French Immersion At Teacher’s In Provence, Avignon, France

I write this as I am finishing a one week French language immersion with Julie. I am not ready to leave tomorrow because this has been such a wonderful experience. I had the opportunity to converse one-on-one with Julie everyday while she focused on areas to improve and answered all of my questions about the French life and language. It was the perfect mix of personal and professional. I also had the opportunity to explore and fall in love with a new city. Avignon has so much to offer and all of Julie’s recommendations for dinner (and more importantly gelato!) were perfect. Over the past week, I not only improved my French, which was the main goal, but I made a new friend and found a new place to visit again. I look forward to the next time and highly recommend Julie’s French language immersion to anyone that wants to improve their French.

My wife (who is not learning French) and I (who speak French at roughly the B1 level) spent the first two weeks of August 2021 at Le Français Chez Julie. It was a wonderful experience! Julie performs three principal roles for her clients, and she is outstanding in each of them: French instructor, cook, and local guide.

FRENCH INATRUCTOR. Every weekday morning from 9:30 until 12:30, Julie and I worked on improving my ability to speak French and to hear French with understanding. The focus was on French as it is spoken in the streets today, which entailed a lot of work on contractions, liaisons, and omitting the “ne” from negations. Her pedagogical methods included:

• Me extemporaneously relating stories from my life and discussing them with Julie.
• Playing games that entailed me speaking extemporaneously at some length; for example, drawing from a deck a card on which was written a situation and a list of words to be incorporated in a story about the situation.
• Listening to French popular songs, repeating the lyrics with proper pronunciation, and discussing the lyrics and the artists with Julie.
• As homework, watching one- or two-minute YouTube clips from a recent French movie and doing a dictation of the dialogue. The next morning, Julie and I would watch the clip together and I would repeat the dialogue, trying my best to mimic the actors. We enjoyed discussing the plot and the performances.
• Julie also engaged me in conventional drills on conjugation, gender/number agreement, etc.

COOK. Julie prepares breakfast and lunch every weekday and picnics for outings. She is an excellent cook who enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge of French cuisine with her clients. She avoids processed foods, preferring fresh products from the market in town, her garden, and a neighbor’s small farm. She introduced my wife and me to so many great French cheeses, mmm! They were so good!

LOCAL GUIDE. Julie took us on two or three afternoon or evening outings each week. Some were in town (a tour of one of the grand old houses, a visit to a private garden, afternoon tea at a Michelin restaurant), others were in the surrounding countryside (river canoeing and an outstanding piano recital in a medieval chateau, preceded by a picnic).

The apartment that Julie provides for her clients is located in the center of town, which made it very convenient for my wife to walk to interesting destinations while Julie and I were engaged in our lessons.

One perhaps obvious thing that I would point out about being accompanied by a non-French speaking/learning spouse or partner is that the overall experience may be less immersive than it otherwise would be if, as I did, you encourage Julie to switch to primarily English during meals and outings when your partner is present.

To summarize, I give Le Français Chez Julie, my enthusiastic positive recommendation, without reservation. In fact, I will be following my own advice by returning to Avignon in April 2022 to study again with Julie.

I just spent a week of French immersion with Julie Gaudin.
All I can say is that “SHE IS THE BEST”.
Here is what I loved about my experience.
Julie is so easy to get along with.
Julie is remarkably good at what she does: understanding the needs of her student and then structuring her lessons in a manner that optimizes the end result.
Julie is an excellent host. The apartment has historical equity. The meals that she prepares are out of this world. Mon Dieu!
She is so knowledgeable about the area that you need not to do any research. She has it all.
I give her an A++
Harris

