Abbey Road High School Summer Immersion Program in Nice, France

I went on this program in the summer of 2018. I would definitely make the same choice if I had to again. I had a really great experience, Nice is a lovely city. I thoroughly enjoyed the amount of free time the students were allowed, it gave me the opportunity to be independent and responsible and spend my time in Nice exactly as I wanted. The food there was spectacular, and the beach is by far one of the best parts of the city. The best part of the program is the weekend trips that are scheduled, some highlights including Monaco, Eze, Antibes, Cannes, and San Remo. I did the four-week option, which was a lot of time away from home, but I am so happy that I chose to spend as much time in France as possible. The staff is supportive and friendly. I loved the facilities, the location of the building is perfect and I loved the privacy of the single rooms and private bathrooms. This trip helped me grow as a person and a French speaker and was overall a life-altering experience.

My daughter, Katie, had a wonderful time with the Abbey Road program.

She found the classes to be interesting and practical. She learned conversational French and was more fluent in French after the program. There were optional classes like snorkeling and painting in the afternoons which she also enjoyed.

The program offered wonderful trips to places like St. Tropez, San Remo and Monte Carlo.

The rooms were small, and it got hot with the warm weather, but Abbey Road provided them with many fans. She went on the program with a friend from school but many students did not know anyone and it was easy to make new friends. She is still in touch with most of the students on Snap Chat or Instagram.

I felt pretty comfortable about the supervision they were given. Curfew was strictly enforced. The students were given freedom to explore with parameters and the teachers checked to see where they were going and with whom. All and all it was a comforting experience as a parent.

I completed the Nice summer language immersion program the summer before my senior year of high school. Abbey Road's program is one of the best experiences I have had in my life thus far. There are many reasons why.

Academically: I believe that the way they organized their classes is what was most helpful. What I liked about the program is that you spend half of your time in a classroom learning the material and the other half outside of the classroom practicing what you learned. This really helped to solidify the knowledge in my mind and make the information more permanent. I also took the French Conversation elective that made me converse in French for an hour or so every other day. They would take us to museums, galleries, and more. And here we would have tours by our instructor in French and then we would talk about what we were seeing.

Recreationally: Abbey Road provides quality weekend excursions that really helped to enhance the trip. We were able to see all of the places you would want to go in the South of France such as Eze, Monte Carlo, the Alps, and more. It was a great balance between structured activities and free time. There were also a lot of great activities scheduled during the week such as cooking workshops, zumba classes, movie outings, and more.

Socially: I made the best friends of my life on this trip. The program truly brings together a set of unique teenagers from across the world and we all bonded together. Everyone was from different places with different life stories and outlooks, but we all came together as one in the learning experience of living abroad. The friendships I made are certainly the most valuable thing walked away with from this trip.

Personally: I grew a lot on this trip and learned about myself. The program really values teaching you how to live independently in a foreign country and in doing that you grow up a lot.

This was a wonderful experience and one I would do again if only I had a chance.

I chose Aix because I just thought it was a great way to improve my French and I loved it. We had French dinners, with a great food where we would only speak French. There were a lot of activities during the week. We had French movie night, Fashion Show, French Conversations classes, cooking evenings... Our residence was fantastic. My room had two floors. We had a huge living room and kitchen. Our apartment was usually the one chosen for cooking nights because it was so big. My roommate ended up becoming one of my dest friends. We still keep in touch.
Aix was like a mini Paris, without all the tourists. It was perfect.
It was such a small town and I felt like everyone was more of a family and people actually knew each other.
On the weekend we would have excursions and we get to take a break from classes.
The classes actually challenged you. I liked that our teacher taught us French slang so we could communicated with the people of Aix without sounding too professional and a little bit more colloquial. Our teacher was a native French and could actually teach us terms not just from a textbook.