College International de Cannes

Despite the obvious paradise that we have recently inhabited - yes, we do still attend school here. This post will be dedicated to familiarizing you all with our surroundings. We live and take class at the International College de Cannes. The school is devoted to teaching non-native speakers the French language. For most Californians, this school would remind you of an institute where Spanish speakers learn English as a second language. Get it?


The student population is small, only about 250 students, but extremely diverse. Foreigners come from all parts of the globe to live and study here. Students can stay for a year, a semester (like us), a month or a week. We recently learned that a student from Michigan has been here for four years. Wow. At the moment there is our group from America (AIFS), a group from Japan and a group from Italy. We've also met some Canadians, Brazilians and Spaniards who've been here for a year or more. The Italians are only here for a month so we think another group will most likely move in after them. Students can either live in the dorms, like most of us do, or commute to campus for daily classes.

A typical day starts with morning breakfast from 8:15-8:45. Everyone eats together in the cafe as we're served by the kitchen staff. Food consists of a ton of vegetables and depending on the main dish, one usually has to gorge themselves on bread and butter. Class begins at 9AM. Our classes consist of 10 or 11 students (we are in separate classes in case you were wondering!) Marissa's group is comprised of Japanese and AIFS students, while Tara's class has 7 AIFS students, 1 Japanese student, 1 gentleman from Denmark and a married couple from Norway. We have three hours of class and then it's lunch at 12:05. After lunch we usually do homework in the Foyer with the other students, catch up on our e-mails, walk into town or take a nap. Dinner is served at 7PM and the rest of the night is free. With the location of the College it isn't difficult to occupy our time. Some nights we play card games, while others are spent at the local pub, The Quays (an Irish joint the American students have Christened as their own!)

The College is located on the French Riviera. Our campus faces the Mediterranean Sea (which can be seen from our bedroom window.) To get to the beach we just have to exit the campus, cross under a bridge and voila! - la plage! The campus is a 15 minute walk from the main part of Cannes (La Croisette, Palais de Festivals and La Rue D'Antibes.) This area is full of shops (both high end and generic), fabulous restaurants featuring cuisine from all parts of the globe, grand hotels - the most famous of these being The Carlton - and three casinos. Cannes' famous yachts and sailboats surround this area so you are constantly reminded of the wealth and grandeur of the city.


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And there you have it! That gives you an overview of our life here in France. Since we've only been here a week there is definitely loads more to come, so keep checking in and don't be shy to leave a comment or two.

Be on the look out for the next episode of our video blog as we give you a tour of our accommodations here at the college!

Best wishes,
MoffTar