I have been to several language schools in France, but the groups there were usually too large and not adapted to my language level. Of course I learned a lot but it was far too little grammar and how to speak French.
A week of intensive language studies with Julie is the best choice I have ever made, when it comes to language courses in French.
She was able to listen and decide what weaknesses I had and with the help of various games and problems I got drilled into what I needed to learn.
Julie is a social and nice person. I liked and had fun during the lessons with her. When it ended, she always found a way forward.
Food and accommodation were included in the course cost and my wife and I lived in a spacious nice three-room apartment. During the XVII century this apartment belonged to Nicolas Mignard, court painter to Louis XIV and also a friend of Molière, who performed some of his plays in the courtyard of this house from 1655 to 1657.
Good French food was served prepared by Julie, who is an excellent cook. She was careful to find out what food I could not stand or could not eat.
At the lunch table we could sit for a long time and talk, which was a good language lesson.
The excursions were very interesting, because Julie has knowledge and is a good narrator.
One day was a whole day trip with lessons, food and mountain hiking in Provance. One day we went to the halls and she showed me ingredients and taught them what they are called in French.
So I really want to encourage you to get in touch with Julie.
Lennart

Siv says :

Hello!
My name is Siv. I’m from Sweden and I was a companion to my husband Lennart on his trip to France.
As I consider myself quite good in speaking French I didn’t take any language lessons.
So if you want to study French and your companionship won’t, but want to follow you to France, I can recommend you to be in contact with Julie.
I had a marvellous time in the beautiful apartment, where I lived with my husband and where we had our breakfast and lunch with Julie.
When my husband had his lessons I was on my own discovering Avignon, which I found was a nice city.
I have also been to France many times, but this week was absolutely the best one up until now without exaggerating.
So if you only had a covid-19 test negativ certificate you can easily go to France.

Siv

I’ve done a number of immersions in France, and my week in Avignon with Julie was number one. It was a superb week, time very well spent, working on improving my French, but it was oh, so incredibly enjoyable. Julie is generous with her time and instruction and genuine in her desire to help you improve in a short period. I liked her system of taking notes for you, so you can concentrate on listening and thinking. She’s multilingual, so that probably helps her understand the language learning process, and thus her explanations are clear and concise. I appreciated and benefitted from the amount of time she gives you to try to express yourself. And, she’s not afraid to point out repeated mistakes. By the end of the week, you won’t be making them. She’s immediately attune to strengths and weakness in French as well as your personal interests. She surprised me, a design lover, with a terrific excursion: a tour of a magnifient private residence. Through extended conversations, a few drills, some games, and a couple of homework sheets, I benefitted tremendously from my immersion with her and look forward to a repeat.
Julie also wants you to enjoy Avignon. From the moment I arrived at the train station, she was ready to share the city, its history, and culture. Breakfasts and lunches together, which she prepared on site, always included something to present the regional cuisine as well as other specialties of France. Her beautiful, spacious apartment in the center of the city is your private home for the week. Imagine studying in a grand, richly detailed apartment in a historic building dating back centuries. How could you not want to be more proficient in French?

After many years of not speaking French, I decided that I wanted to start learning again. I had always been afraid of speaking the language, but found it so beautiful. My aim was/is to slowly start again, to build up confidence.

I came across Julie’s profile and liked the idea of not having a typical classroom setting and having a comfortable solution that would let me combine a week of vacation with a learning experience. I had been to Avignon once before, but only for one day and found the city and region beautiful. Am truly happy that I made the choice to visit Julie in Avignon.

Julie is a delightful & very thoughtful host. I felt very comfortable with her from the very first minute onwards. This gave me the confidence to overcome my fear of speaking and that was the key for me to be able to open up to the language again. She assessed my skills very quickly and tailored my week to meet my goals whilst giving me a glimpse into the French way of life.

Our excursions to the covered market of Les Halles and to Châteauneuf-du-Pape topped off the experience. The apartment is located in the center of Avignon, just steps away from all of the city’s wonders that I was able to encounter during my free time. Our joint excursions to the covered market of Les Halles and to Châteauneuf-du-Pape were very enjoyable.

I truly recommend Julie’s French Immersion Class. It was a wonderful experience!

Julie, thank you very much for showing me the beauty of the French language & culture. It is a week I fondly remember. Hope to be able to come back soon!

