France

This four-week trip offers French language students the opportunity to immerse themselves in French culture through travel and a three-week homestay. The trip will begin in Normandy where signs of the longstanding French/American alliance surround us. We will then move to Paris to visit the famous monuments of the City of Light. On our way from Paris to Tours we will enjoy time in Monet’s magnificent garden at Giverny. Finally, a three-week homestay in the small city of Tours will provide students the chance to improve their French and make lifelong friendships.

In Tours, students will hone their language skills through daily classes with Terre des Langues, our partner in Tours, and through afternoon cultural activities and site visits. Students will also travel on day-trips and afternoon excursions, such as a visit to the magnificent chateaux of the Loire Valley, learn about making cheese, and take a boat ride and picnic on the Loire river. They will also have an entire weekend with their homestay family, where travel away from Tours may be possible (with advance permission from the faculty leaders). Students will return to Deerfield with increased command of the french language, and a deepened understanding of culture, grounded in connections made to a family in France.

This trip is open to current 9th, 10th and 11th grade students who are currently enrolled in French II or above and who plan to continue to study French at Deerfield after our return.