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You are here: Home / Solo Travel Destinations / Europe / France / A Solo Side Trip to Lyon – and French Lessons!

A Solo Side Trip to Lyon – and French Lessons!

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October 2, 2017 by Janice Waugh

The Parc de la Tête d'Or in Lyon.

Many of us go to conferences in the course of our work. For solo travelers, it's not uncommon to tack on a day or two at the end of one and flip a business trip to a leisure trip.

With my personal project of the year being to become fluent in French, after attending and working on The Social Travel Summit in Kitzbuehel, Austria, I made the trek to Lyon, France. After all, what are a few hours travel to a Canadian if it means a new European city, another culture and, in this case, a chance to improve my French?

If you read A Short Trip to France: Planning Where, Budgeting & Booking, you know that finding my French destination took a little work. However, I was successful and if you're interested in taking French while in Europe, I can recommend Alpadia Language Schools, a Swiss company that offers French courses in Lyon and Montreaux and German courses in Berlin and Freiburg, Germany. After researching my preferred school based on location and reviews I contacted Alpadia. For transparency sake, they did host me for a few hours of private classes (I did not have a week to join a group) and covered my homestay.

Alpadia Language School is located in the city center on the Rhone – perfect!

The Fixer of Small French Words

I spent my time at the school with my teacher, Marion. She referred to herself as the clean-up teacher. She specializes in sweeping up student mistakes and replacing them with the correct words and sentence structure. After speaking for only a few minutes we agreed that the devil is in the details, or le diable est dans les détails, and focused on all my small errors. For example:

  • Before Marion, I was saying “a la même temps.” Post Marion, I correctly say “en même temps.”
  • Before Marion, I was saying “sur le train.” Post Marion, I say “dans le train.”
  • Before Marion, I was saying “beaucoup des…” Post Marion, I say “beaucoup de…”

I could go on. She fixed many small words that scream my limitations with the language to the ears of a native speaker. I have my notes to help me memorize her corrections plus she gave me exercises to do to help reinforce all the small tweaks she made in different contexts.

It was a Friday evening that I was there and, as is common for the school, they had an outing planned. I joined other students for a Champagne tasting and tutorial. I learned a lot about the terminology, grapes, and types of champagnes and decided that my preference is for Champagne Nature which is the driest of champagnes.

I not only learned about champagne but it was also a lot of fun!

Lyon is a Perfect Setting for Learning French

Lyon is a major city in France, third largest after Paris and Marseille, but it doesn't feel large. It is a bit more relaxed. The town is built at the convergence of two rivers which makes for a very pretty setting. It is also known as the gastronomic center of France.

Next time I'll tell you more about my visit to the city.

Cafe culture in Lyon.

 

Last updated: 8th March, 2018

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