In early March, 2020, I spent a wonderful week in Avignon with Julie Gaudin for intensive French language learning.  My wife was along for the ride but not learning French.  It all started when Julie met us at the train station and we walked the short distance to the apartment.  Each day, Julie made us a very nice breakfast after which we dove right in to the daily French lessons.  I was an intermediate learner and the thing I liked the best was that I had A LOT of opportunity to just practice talking, which is what I wanted and needed.  But Julie also did some guided learning as well.  This was at the beginning of our time in France so it was perfect for getting my confidence up.  Our two outings with Julie were nothing short of spectacular.  She drove us to Chateau de Villeneuve les Avignon and on another day, Pont du Gard.  And on the way back from the Chateau, she dropped us at the Musée Calvet, which was very nice.  We also did an afternoon trip to nearby Nimes by ourselves, which was really good.  And of course we had plenty of time to visit the sights in Avignon, of which there are many.  The apartment was very nice, quiet, and secure.  If you are wanting a really unique French learning experience, in a great city, with a really nice person, I encourage you to contact Julie.

I am an “advanced beginner” French speaker, having returned to it 50 years after my last studies in high school. My immersion experience with Julie was excellent.

Julie is an energetic and challenging teacher. She immediately detected what kind of learner I am, and adapted her teaching accordingly. The lessons were full of new material, difficult but not overwhelming. While it remained a struggle for me to converse comfortably in French, we had many interesting conversations on a range of topics and I learned a lot about contemporary France.

Julie’s apartment is charming and comfortable, with a historic feel. The location is great, and my husband and I easily visited all parts of Avignon on foot after morning lessons were over.

I had a wonderful week in Avignon with Julie in early December 2019.
She is a delightful young lady and an outstanding teacher and I was made very welcome.

I am not young, but she was patient and understanding, extremely good company and a good cook.

My French has improved enormously and I have gained confidence in speaking.

I couldn’t recommend a course with Julie more highly. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

I just spent an extremely enjoyable and profitable week with Julie. We only spoke French throughout my stay so this enabled Julie to hear and correct the countless little mistakes I still make after so many years.

I’m afraid I will continue to make some of them, but certainly not all since Julie greatly heightened my awareness of some of my “favorite” errors. And she wrote them all down so I can always refresh my memory of our work together! Altogether I would say she pushed me out of my comfort zone, especially with her little games! Beware when she gets out those boxes!

She also gave me many links with exercises as well as tips for good French TV series and films, with enough material on a USB stick to keep me occupied all winter. In short, I received so many “takeaways” that I feel the week didn’t really end when it was over.

One morning we went to Uzès, a delightful village I had never visited. The market was very busy, but the little streets where we walked were quiet with only a few other tourists. It was perfect!!

I stayed with Julie for a week at the end of October.

Julie is a really good teacher, she used different tools to keep the learning fun. I was not ready for immersion type of learning but Julie was very patient with me even though she had to repeat same thing over and over again.

Meal time was always fun. Julie is a very good cook, we enjoyed all her cooked meals and conversation.

We also enjoyed our stay at Julie’s apartment. It’s very spacious and perfectly situated in the middle of the town, walking distance to everywhere. We really loved Avignon, beautiful city.

I would very much like to go back and stayed with Julie when my conversational French is better.

My week with Julie was amazing. I am a serious comparison shopper and have tried all kinds of classes/tutors/immersion programs, and this was by far the best experience.

First of all, you can’t go wrong by being in the charming Avignon, with the history, the wine, the sunshine, and a direct TGV from Paris Charles de Gaulle.

The lessons: Julie tailored to my level of French quickly. We made a plan for each day at the beginning of the week, according to my goal, and everyday was different. We had natural conversations, and some times, used games to work on specific skills.

As we spoke, Julie took notes for me (yes SHE’s the one taking notes), so my mistakes/quirks were properly and thoroughly noted. This was a new thing in my French learning experience and it saved so much time, so I can focus on learning. By day two, I was forgetting English.

Julie planned an outing to a winery and an outing to a local farmers market. She also showed me around the city, pointing me to the local places not typically for tourists, like yoga studios and cat cafe. :)

When it was not the ”official” class time, Julie continued to correct me, and gave me tips. Since we spent breakfast and lunch together everyday, the lessons are actually 5 hours long.

Not only is Julie an amazing teacher, she’s also a wonderful cook. I thoroughly enjoyed her home-made yogurt, jam, tomato sauce – the list goes on.

Julie was a wonderful host and excellent french teacher.

