Hi... would like to travel to paris and attend an adult-geared language school for around 3 months. does anyone know of one that is good, and that has a diverse student body that includes people in their 30s+? thanks a lot! sara

One possibility - http://www.alliancefr.org/ Never went there myself and have heard varying reports about it. Maybe others can give you the benefit of their experience. Good luck.

from your heading and first sentence, I expected you to be age 40+ which is how old I was when I first went and this was a big consideration to me! Actually, I have some detailed information on studying French in Paris on my personal Paris webpages at www.virtualtourist.com/ChristinaW (click on Paris on righthand side of my homepage, it's the only section I have content on). The articles I cite will give you a good overview of the schools. I've been to two and have some references (personal) on others. If you have questions after reading that, you can followup here in case others can learn. In sum, one of the universities I went to (L'Institut Catholique de Paris) is an older crowd and you'd be fine; I went there at age 40-42, and it is older because many French Catholic orders send their nuns/brothers there to learn the mother tongue for the summer, plus it is regarded highly for HS/college teachers to brush up (in fact, I was in many classes with college teachers), so the crowd ranges from young college students up to retirement age. You'd be fine there. Sorbonne is a good school but younger crowd, I preferred ICP. For non-university, I've read good things about l'Institut Parisien, for one. I think All Francaise may have varied ages, although mostly younger, but I haven't heard much good about it academically.

Another vote for the Institut Catholique. I am not a fan of the Alliance Francaise. The classes take a round robin approach, always proceeding at the pace of the slowest student, even those who don't bother to do their homework, don't try to speak French outside of class, etc. No thanks.

Bonjour,<BR><BR>If you're interested I have a friend who teaches English at the Sorbonne to French college students. Her English is excellent and her French is beautiful. She is interested in giving private lessons to Americans. If you're interested I would be happy to help you get in touch with her.<BR><BR>I also agree with the above posts that group lessons have some advantages as well, i.e. meeting others, etc. and I assume that it is less expensive than private tutoring.<BR><BR>Have a wonderful time.<BR><BR>Ciao,<BR><BR>Randy Smith