France: Language, Community, and Social Change

Educational Excursions

Lot (spring semester)
In the rural county of Lot, students discover a variety of landscapes in France and learn about the cultural differences between regions. Students examine the role and place of agriculture in the French economy, the development of organic farming in France, as well as the alternative activities farmers have developed in recent years to protect their livelihoods.

Excursion sites typically include medieval cliffside villages and prehistoric painted caves. Excursions underscore seminar themes by providing students with concrete demonstrations of France’s complex history and diversity.

Aveyron (Fall semester)
In the rural county of Aveyron, students discover a variety of landscapes in France and learn about the cultural differences between regions. Students examine the role and place of agriculture in the French economy, the development of organic farming in France, as well as the alternative activities farmers have developed in recent years to protect their livelihoods.

Excursion sites typically include Templar castles and cheese caves in the Aveyron. Excursions underscore seminar themes by providing students with concrete demonstrations of France’s complex history and diversity.

Pyrenees Orientales
During both the spring and fall semester, students visit Pyrenees Orientales, a southern department along the French-Spanish border to learn about immigration policies and the challenges of cultural integration. In addition to attending a lecture by a local professor on the issues surrounding border-crossing, Catalan identity and the issue of regional minorities and languages in France, students meet with a non-profit group whose work focuses on the history of Spanish immigrants exiled to France. They hike across the border in the mountains, following in the steps of nearly half a million Spanish immigrants who fled Fascism in the 1930s.

Village stay
Spring semester: The ten-day village stay takes place in the Pyrenees Orientales, by the Pyrenees Mountains and Mediterranean Sea.

Fall semester: Students live in a village in Ariège by the Pyrenees Mountains for ten days.
Learn more about the rural stay.

Listen to a student share her experiences on the program!

Natalie De George volunteered to record some of her thoughts about her student experience with SIT Study Abroad. She was a student on the France: Language, Community, and Social Change program.

Toulouse (0:53)

Credits: 16

Duration: 15 weeks

Program Base: France, Toulouse

Language Study: French

Prerequisites: One semester French or 2 semesters of another Romance language Read more...