• Our first two steps in your pre-trip (assessment and online course)  will tell you what your strengths & challenges were.
• By the time you arrive in France, our online course will have narrowed down the skills & knowledge you need the most.
  • • Language? 
    • Choosing a town? 
    • Learning the transportation system?

In France, you’ll build the precise skills you need because:

• • You’ve had the skilled assessment and coaching to know which were needed during the pre-trip
  • We’ve lined up the local and national professionals you are looking for (and vetted them before hand.)    

• The goal of this trip is to help you gain the skills you need to live a full.  Don’t expect the handholding  you might find on a tour.  Do expect experiences that allow you to gather skills for an  independent life in your adopted country.  A good amount of your time this month will be you doing things on your own.
•  What we will be doing is connecting you to resources that are virtually impossible to find for the individual who is putting a trip together on their own.
  • • The realtor who likes to talk to English-speakers and give them the overview of the local real estate market
    • The French person who has the same interests as you and wants to practice their English, while you practice your French
    • The supporters of the local non-profit with whom we partner;  come to weekly coffees, or a French conversation group, or a Shakespeare discussion group (in English).  How about a knitting group? Or hiking? Or fine dining?

You’ll be in contact with the people you most need and want to know.  In this way, we’ll have stacked the odds in your favor, but you’ll also be using your skills to make the connections good ones.  

Yes.  Most definitely.  Perhaps the biggest pitfall potential expats face is the notion that it will be “just like our wonderful vacation to France”.   We call that the ‘honeymoon’ phase.  It won’t last. (We ready you for these ups and downs in our online course.  Then again when you’re in France.)

The length of a three monthsis an insurance policy.  Between two or three weeks in to a trip, most people must shift gears. They have to grapple with the truth: practical life, particularly in a new country, with language challenges, is nothing like a honeymoon. 

NOT finding out how you feel about France, once the vacation glow wears off, could be the biggest mistake you make.  The length of the Try-It-Out-Trip innoculates you against that particular hurdle. 

By now, thanks to the pre-trip online course, you’ve learned a lot, which means, once in France, you’ll be able to zero in on your “to-do” list.  Still choosing a town?  You’ll be happy that Angers connects so wonderfully to other places by train.  Skip the community coffee hour, if you please, to go check out highly-praised towns around Angers (Tours, Saumur, Amboise, Rennes)

The exact schedule of group activities will only be available on arrival, as we will have tailor made the content to suit the needs of the people on the trip. That way everyone hopefully gains the particular skills they need.  We know we’ll have several weekly morning coffees, and options of having a group sit-down with a particular subject matter expert, taking field trips, or practicing a real-life skill.  It will be tailored to the needs of the people on the trip. 

Each person’s trip will be different.  Yes, you’ll have the option to be with others some of the time..  No, you won’t be joined at the hip, or pampered!  Some obstacles you encounter will be yours to solve.  Independence is one of the core values we hold and a core goal we have for you. But there will be a huge wall of support as you venture forth. 

Included in your package is:

• French Conversation Group: one hour a week*
• 6 hours conversation with a French-speaking library volunteer.  We pair you with a member at your level.  Together, once the pair is OK, you choose your own times & locations for the other hours.*

(sponsored by our library partners) 

OR CHOOSE THE MORE INTENSIVE lANGUAGE TRACK:  FOR DETAILS AND COSTS, BOOK A  CALL HERE TO LEARN MORE.