French Immersion Homestay At Pascale’s Near Béziers, Languedoc

French Immersion Homestay At Pascale’s Near Béziers, Languedoc

Enjoy a unique French immersion experience near Béziers, the oldest city in France. Languedoc offers an amazing blend of history, culture, stunning landscapes, and culinary delights. In the winter, biking, hiking, visiting historical monuments, or taking a cooking class are some of the activities available, all the more enjoyable as the area is not packed with tourists. During the warmer seasons, outdoor activities include relaxing on the beach, practicing water sports, taking a bike ride along the Canal du Midi or sailing on the Canal … Experience French living with Pascale on your terms, while practicing and improving your language skills in an authentic southern French setting !

Types of Courses Offered: French conversation, grammar, vocabulary, high school and college level French

Teacher Certifications: Ph.D. in Egyptology, Master of Arts in French, English-French bilingual, conversational Spanish, conversational modern Greek

Meet Pascale, your French Tutor and Host in France

Originally from Béziers, I spent most of my adult life in the United States. My first experience as an exchange student led me to Pennsylvania ane later to Connecticut. After I graduated, I moved to California where I spent 20 years, initially working on projects for internet companies such as Google and Yahoo. Eventually, I decided to go into business for myself, teaching French to teenagers and adults. In 2014, I founded Bay Area French Tutor, a French tutoring business located in the San Francisco Bay Area

I have dual French-American citizenship, and I am perfectly bilingual and at home in both cultures. Now that I am back in my native Languedoc, I have decided to share my love for my home area by offering an intensive French course in the beautiful property where I live, in the middle of the vineyards of southern France.

My French Immersion Program

The program runs from Monday morning to Friday evening. On Monday morning, we will create your ideal program together. As currently designed, it includes 15 hours of formal instruction (3 hours every morning), and that means grammar books and exercises. However, if you find grammar off-putting and you would prefer our formal instruction be more conversational, we can easily switch to a different format and pick, for example, a newspaper article to discuss. This will allow you to increase your vocabulary on a subject of your choice. I will correct you whenever you make a mistake, and I will explain why I am correcting you. Grammar will still be unavoidable of course, but our approach will be more organic than if you learn directly from a grammar book.

If formal instruction is simply not your cup of tea, we can go run errands where you will do the talking and I will still correct you and/or help you whenever necessary.

In addition to our mornings of formal instruction, we will go on an excursion together 2 afternoons during your stay. The other 3 afternoons are yours to visit the area, lounge by the pool with a good book, or take a walk or a bike ride to the nearby village and interact with the locals!

The program allows for a great deal of flexibility. Nothing is etched in stone, and I am happy to accommodate our schedule to your preferences as much as possible.

For more details, please visit my website French with Pascale.

Who is this program designed for?

My immersion program is open to students who already have some French under their belt. If you are an absolute beginner, I do not recommend that you take this course. Being immersed in a foreign language is very intense! You need to have had some prior exposure to the French language in order to benefit from a program such as this one.

Languedoc

Located along the Mediterranean coastline of Occitanie, Languedoc offers a diverse tapestry of landscapes and traditions. The regions has a rich history of Roman influence, visible in landmarks such as the Pont du Gard aqueduct, the Maison carrée in Nîmes, and the Roman city of Narbonne. The Middle Ages has also left its mark, as testified by the many religious monuments that can be found throughout this area, Fontfroide Abbey and St Nazaire Cathedral in Béziers being but two magnificent examples of religious medieval architecture in Occitanie.

Languedoc boasts scenic spots for outdoor activities, such as the Cévennes National Park, or Lac du Salagou. The area is also renowned for its wine production and if you like seafood, you will enjoy eating some delicious Bouzigues oysters together with a local wine, in a quaint restaurant overlooking the Etang de Thau!

Your French Immersion Stay at La Noria

La Noria is located in the countryside, between the villages of Cazouls-les-Béziers and Maureilhan (one mile from either village), a 15-min drive from Béziers. Nestled in the middle of the vineyards, the main house at La Noria is at least 200 years old and built of solid stone, like a lot of constructions in this area dating back several centuries. This little paradise boasts a large park, and a gorgeous pool with an outdoor kitchen where we sometimes have dinner in the summer.

Across from La Noria is what we call La Voie verte (the Green Way), a former railroad turned into a biking (and hiking) trail that connects several villages in the region.

For information and photos about the accommodations at La Noria, please visit French With Pascale.

For more information on my French immersion program, please use the Contact form on French with Pascale.