Mrs Wardley: 4 week Standard Course

Quite frankly I did not know what to expect having never participated in anything similar before: I hoped to improve my spoken French and being retired, I hoped that I would not be in a class of teenagers.

My expectations were very much met. I enjoyed the whole French course experience in Antibes and much to my surprise, improved linguistically! My main problem was pronunciation and the teacher worked on that aspect for me.

My teacher (Sophie) was excellent. A great deal of problems for adult beginners is that most grammatical structures are written for children, but Sophie always managed to place the work into an adult situation regardless of the worksheet.

The location of the school was very good, everyone was very approachable. There was a very comfortable atmosphere. It felt like nothing was too much trouble.

The best part of the course was the first 2 weeks, being with a group where the youngest student was 32 yrs old. There was a good range of experience and motivation. Everyone helped each other. The best part of the intensive course was being in a very small group with almost one-to-one tuition.

I enjoyed my class colleagues; it was interesting working with German, Italian, Swedish, Hong Kong, Korean and Japanese people – not to mention two Icelanders. What a fantastic experience! I wish I could have had that sort of education and experience when I was younger.

The college offered very good excursions, with a wide variety of choice, from water rafting through to wine tasting!

Antibes is excellent – large enough to offer all aspects of shops, culture etc, but no too large.
The school is within walking distance of the centre of town and the main beach. It has an excellent bus service, so no aspect is really out of reach for students.

The young students made their own social life in the residences. I enjoyed a few good places to eat. There is plenty to do – if you have the time, the teachers give you homework!

As I am retired I asked for a hostess of a similar age to myself. Madame Monique Cartier was excellent. We went out together, shopped together and she even helped me when I got stuck with my homework.

CESA Languages Abroad were very good, they gave me a lot of help to find the programme I was seeking.

I hope to return for 2 weeks in April to ‘top up’ the course and I would love to stay with the same family!