Having just returned to the United States from my 2 weeks with Pierre, I wanted to post a most positive review of my experience. Pierre is excellent in the many roles he played during my stay; Tutor, teacher, historian, tour guide, cook, and hiking companion. He is an incredibly patient, experienced and well-informed teacher who is very generous with his time managing to integrate learning into everything we did during the week. Each day, Pierre spent almost 12 hours with me!
Our daily routine consisted of breakfast, 3 hours of instruction, lunch and then an afternoon activity. 3 hours formal instruction every morning seemed at the beginning to be a lot but amazingly those 3 hours flew by. Then it was a homemade lunch usually cooked by Pierre and off for a great afternoon activity. For us, Pierre and I hiked almost every day, exploring the bastides and the surrounding countryside and of course speaking French the whole time. The hikes provided added learning of new vocabulary as we hiked through meadows, paths, water puddles etc. Just like a child learns, seeing, touching and associating those things with a new word makes the learning both fun and effective. At the end of the day we enjoyed a fantastic dinner, again cooked by Pierre and then off to a much needed evening relaxing and trying to absorb all that I had learned.
One of the highlights of my stay, as if there could be more, was spending 2 weekends with Pierre’s family. His Mother and Father are extremely welcoming along with his 2 sons and his lovely 2 year old daughter. They made me feel like part of the family very quickly as they took me on a wine tasting adventure and a tour of an Abbey. Since their English was quite limited the interaction taxed my French to the limit, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
My time with Pierre was outstanding and I look forward to doing another course with him in the future. This course was described as an immersion and those expectations were met and exceeded. I could not be more happy with my experience and my learning of both the language and the culture! I feel I have a new friend in my life which is so valuable to me.
Thank you Pierre!!