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John shares his experience after three weeks as an English tutor with a family in France:

The placement has been very good. The family has been very welcoming and has been perfect in ensuring my gluten free diet has been completely accommodated. In fact, most lunches and dinners have had all GF dishes. I have also cooked dinner for the family a few times. There is never any shortage of GF bread and other foods.

I have felt a part of the family from the first week. The day after my arrival was actually the family celebration for the older son's 18th birthday, and a number of family and friends came for most of the day. All were very friendly and engaging. We had a darts tournament (which the Australian, myself, won) and a pétanque tournament (also won by the "Australian" team). The wounded French pride resulted in a follow up pool and darts competition in Vichy last Saturday evening, all events won by the French on that occasion.

There has been a number of public holidays this month, and the family have taken me on numerous trips, including a long weekend in the Loire Valley, where we stayed at Amboise. Both at home and on that trip I have been provided with my own room and bathroom, which has been very convenient. When Nathalie or Sébastien have had days off, we have taken local trips e.g. Sébastien and I went to Gergovie and to the Michelin Museum one day last week. I also planned to attend a visite guidée in Vichy, and both Sébastien and Thérèse (grandma) decided to come along. Also both Nathalie and Sébastien decided to come along with me to a choral concert in the local church one evening. Another day we went to a brocante market in Charroux. We have also had two hiking days, one up Puy des Vaches, and last Saturday we did a beautiful walk along the Bouble River and in Chantelle.

Nathalie and Sébastien have also been accommodating with loaning me a car some days. On other days we may coordinate with pickups and drop-offs. A few times I have picked up one or other of the boys after school also. A couple of times Nathalie has dropped me at the nearest station and I have made day trips to Clermont Ferrand and to Lyon by train. Almost all weekends and holidays we have been going places together. So it has been very good.

As for the English language learning, both Nathalie and Sébastien are very keen and we have been doing daily activities, conversations, exercises and tutorials. They have a whiteboard, and most days I fill it with revision and exercises for them, which we do together in the evening. Nathalie has greatly improved and has gained a lot of confidence. Sébastien and I spend quite a bit of time together in the car so we alternate between English and French conversation. We have a running game of Bananagrams (like Scrabble without a board) on a table in the house and anyone can add an English word when passing. An increasing proportion of conversation at the house has been in English.

The boys are very busy with their own school work, but I have been able to help both of them with some English, moreso Maé, the younger. Both boys are more advanced in English that their parents.

It has been great advantage that I speak intermediate French. Thérèse speaks only French and we have spent some considerable time together. With family visitors for dinner, etc I also have been able to converse with them in French, as long as my interlocutor speaks clearly and somewhat slowly. The two boys speaking at high speed at home are basically unintelligible to me!

Moreover, in my opinion, the three weeks have been very successful and enjoyable. It has been a great matchup, and I thank you very much for facilitating the placement.

To live a similar experience: https://www.aliore.org/teach-english-to-a-french-family-homestay-in-france-a