P.S. Aarhus, Denmark, is a very lively university town. The students all seemed to be partying every night directly under our window at the CabIn Aarhus. Very attractive young people.

Another vote for Montpellier. We spent a month there studying French and were very impressed by the friendliness and the entertainment. For the whole month of July, we had a choice of activities every night: free concerts (classical, jazz etc.), inexpensive wine-tastings. Always something going on. Plus, Montpellier offers some nice off-the-beaten-track day trips like the Aigues-Mortes.

Pegontheroad, did you like CabInn Aarhus? we are considering staying there.

Hi dt,

>welcoming for an American to study the local language and meet people.<

Well, considering your post, I get the feeling that the fun part is more important than the study part.

My suggestions are
Bologna, IT
London, UK
Aarhus, DK (You really want to learn to speak Danish?)

Hmm, I'd pick Seville or Santiago in Spain, but they are not on your preferred list.

Salzburg, Austria. I was an exchange student there and loved it!

Bologna, Italy.

@ira : It's true Danish probably isn't the most useful language to learn. To tell you the truth I like the sound of Dutch much better although it's not very useful either!

Cowboy, livelihood is a word but it means something different (earning a living). The word you are looking for is liveliness.

@ PalenQ
<Belgium - Leuven (Walloon or French speaking i believe)>
There's a uni in Leuven (Dutch speaking) and in Louvain-la-Neuve (French speaking). Both are 30 km apart.
Gent is a great university city, too.

Did I miss it or did no one say Perugia, Italy? It has 5 or 7 colleges including the one for strangers with its 3-month Italian immersion course. I know Italy wasn't your preferred country, but this place is special. Thus spake a 64 year old.

Montpellier would be my close second choice but I have only visited France and Italy so can't compare to the others noted above.

We met a young man in Marseille who was going to the Sorbonne in Paris but spending time in the summer (weeks? can't remember) in Cannes for language cramming session. Poor baby!

Yes, Perugia and Parma are both great university cities. I just didn't see Italy on the OP's list of countries.

I like cold weather, rain snow fog...that's one of the reasons I want to stay north.

My relatives go to Abo (Turku) Finland. You could study Swedish and Finnish there. They also speak some English in Finland.

http://www.abo.fi/public/en/

In Italy, Perugia, Padua (not as lively), Bologna, and--especially if off season--Venice!

But if you are willing to have Gaelic as your language: Galway! Youngest town in Europe, if memory serves.

I like St. Andrews or Oxford in the UK.

Might as well throw this into the mix: I'm very artistic/creative so if the city/town has that bent plus the attributes I've already mentioned I'll be in heaven!

Will Copernicus do? Consider Torun, a university town. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/torun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus

I'm not very interested in learning Polish though...aside from that the town looks wonderful.

How about Kraków? If I were young and in college, I'd go there just for the coeds. Come to think of it, that's why I chose San Diego State!

Now, Tom!

You might have warmer weather in Aix but we sure like Perugia. Met a kid from New Jersey who went there for language school and knew he couldn't leave for a while! He and a group of compatriots were running a bar, traveling and generally having more fun than parents might want to know about! My guess is that they are mid to late-20s.