Saint Laurent, France: French Study and Homestay Immersion

Did the full four weeks at Saint Laurent, and it was a decent program with solid French immersion, although there is a lot of room for improvement. CLASSES: The daily French classes were average, at best. While our teacher was a native French speaker, which was a big plus, he was not very good at designing engaging exercises, and many lessons became repetitive. Towards the end of the program, he essentially ran out of ideas on what to do for class and would ask us what we would want to do. HOMESTAY: The homestay experience was great, stayed with a very kind family in a beautiful home, great French practice, generously provided amazing food. However, I went into the program expecting to be the only student with the family, or have one roommate, and it turned out there were four of us total staying with one family. This was a great way for the four of us to get bonded, but took away some one-on-one time with the French family, which would have been nice. FRENCH CONVERSATIONELECTIVE: You have the choice between two electives, French Conversation and Photography. I did the French Conversation elective and was pretty disappointed. We learned very little French as the activities hardly involved us conversing with native French speakers, and the lessons were not quite organized. One of my friends from the Photography elective appeared to have more conversation with natives than us. Additionally, the teachers for this elective were not great. So, do not have high expectations for this. EXCURSIONS: The excursions were amazing! We went to Monaco, Cannes, San Remo, Antibes, and other very nice towns in southeast France. It was amazing to get to see all these places, which helped enrich our understanding of French culture and history. Also a great way to bond with our campmates. 10/10! WHATSAPP COMMUNCATION: WhatsApp communication is very poor for the Saint Laurent group specifically. The majority of students in Abbey Road's French program do the Nice program, and while both groups do the same daily activities, we have separate WhatsApp group chats. Information about electives, excursions, and other group events are always communicated to the Nice groupchat, but the counselors often overlook sending it to the Saint Laurent group chat. As a result, we missed a lot of important info, such as meet up times, weekly plans, and historical background on places we visited. This should not be an issue the students have to deal with. Overall, while I had a fun time on this program, I would highly recommend you do other provider instead. They are much better organized and you will have more French progression.

My son and his group bumped into Boris Johnson during a trip to the museum activity. What are the chances? They even had a conversation with him. Great opportunity to broaden the horizons through education and cultural immersion.

Our 15 year old son attended the Abbey Road St Laurent program last summer and we highly recommend it. He stayed with a French host who was warm and welcoming, and made him feel at home. Every day she provided a home cooked dinner and conversation, which helped him to improve his French. The morning classes were well planned and engaging. Our son especially enjoyed the cultural activities that Carla organized. On top of exploring Nice, they went to Monaco, San Remo and Cannes, discovering many charming places in the area. He had a wonderful time, made fantastic friends, his French improved and made lasting memories. This program offers a great balance between learning French, being immerse in the culture of the country, having a lot of fun, and growing as a person. Again, we highly recommend it!

My 16 year old daughter had a very good time socially with her peers —this was the “growing edge” for her on this trip. She really enjoyed all the outings and teaching of the guides, history being her favorite subject. A serious regret was missing the tour of both the Palace and the Gardens of Versailles due to poor organization and timing with the tickets. Also the whole group completely missed the train to Cologne one day and had to sit on the ground in the Paris train station waiting for the next train for five hours —and therefore missed a half day of touring in Cologne. These were significant disappointments.

The three weeks spent traveling throughout the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic with the most extraordinary group of people has truly been unforgettable. The sheer amount of wonderful historic monuments visited, cultural meals shared and memories created over a mere three weeks makes this program a must for any high-school student looking to truly experience Europe. -H

I chose Abbey Road because it looked like a trust worthy program that I could get a lot of experience out of. It has been my dream to study french in France and this program gave me the opportunity. My experience has been amazing. My host family made me feel immediately welcomed, the staff was very attentive and responsive to my needs, and I believe I advanced quite a bit with communication in French. One thing I would like to be changed was the amount of events that are scheduled for us. The first few weeks the schedule was very crowded and left little time with the families and little time to rest. Though I was having fun, I was incredibly fatigued for the most part. The next few weeks offered much more free time and I felt a little more physically prepared for each day. The classes there were a huge help to my French. I personally had little knowledge of French grammer and I learned so much while in French class. Photography offered me the opportunity to go to beautiful places and see beautiful architecture. Abbey Road is a wonderful program and I would absolutely want to come back!

To preface this, I think you should know that I received an International Baccalaureate Scholarship from my school that allowed me to go on the trip. I chose Abbey Road’s Modern Civilization program for a multitude of reasons. I really wanted to get something out of a summer program beyond simply sightseeing. It was really important to me that my program does not resemble a surface-skimming tourist group. Whenever I travel, I love truly experiencing the foreign city and not just moving from monument to monument with blinders on. The fact that Abbey Road has you staying in a location for at least a week and really experiencing the culture was extremely appealing. 

 I got more out of the trip than I could have ever hoped for. I got to immerse myself in the vibrant cultures of all three countries, I fell in love with France, I got to see so much incredible architecture that I cannot possibly name them all, I got to learn about the German perspective (both historical and contemporary) of WWII and the Holocaust, I made two amazing friends that will last a lifetime (I’ve honestly talked to them every day since returning home), and I got to sample all of the regional foods, discovering some favorites along the way. 

