French for a real life in France

Moving to France is exciting right up until the first trip to the prefecture. Then it becomes a lot of forms, a lot of fast French, and the quiet worry that you are nodding along to things you do not fully understand.

I teach French for that life, not for a textbook. As someone who is French and has lived between two cultures, I know exactly which phrases smooth a conversation, which small courtesies open doors, and where English speakers tend to get stuck.

What expats actually need

Survival French is only the start. Most expats tell me the real goal is to stop feeling like an outsider: to handle their own admin, chat to neighbours, and not have to bring a translator to every appointment. Our lessons aim squarely at that.

We tend to focus on

• Daily life: shops, markets, the boulangerie, restaurants, deliveries and small talk that builds local goodwill.
• Admin and bureaucracy: the language of the prefecture, the mairie, tax, residency, healthcare (Ameli, the carte vitale) and banking.
• Home and trades: talking to a plumber, a landlord, an estate agent or the internet provider without dread.
• Healthcare: describing symptoms, understanding a pharmacist or doctor, and asking the follow-up questions that matter.
• Confidence on the phone: the hardest skill of all, and the one we practise deliberately.

The aim is not perfect grammar. It is walking into a French office and walking out having sorted the thing you came to sort.

We work at the pace your move allows. Some learners come for an intensive run of lessons before a relocation. Others settle into a steady weekly rhythm once they arrive. Both work well.

Talk to me about your move