PeterR

Hi, 1) please check carefully the french University system. It is in many parts completely different from what you get in other countries. There are Universities and there are "grandes écoles". In some(!) areas, the university degree is not really considered as a good degree. What do you want to study ? 2) suburbs: In the West-South West

PPS. >>>a 16th century mill on the river near Sommieres Ehhm, you know that the Vidourle has regularly and very heafty floodings ? Every 2-3 years, there are 3 meters of water in the old city center of Sommieres. p

PS: Did you see http://languedoc.angloinfo.com/af/456/languedoc-schools-and-schooling.html There are 4 schools listed. But only the one you listed for older children. But all these schools are for bilingual children. There is no school with an "English only" section. If your son were 9 or 10, he could try to catch up with French as Foreign language lessons. But I doubt that they will take him with 13 ! We are currently trying to get our children (French perfect, German almost perfect) into a bilingual school. And they clearly said that ten is almost the limit. Even if the child speaks both languages, it still has not the same knowledge/experience in writing/grammar if it was in a mono-lingual school for years.... We will probably move out from Languedoc-Rousillon because there are just no real international/biliangual and (!) good schools here. Nice, Grenoble, Lyon, Toulouse, Strassbourg, Paris, that's it, more or less... P

Dear Stephen, we live near Nîmes. I recently made some research on schools (we were looking for German sections for our 10 and 9 years olds, but I checked for everything...) There is nothing in the Gard Département. There seem to be some bi-lingual schools for English in Montpellier. But I didn't research further into that. And even if they were an option for you, I doubt that you could shuttle your son every day to Montpellier :-( Depending on where the school is, it can take you easily one hour one way from Sommieres. How good is his French? 12 years old is very old to be put into the French system! Luckily, our children are in the French system since the beginning, so that is not a problem for us. Schools here in the South are a permanent source of discussions between parents. And that can give you quite a headache. Quality and engagement of teachers vary a lot. We know a lot of french parents which consider moving - just to change schools. And there children don't have a language problem. I would first check with the local collège in Sommieres whcih would be responsable for him. Talk to the proviseur to get a first impression. If you have the impression that they are welcoming and try to help, give it a try. When will you move? PeterR

Hello, has someone here experience with the Centre International de Valbonne (CIV) at Sophia Antipolis? We are currently not living in that area but we are considering to move so that our children could get a bi-lingual education. (we are German) They are currently in the "normal" french école primaire. I know all the theory and the educational scheme of the CIV. But I would be interested to hear some "live" experiences  with the CIV. Do the teachers care? Would you consider it a good school? Are they helpful and welcoming ? General ambience etc. Thank you! Peter