I’m closer to beginner and my spouse is closer to intermediate. She was very patient and flexible to our differing needs.

She gave us her whole apartment to ourselves which is conveniently located in the middle of old Avignon. It’s a bright, airy space with high ceilings and a fully equipped kitchen.

Julie took us on some fabulous outings to some medieval villages and to Chateau Neuf de Pape for a very memorable wine tasting in an ancient cellar. I can’t recommend her highly enough.

Julie is also a gourmet cook and made us many delightful meals with foods from the local area. Every morning we would have chocolate croissants, coffee, her homemade yogurt, and fruit. She was also very accommodating to our dietary requests.

She is an extremely warm and engaging personality and we immediately felt at home with her. We stayed for two weeks and were glad we did as our language skills improved and she was so enjoyable to be around.

This experience prepared us for the rest of our month long vacation in France. We couldn’t have made a better choice.

We cannot recommend Julie too highly!

We spent a week with her in September 2019. Our goals were to improve our French, and to have fun. We succeeded in both goals.

Julie is a terrific teacher. She is patient, clear, organised, and encouraging.

Our days started with breakfast, prepared by Julie. The mornings were taken up with our lessons – the three hours flew by. She emphasises fluency in French as it is spoken today. She gently corrects pronounciation. And she is keen for her pupils to expand their vocabulary.

After lunch – prepared by Julie – we were free to explore Avignon. On one afternoon she took us to Arles, and on another afternoon we visited some heritage buildings in Avignon which are normally closed to the public but which were open during the annual Heritage Days which co-incided with our stay in Avignon.

Julie’s apartment is delightful and is located within the medieval centre of Avignon, close to shops, restaurants, museums, and the famous Palace of the Popes.

Avignon is a charming city – the perfect location for a week of study, and full of history, art and fine architecture. And it is close to Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and the vineyards of the Southern Rhône.

We enjoyed our experience with Julie so much that we plan to return for a further intensive course in the summer of 2020.

My husband Richard and I spent 6 days in Avignon with Julie to study and improve our French. We loved working with Julie and spending time with her in Avignon and on special excursions.

Her apartment in Avignon is lovely and is located right in the heart of the action in Avignon. Although we had very warm temperatures the when we visited June 30 – July 6, 2019, with the apartment’s large windows open at night, the sleeping temperature were fine. Julie is very organized in how she presents the French lessons, and she easily assessed the material we needed to study.

After wonderful breakfasts which included fabulous French croissants, eggs, fresh fruit, yogurt and coffee or tea, we spent 1 ½ to 2 hours on the French lessons. We felt that she did an excellent job of helping us with the verbs, from present regular to irregular conjugations to the passé compose and the imparfait. We had work books to do homework in and then went over these lessons together. She was very helpful with pronunciation and there were times we played some games which required us to use our new found skills in French. She always had us progress at our own pace and comfort level.

We enjoyed shopping with her for lunch or dinner foods in the shops near her apartment. She introduced us to the Bio (organic) foods in the local farmers’ market.

She was good at being willing to accommodate our wishes to travel some during the day, and we would have French lessons sometimes in the late afternoon before dinner. We always spent a total of 3 hours on our French lessons.

We took two special excursions with her during our week. The first one was to one of the wineries in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape region. We had a private wine tasting which was great and drove around the area to see some of the other sights.

Our second excursion was to canoe on the Gard River to go under the spectacular Roman aqueduct the Pont du Gard. We enjoyed the canoeing and had a wonderful sighting of a beaver as well as cooling breezes and temperatures. On a small island in the river with a picturesque view of the Pont du Gard, we had a picnic dinner with wine that Julie prepared and packed for us. Then as it was getting dark, we paddled under the Pont du Gard and noticed people gathered up in a viewing area near the Pont du Gard. Then we were surprised by a sound and light show on the Pont! It was truly a once in a lifetime experience!

Julie was always a wonderful hostess and especially a very dedicated teacher. She was always engaging and enthusiastic! I was excited because she made me feel that I could really learn to speak French with a little more work on my part.

It was encouraging for both Richard and me, and we have decided to continue our French lessons in St. Louis.