors got their aprons on and set to work rolling out the dough to make their own tarte flambée: they were in charge of their signature dish’s crème fraîche, lardons and sliced onions! French culture and cuisine go hand in hand and saw the Hungarian students join forces around the worktop and dining table for a gourmet get-together in Strasbourg!

Our French learners from the Netherlands know central Paris like the back of their hands now: the students went wild for our scavenger hunt-style quiz. They had to complete puzzles and challenges in iconic sites and shops, talk to locals and all in record time: they threw themselves into the fun and certainly rose to the occasion! Lots of running around, lots of belly laughs and lots of memorable photos to show off in their travel journals!

Our group of Maltese college students looked ahead to the future on a trip to the Council of Europe. They stepped inside the awe-inspiring Palais de l’Europe to learn all about the role and structure of the European Union. They had the opportunity to attend a presentation at the Strasbourg landmark and ask all kinds of questions about the organisation’s job opportunities and how it works. Is this where the next generation of the EU has begun?