One of our students, Charlie Hull, came into this semester with an awesome a goal for his time abroad: visit every region of France! Here’s what Charlie has to say, accompanied by photos he took, about his project.

“Au début du semestre, j’ai décidé de visiter chacune des régions (pré-2016) de la France continentale. Comme j’ai déjà visité une grande partie de l’Europe, je voulais vraiment découvrir plus de la France. Avec l’aide d’un pass de train illimité, j’ai finalement atteint mon objectif le week-end dernier et j’ai visité toutes les 21 régions de la France.”

“At the beginning of the semester, I decided to visit each region of continental France (as determined pre-2016).  As I have already traveled a lot around Europe, I really wanted to discover more of France.  With the help of an unlimited train pass, I finally reached my goal last weekend and visited all 21 regions of France.” 

le Musée du temps à Besançon

le Halle des Sources à Vichy

un hameau dans le domaine de Chantilly

la Petite Venise à Colmar

St. Emilion

une randonnée dans les Vosges, près de Metzeral

Nantes

Cameron Flynn, an undergraduate from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with Middlebury in Paris this semester, is currently interning with the French start up, TheaterinParis.com. TheatreinParis is unique in its genre, offering easy access to French theatre to Anglophones; their customer service goes from A to Z, from helping customers to choose the plays and or musicals of interest, to purchasing their tickets, meeting them in person to accompany them to their seats the day of the show, and ensuring English translations of the performance in question. Cameron’s enthusiasm and linguistic skills have allowed him to quickly integrate the team and to take on a variety of tasks ranging from supporting the marketing & communication team to assisting the technology team who is currently working on a new and innovating project involving the projection of translations. For more information on TheatreinParis and their activity, please see their website : http://www.theatreinparis.com/ .

Middlebury in Paris would like to thank its partner organization, EUSA France (http://www.eusainternships.org/) for the continuing quality of placements and follow up of our student interns.

Keep up the good work, Cameron!

Middlebury School in France student, Nick Henke, has been awarded a grant from the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.  He was awarded this grant to help him pursue and complete his research, studying “French novels by women in the postwar era and their relationship to Second Wave Feminism.”   Congratulations, Nick, and all the best with your research!

To learn more about this grant, click the link below:

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs : Study Abroad Research Grants

First of all, The Middlebury School in France would like to wish you all a happy and healthy new year!

We are starting off 2017 with 41 newcomers in Paris, 11 in Bordeaux, and 1 in Poitiers, as well as welcoming back our 22 annual students!   Orientation for our second semester students started on January 3rd, and since their arrivals, they have been busy getting settled in, learning their way around Paris, Bordeaux, and Poitiers, and are preparing to start classes. They have also taken the Language Pledge, been getting to know one another, signing up for classes, and learning about their host universities.

We are very excited for the semester ahead and wish all of our students a wonderful, happy, and enriching stay here in France.

Signing the Language Pledge

signing the Language Pledge 

reciting the Language Pledge

It’ always impressive how quickly a summer goes by, isn’t it?

Nonetheless, we are very excited to welcome our new students and for them to begin their study abroad experiences and adventures.  Our students have all arrived safely to each of our three locations–Paris, Bordeaux, and Poitiers–and are settling into their new surroudings, schedules, living arrangements, and daily lives.  They have also begun, of course, their linguistic commitments, The Language Pledge, which is a commitment to speak only in French during their stays here in France.   Below you will find some photos of our Paris undergraduate students taking The Language Pledge this past week.

Now that the semester is under way and most of our students have started classes, we are looking forward to the trips we have planned–one to Normandy and the other to Dordogne–and for our students to discover (or revisit!) these regions of this beautiful country!  Keep and eye out for an upcoming post and photos from these trips!

A bientôt!

      Every semester, our students have the opportunity to approach French society from a different angle.  In the spririt of total immersion, the Middlebury School in France places students in organisations throughout Paris where they complete an average of four hours of service every week.  The aim is to immerse students in the local community and help them discover life in Paris beyond the student experience.  Often, this leads to meaningful cultural exchange.  For example, last semester some of our students co-organized a Thanksgiving event at a community center in the 14th arrondissement.

This semester, one of our students, Violet Kozloff, decided to take her service and learning a step further.   Inspired by a lecture on translation and interpretation at Mundolingua, a museum dedicated to the world of language, languages, and linguistics, she approached us with the idea of volunteering at the museum.  Students are encouraged to be proactive about their immersive learning, thus the idea was welcomed with enthusiasm.  Violet now volunteers at Mundolingua twice a week and works on marketing communications and content development for the exhibits.

Mundolingua’s mission to educate the public on language, languages, and linguistics aligns perfectly with Violet’s academic interests and her aspiration to study translation and interpretation in the future. The museum is located in the heart of the 6th arrondissement of Paris and welcomes visitors of all ages to discover its interactive displays. The exhibits span across two different levels, with plenty of dynamic stations for beginner or expert linguists alike.  Along with offering exhibits, games, reading, and listening posts, Mundolingua hosts an event every third Thursday of the month to bring the multifaceted world of linguistics to life.

Mundlolingua is located at 10 rue Servandoni, 75006 Paris, and the museum personnel can be reached at contact@mundolingua.org or at +33 (0)1 56 81 65 79.  For more information about its exhibits and events, visit the website at  www.mundolingua.org.

We look forward to learning more about Violet’s work at the museum.  Bonne continuation, Violet!

post written by Kelly Zuniga