France/Small Town for 13 year old
 

I need recomendations for a nice small town in France to live in for one month (July) that has day programs for kids that my 13 year old could enroll in. I want him to spend a month with French kids to improve his French. Any suggestions?

What are his interests/talents?

jane12; French kids will be on holiday in July. I know there are language camps for kids, but the participants will be non-french children who want to improve their french. Try www.intaco.be. A friend recommended this company, but my children haven't done the camps (yet).
Otherwise, perhaps a club med with a children's club? Your child is bound to meet french children there.

Actually, not all french kids are on holiday in July as they only get 6 weeks off a year, so quite often parents will work in July and take August off. All the small towns and villages around here offer "day camps" for kids with different orientations: sports, art, horseback riding etc.

Your best bet would be to choose the area you are interested in and then maybe contact the local tourist office or town hall to get more info. These type of programs (at least where we live) are almost exclusively french kids.

-Kevin

Why can he not do what I did at his age: go and live in a French child's house for a month, followed by the French child staying at our house?

It used, routinely, to be organised by the modern language teachers' trade association. They also roughly matched town size and social background. And I know these days, organisers of things like this find there are far, far, more Continentals wanting this opportunity to improve their English than there are matching English speakers.

Won't your child's French teacher have details of how all this works? Your spelling implies you're from North America: surely your Modern Language Association does more than organise endless politically correct conventions?