All I wanted and more!

IES Abroad in Nantes was literally everything I was looking for in a study abroad program: a homestay with a host family, all my classes (which were all super interesting) in french, a perfectly sized program (my semester was 40 students), a super fun city to make myself at home in, and opportunities to hang out with local french students at the university and at conversation club every week. The IES team in Nantes was really good at organizing events, from ice skating to karaoke nights, for all the students in the program to take part in. There were also several included field trips like to les Chateaux de la Loire and Tours, which all students could go on as part of their program tuition. I was also really excited about traveling - while I was in Europe, I wanted to see everything I could. Nantes was relatively easy to travel from, as it has its own airport and is a quick 3 hour train ride from Paris. I was able to do all the traveling I wanted on the weekends and took full advantage of our week long fall break by traveling to 5 countries in 9 days. When I was back in Nantes, I loved living in my homestay with my host mom. She was there for me when I needed advice or someone to talk to (in French, bien sur!), but also let me be totally independent and go out when I wanted to. I met so many people on my program who came from all over the US, most of which I am still in contact with today. The IES Center in Nantes was definitely good at encouraging us to speak french as much as possible, especially when we were in school, and I found my level of french increase exponentially during my time in Nantes. Overall, if you're looking for an opportunity to study abroad in France, live in a homestay, take your classes in french, and live in a clean, safe, and interesting city, go with IES Nantes! I would recommend this program to anyone and everyone I could, and would do it all over again myself in a heartbeat.