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| Infos |
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Based
in France's fabled Loire valley, this six-and-a-half-week program
offers linguistic and cultural immersion through a program of
courses and field trips complemented by homestay
with native host families. First, all students attend a two-week
“Cultural Integration Workshop,” (CIW) taught by Georgetown
faculty members and surveying current socio-cultural and linguistic
realities in France.
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Aartie Manansingh and Jill Schroeder enjoy a taste of local wine during a visit to the Vouvray cellars |
2012 PROGRAM DATES:
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13 - SATURDAY, JULY 28,
2012 INCLUSIVELY
Contacts
Academic
Matters: |
Application
Materials and Procedures: Graham Hettlinger Associate Director of Summer Programs Office of International Programs Georgetown University 3520 Prospect Street, NW 210 Car Barn Washington, DC 20057-1013 Phone: (202) 687-5867 Fax: (202) 687-5944 Phone (202) 687-5867 oipsummerabroad@georgetown.edu |
GENERAL
INFORMATION
2012 Program dates / Arrival in Tours
The program begins on Wednesday, June 13 and concludes on Saturday,
July 28.
Students are expected to arrive in Tours in the afternoon of Wednesday,
June 13. They should not plan on leaving until after classes are over,
i.e. in the afternoon of Friday, July 27. (normal expected departure
is on Saturday, July 28). The first portion of the program will run
continuously, including week-ends, from Wednesday, June 13 at
7:30 pm through Thursday, June 25 inclusively.
In addition to claases (mo-Fri, 9:30 am- 1:00 pm), various meetings,
visits and field trips are scheduled for the whole group throughout
these two weeks, including week-ends.
For their first
two nights in Tours, students will be staying at a downtown hotel, the
Relai Saint-Éloi, located near the Gare Centrale
(main train station, a 15-min. walk), at 20, rue Giraudeau (near the
intersection of the Boulevard Bérenger).
See hotel details
at http://www.hotel-relais-saint-eloi-tours.federal-hotel.com/page_fr_1.html
Program outline / Academics
This
opportunity is open to Undergraduate and Graduate Students (from Georgetown
or other colleges and universities) at all levels of French proficiency
(except full beginners), who will earn six GU "French Abroad"
credits that can be applied to a French minor/major.
The
program is divided into two distinct components:
• First, all students attend a two-week “Cultural Integration Workshop” (FREN-119) surveying current socio-cultural and linguistic realities in France. This workshop is taught by the program director, Professor Guy Spielmann, and additional Georgetown faculty members as needed; it includes classroom instruction three hours a day, field trips, guest lectures and assignments. See the syllabus here.
• After a few days off, each student is placed on the basis of a test in one of 9 levels of a four-week, multi-level intensive language session at the Institut de Touraine, a renowned institution specializing in French-language programs for foreigners. The session at the Institut includes 19-24 hours of classes weekly, taught by its own native instructors. The more advanced levels include classes on content areas (civilization, literature, art history, translation).
The grade for the four-week session, given by Institut faculty, reflects performance in oral and written expression as well as listening and reading comprehension; it is translated into a GU letter grade according to a standard conversion scale, for either FREN 222 (Elementary), FREN 223 (Intermediate) or FREN 224 (Advanced) or FREN 282 (Post-Advanced Elective) —based on the highest French course completed prior to enrolling in the program. See the registration chart here.
Because these are dedicated "study-abroad" courses, you retain a great deal of flexibility as to what course(s) you may take next from G.U.'s French department (your choice of courses may be constrained by Major/Minor requirements, however).
In addition, SFS students at the Advanced level (or equivalent) have the option to take the oral proficiency exam at the end of the program, with excellent chances of success.
See the complete schedule of activities here.
The Institut, affiliated with the Université François Rabelais, is an institution that caters to non-French students only, who hail from over 80 different countries. To find out more about the Institut, visit its site at http://www.institutdetouraine.com/fr
The city of Tours
With
250 000 residents, Tours is the largest city in the département
of Indre-et-Loire (37), in the Centre region. Located on the banks of
the Loire river, Tours combines the advantages of small-town size and
large-town amenities (shopping, museums, movie theaters, cultural/arts
festivals), with plenty of Old-World charm: the old town, which served
as capital city of the French kingdom in the 15th and 16th centuries,
is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. See and learn more from the Tours official
city site http://www.ville-tours.fr
and the LIGERIS Regional Tourist Office: http://www.ligeris.com.
The old town, with its Renaissance half-timber houses (yellow area on
the map below), is nestled between two rivers, the Loire (which flows
westwards, into the Atlantic Ocean) and the Cher.
DOWNTOWN TOURS Click
on map belowto see larger version.
The location of the Institut de Touraine is marked with a purple
star, below the Place du 14 juillet, at the intersection of
rue Grandière and rue Néricault Destouches.
For detailed maps and directions, see the Mappy site at http://www.mappy.fr
TRAVEL
TO TOURS
It is possible to take a high-speed TGV train directly from Roissy/Charles
de Gaulle Airport (Terminal 2) to Saint-Pierre-des-Corps (Tours). The
entire trip takes about 1 1⁄2 hrs. This is by far the best solution,
since you will not have to worry about getting through downtown Paris,
which can be lengthy, costly and complicated, especially when carrying
luggage.
When booking your train ticket make sure that you (ask your travel agent
to) look for a trip from "Aéroport CDG 2" (not Paris)
and "Saint-Pierre-des-Corps" (not Tours). Once you have found
this itinerary in the SNCF system, you can add on a ticket on the shuttle
train from Saint-Pierre to Tours Gare Centrale—but searching directly
for a ticket into Tours Gare Centrale may fail to bring up TGV routes.
If however you start from downtown Paris (or other location):
1) From the Gare d'Austerlitz, take a regular train ("Corail").
Advantages: usually arrives at the downtown Gare Centrale. Less expensive
fare than the TGV. Drawbacks: not nearly as fast (about 2 1⁄2
hrs) as the TGV.
2) From the Gare Montparnasse, by high-speed train (TGV) Advantages:
a shorter (about one hour) and more comfortable trip than on a regular
train. Drawbacks: More expensive fare. Arrives at the St-Pierre-des-Corps
Gare TGV, from which you have to take another shuttle train, a bus,
or a taxi to go downtown—a relatively minor inconvenience, though.
Train tickets may be purchased from the SNCF Web site (http://www.voyages-sncf.com),
BUT
tickets may not always be charged to a U.S. credit card—a glitch
that often does not become apparent until you have nearly completed
the transaction. In some cases, it is possible to get an e-ticket in
PDF format that you can print at home, but only for some types of tickets.
You can also purchase tickets at the station when you arrive BUT
you may have to wait in line and some trains from/to Paris do get sold
out occasionally. Be advised that the bornes (automated ticketing
booths) inside train stations do not work with
a U.S. credit card (you need a card issued by a French bank with a special
chip in it). All in all, the safest and
easiest solution for you probably is to buy a train ticket along with
your plane ticket from a travel agent in the U.S.
FURTHER
DETAILED PRACTICAL INFORMATION WILL BE PROVIDED TO ENROLLED STUDENTS
AT ORIENTATION
See also administrative
details on the OIP site