Study Abroad: Montpellier 2005 by Debbie Bell

During the summer of 2005, UGA en France held its second year of courses in Montpellier. From its meager beginnings in 2004—when a total of ten students participated—the program nearly tripled in size in 2005, taking twenty-eight students on the eight-week homestay. The group left from Atlanta on 7 June, arriving in Paris on the 8th. We spent the next several days exploring the City of Light, getting over jetlag, and anticipating the upcoming trip to Montpellier, where the students would be introduced to their host families and the staff would be reunited with friends.

On Saturday, 11 June, we boarded a chartered shuttle that took us to the Gare de Lyon, where we boarded the TGV to Montpellier. Upon arriving in Montpellier three and a half hours later, we were greeted at the train station by the staff of the IML (Institut Méditerranéen de Langues) and the host families. The students had Sunday to spend with their families and to get to know Montpellier a little before beginning work on Monday, when we took a tour of the city with the guide who would later accompany us to the medieval walled city of Carcassonne.

During the course of the seven week program, students took three courses and earned between ten and twelve credit hours. Among the courses offered were business French (FREN 4150), intro to lit (FREN 3030), a seminar on Marie de France (FREN 4120), a course on teaching methodologies (FREN 4120), as well as intermediate and advanced conversation and composition. In addition to taking courses taught by UGA faculty and TAs as well as at the Université de Montpellier III, students also participated in a volunteer work program, helping out at one of several local organizations, including the Institut Saint-Pierre, a well-known children’s rehabilitation hospital in nearby Palavas-les-Flots. While most days were busy with courses and volunteering, there was also time for relaxing and fun. Many students made regular pilgrimages to the nearby beaches, and the entire group spent a Saturday in Carcassonne, the medieval walled city made famous by Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood, which was filmed there. Other out-of-classroom highlights included a trip to nearby Arles, the city in which Van Gogh spent several years. Students enjoyed having their picture taken in front of the café made famous by the artist and were fascinated by the many examples of Roman architecture dating from more than two thousand years ago. The highlight of that excursion, however, had to be the “course camarguaise,” a competition between men and bulls that involves no harm to the animals. In spite of the decidedly hot weather and the unforgiving sun, we spent a most enjoyable afternoon together.

All good things must come to end, or so the saying goes. Prior to our departure from Montpellier, we had a group dinner at a wonderful local restaurant called La Suite, where the chef and his wife organized a meal that included a number of choices to please every palate. The evening was relaxing and convivial, a fitting end to our stay. On Saturday, 30 July, we returned to Paris for two days before boarding the plane for Atlanta. The host families accompanied the students to the airport, and the smiles and tears made it evident to all that living with a family in the host culture is the best way to truly grow linguistically and to understand more intimately French culture and customs. The realization that it was time to leave this place to which they had grown so attached caused many students to proclaim that they would return soon to visit or perhaps to live. For those in charge of organizing the program, this was the perhaps the best moment of all.