Claire Kennedy
January 14-20, 2024
I live in Toronto and work as a lawyer and corporate director. I have some exposure to French in a professional setting (through a board on which I serve, though I participate in English) but my interest in learning French is mostly personal. I have studied French off and on for a number of years and would describe my level as intermediate. I can read French reasonably well and can write functional French but I’m much less adept at conversational French, in part because I’m still in the mode of trying to translate from English in my head while speaking and also because I have difficulty following French speakers, who naturally don’t sound like the textbooks from which I’ve been learning!!
I decided that 2024 would be the year that I recommitted to French and I was very lucky to find Pierre on French Today. I wanted an immersion experience, away from a large city (too easy to fall back into English) and the tailored 1:1 experience vs. a classroom setting really appealed to me. So did Languedoc both for the milder weather in January and the fabulous wine and food (more on that later).
As eager as I was to do this course, I was nervous as the TGV from Paris pulled into Narbonne station, where Pierre was waiting to pick me up. He greeted me with a kind smile and our conversation started, haltingly for me, but he was patient and put me at ease. In under 30 minutes, we were at his charming home in the equally charming village of La Livinière. His house is very well laid out for immersion homestay – I had essentially the whole first floor to myself with a large bedroom with private sitting area, private bathroom and kitchen (which I had no occasion to use). Stone walls and wood beams in the ceiling created real ambiance. The dining area and living room (also site of lessons) and main kitchen were on the second floor, to which I had access, and Pierre has a private third floor loft.
After I dropped my bags and got a little settled, we headed out for a walk to get the lay of the land in the late afternoon light. The village is surrounded by vineyards and olive groves and Mediterranean herbs and wild oak and almond trees abound. Pierre is very knowledgeable about geology, geography and history as well as local flora and fauna so we had lots to talk about on our walk. We returned chez Pierre and he prepared a delicious meal of swordfish. During the week,Pierre prepared continental breakfast and lunch for us. He is very accommodating of dietary restrictions (I don’t eat meat or poultry) and he is an excellent cook, using fresh, local ingredients and offering local cheeses. Evenings are free time and I availed myself of the 2 excellent restaurants in La Livinière, one casual and the other a little more formal, both with very good food and wine (reasonably priced too!) Had I felt like cooking, Pierre would have taken me to the grocery store but I was on holiday and decided I wasn’t cooking for myself.
Breakfast was served around 815 am and conversation (and learning) began. After breakfast, there were about 3 hours of lessons. I found the time flew by even though I was working hard. Pierre is obviously an experienced teacher and he quickly assessed where I needed the most help (yes, subjunctive, I’m talking about you!). Lessons were organic, not using textbooks, but with enough structure to be useful and enough fluidity to stay engaging and an emphasis on French as it’s spoken by native French speakers. Pierre is good at gentle, clear corrections, frequent enough to be useful but not so frequent as to sap confidence and interrupt the flow.
Not surprisingly, French is an orderly language with a logic, albeit not one always obvious to Anglophones. Pierre was very good at explaining the “why” of French language usage as well as the “what” and I’ve carried those lessons with me and find myself now figuring out the correct usage more quickly, which helps my comprehension and speaking pace (and is very satisfying!).
After lunch, we watched the lunch time news (another good way to pick up vocabulary) and then each had some “own time” before heading out on a walk/hike. Pierre is an experienced hiker and knows many fantastic local walks, some challenging, others less so, so we had a great mix. It was invigorating and more time for conversation on a wide variety of topics. On one gorgeous, warm afternoon later in the week, we ran into the vigneron at Château Sainte-Eulalie. I was thrilled to be able to have a spontaneous conversation in French with him and it was a good marker of how far I’d progressed, not just in the language per se but in my confidence to speak (despite my inevitable mistakes).
I deliberately decided not to rent a car while I was in Languedoc and found I didn’t need one. There was a good restaurant open every evening in La Livinière and everything there is within walking distance but there are not a lot of shops or other amenities in the village so if getting around on your own to neighbouring towns is important to you, you might want to consider a renting car.
At the end of my stay, Pierre dropped me at the train station in Carcassone. I’m determined to return to La Livinière to improve again. Since coming home, I watch French news regularly and have downloaded a French TV App so I can watch French shows and movies with French subtitles and have started weekly lessons with a local tutor. What a great start to the year!