L'Académie de France - The Program

July 4-July 31, 2012

L'Académie de France is an academic French immersion program for students in grades 9-12. It is held in the Lycée Notre Dame de la Merci, a boarding school in the historic heart of Montpellier, France.

There are around twenty courses available, including Culture et Cuisine, French Language, L'Art et la ville, Sciences Médicales, and Histoires et culture françaises.

The international faculty includes scholars and academics, as well as creative professionals – artists, photographers, and writers – from the local area and elsewhere.

L'Académie de France is a complete immersion program, catering to students whose aim is to improve their spoken and written French by communicating exclusively in French throughout their time on the program. Students must have already completed at least one year of French in school, and may sign up for a variety of courses focusing on a wide range of themes (from cinema and cuisine to international relations and medicine), all of which are geared toward improving language skills. All communication, throughout the day – in the residence, in the classroom, during activities, during social hours, during excursions, with guest speakers – takes place in French, and students are expected to speak French every moment of the month. (Staff are bilingual and can communicate with parents in English.) Living this way in Montpellier for four weeks, students come away having had a true immersion experience. They can also opt to travel to Paris for five days after the program, in order to continue their immersion experience in France's spectacular capital.