 By going on this trip, I truly enhanced my view of history and broadened my global perspective. In addition, I honestly believe that I was able to grow as a person. I had never really been on my own before (I have a twin brother) and I got to see how good I was at handling my own affairs. 
I went on the trip by myself, without knowing anyone prior to arriving at JFK. I immediately clicked with my two future friends in the airport and in the first city, Berlin, and that chemistry lasted the duration of the trip. As the trip went on, I found myself getting closer and closer to my two friends and was able to get along well with the others in the group. 

 
 The staff did an excellent job orienting us with each new city. The hotels were topnotch. The rooms were lovely, the locations were perfect, and the breakfasts were superb. In particular, the apartments in Vienna were spectacular and the breakfasts at the hotel in Berlin were great. 

 I would definitely recommend it or any other Abbey Road program. 



I started Abbey Road the summer after I stopped going to summer camp and I was looking for something to do that would be both productive and fun. My mom found it online and she sent me the link and I thought it looked like a really fun and educational thing to do. When I first decided to do Abbey Road, I was deciding between the Nice and the Western Civilization program. I chose Nice first because I was taking French however this summer I wanted to take the opportunity to go on Western Civilization program. 

 I used to live in Europe when I was little. I lived in Belgium and England for a couple years. My parents and older sister have all these memories of us visiting all these places, but I can’t remember any of it. I really wanted the opportunity to explore Europe and the Western Civ program offers that. You get the chance to see and learn about the best parts of all these great countries. 

 The staff was really great, helpful and informative. For class, usually we had a reading in our packet that corresponded to the place we were visiting that day. We would either do the reading the night before and go discuss it onsite or read it onsite and discuss it there. I really liked this style of learning because when you’re a traditional classroom and you’re reading an excerpt about St. Catherine of Siena for example, it’s not really all that interesting. However, when you read the excerpt about St. Catherine in Siena at St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Siena and you see the head St. Catherine, it just has a much bigger impact. I feel like I can recall text better and I feel more comfortable with the history. This is an academic summer program. It’s not just an excuse to wander around Europe. You get to experience another place and you absorb and learn about the culture. You are taking classes and actually learning something instead of just being a tourist. You are actually engaging in a bigger experience than just a vacation. 

 Western Civilization program exceeded my expectations! I have been recommending it to people when they ask me about my summer.

My son Noah went on Modern Europe last summer. It was his first trip alone. He had a fabulous trip. The kids were great, he made some good friends. The hotels were clean and pretty nice (3 stars I think). The teachers were very knowledgeable and did a great job bringing history to life. They went to so many great historical sites, where they would have lectures and discussions. They had authentic food each day and were encouraged to try new things. I liked it because it was not a typical teen trip, where the kids end of partying and having too much free time. My son is a little quiet, so it was perfect for him. They squeezed a lot of learning in, but the kids got free time each day too. They had to be with a partner or group, they were never allowed to be off alone. The staff always gave them good options for the free time. The teachers wrote on a blog each night, so you could keep up with what they were doing. The whole Abbey Road program seemed very safety conscious.

I stayed in St. Laurent du Var for 4 weeks with the Mulet family, an older husband and wife with three sons. The house was pretty big so three other students stayed there as well. We attended a French "class" 5 days a week for 3 hours at St. Laurent's City Hall. The class was taught by French teachers that were also our full time chaperones through trips and tours. Classes were divided into three skill levels based on a evaluation done in the beginning of the program. Class was held in a variety of places such as a classroom, the City Hall lawn, and a cafe. After class, we would have electives in which the choices were Photography, French Conversation, and Art. Electives would occur after lunch and around St. Laurent. We took a trip almost everyday, mostly to Nice, but also Antibes, Cannes, Monaco, St. Tropez, Gorges du Verdon, and Italy! We also did activities in surrounding small towns. There was about 2-4 teachers/chaperones with us at all times, depending on where we were traveling. I enjoyed the program so much and I wish I could repeat the experiences everyday. I formed such a close relationship with my French family and made so many new friends that I still talk to today.

The program was very good for my son, Christian. It certainly broadened his horizons from our small town environment. Christian enjoyed himself immensely and enjoyed meeting new people. The hosts were very friendly and well established in the community. We went for the full experience that included Paris. The classes were good and the staff was excellent from the reports I received. The program seemed to be well run and they watched carefully over the students. I believe much was entrusted to the host families and they seemed to have been carefully selected. We would send our son again and have no regrets. He come back with a good grasp of the language and was able to dialogue with others in the language by the end.

The Abbey Road program in St. Laurent was an awesome life experience for my son and we were thrilled with everything about the program. The family he stayed with was very nice. There was one other boy staying there with him (and a third for the last week). They often ate meals with the host family and interacted a great deal so that was helpful to his French language experience. Plus, his host mother was a great cook. They did have some independence, appropriate for teenagers, but it was always my impression (with the limited information you get from a teenage boy) that there was a lot of structure and guidance and it seemed to us that they were always safe and appropriately supervised. We were very happy with the French language instruction. They had a good amount of classes and, I think more importantly, they seemed to incorporate learning in every activity they did. For instance, when they went to museums the students had to find a work of art that they liked and then come back to the group and give a brief talk about it in French.Speaking of museums, they visited many and the trip had a good amount of cultural activities overall. The staff was good and, in particular, Anthony spoke highly of Vicky, the lady who led their program in St. Laurent. From start to finish the program gave a lot of guidance and communicated very well, including giving regular updates (in the form of a blog with pictures) of their activities. My husband and I highly recommend Abbey Road and thought it was worth every penny. It is a lot of fun for the kids but it is definitely not a party trip or even just a vacation trip.