IES Abroad Nantes – French Language Immersion & Area Studies

My experience abroad challenged me in the most rewarding ways. Coming from a small town, I learned how to live in a city. I had the opportunity to learn a new language and engage myself in the local culture and community. The city of Nantes has great food, interesting museums, bountiful history, and kind people. I look forward to visiting there sometime in the future to visit one of my professors or my host family!

The IES Abroad Nantes program was everything I could have asked for and more. It was an amazing opportunity to immerse myself in the culture and the language, while earning credits towards my degree at my home university. My program had the added option to do a pedagogical internship in a local middle school helping teach the students English. I loved every minute of it and it helped inform my future career choice. This program ensures you have every possible opportunity to succeed and flourish in Nantes. The staff, teachers, assistants, and host families are all so kind and great resources if you need support during your time there. The program also leads excursions outside of the city of Nantes, which is a great opportunity to see more of the Loire Valley and France in general, they are a part of the program cost and a great bonding experience for you and your fellow classmates. I have returned home with some friends who I know I will be close with for life and the memories we made together in this program are what brought us together. I cannot recommend this program highly enough, it was seriously the best semester ever!

If you're looking for a French immersion program, look no further than IES Nantes. Aside from the program itself, the city of Nantes is perfect for college students who want to practice their French. It is decent-sized city with tons of restaurants, bars, cool events, and things to do, but it's also not overwhelming and is very easy to navigate. It also has a solid airport that makes it easy and relatively cheap to travel throughout France and Europe. It's also not very touristy, so there are plenty of opportunities to speak French with locals. I found that locals were very willing to practice with me and my friends, and we were also able to make friends with French and international students. The program is INCREDIBLE. All of the staff at IES work so hard to make this an amazing experience for us. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met and will help you with every problem (even problems as crazy as the impending coronavirus!!). The social activities and travel opportunities provided by the program are so varied and immersive--we went to the Loire Valley castles, Normandy, and Mont Saint Michel/ Saint Malo in the two months that I was there. I appreciated that we could take classes both at IES and the local university. The IES classes were so interesting--take gastronomy if you want to try amazing new food and drink each week! The staff help you take pretty much any class you'd want at the university, and I even knew people who took STEM classes there. At the university, I highly recommend the translation class. The professor knows IES well and loves working with IES students, and it's a great way to learn some new vocabulary. IES also recognizes that you are not just here for your studies, so the workload isn't overwhelming. If you work steadily, you'll have plenty of time to take advantage of the city and Europe! IES's homestay program also makes this program so strong. My host family was so welcoming and wonderful, and most of the homestays are located within easy access to everything--I was about a 20-minute walk away and lived right next to the main cathedral. You'll leave with a second family. These were some of the best two months of my life. I wish they weren't cut short by the coronavirus, and I wish I could go back, but I learned so much during my time in France. And I definitely came back more confident in my French. Don't be intimidated about the immersive side of this program--you are required to speak French when at IES and during IES activities, but you'll be glad for it. There were people of all levels in my program, and everyone improved significantly over the semester. Come to Nantes!!