Good Evening.... Two very busy days for us all and some tired students by this evening (Sunday). Apologies for the delay in updating, but a late arrival last night, coupled with an early start this morning and a full day of visits stopped any plans for timely blog writing!

We left a dreary Reading with rain starting to fall as we boarded the train to Gatwick. Plenty of nervous conversations about the trip and just exactly how it would all pan out. An easy journey to the airport and a quick transfer to the North Terminal for the Easyjet check in. All very straight forward. The obligatory random checks at Security and at least 200ml of suncream lighter we all safely made it to the flight. The flight was easy and only arrived 10 minutes late and we quickly made it through the baggage collection area and were met by our host families. All students dispatched, it was now or never for the French conversation and vocabulary to kick in!

Today we had an early start and headed off by coach to Nimes and Orange - both towns / cities with exceptional history dating back 2000 years to the start of the Roman influence on the region. Students had a chance to practise their conversational skills with their host families and made their way to the Gare Routiere after breakfast. We journeyed for just under an hour to get to Nimes and we walked through the town and marvelled at the beautiful architecture and by chance a classic Citroen car show!

After lunch in the Jardins de la Fontaine, we moved to Orange where we were dropped off outside the ancient Theatre and the home of the world famous Orange Opera. A huge structure which has truly stood the test of time.

Monday - A beautiful day in Montpellier. The weather has been spectacular and the city really came to life after a quiet Sunday. We all met at the LSF language school at 9am, having navigated independently from the host families houses. Everyone arrived on time and we were then introduced to our teachers for the week. We split into two teaching groups and started lessons. The language school has a set of classrooms right in the centre of the city, with a terrace, where we all had a welcome breakfast and a briefing from Andrew, the course director. Once lessons were finished, we had lunch on the terrace and then headed into the centre for a break before our walking tour of the city began.

A panoramic view La Promenade de Peyrou and a view below across the aquaduct. The statue is of Louis XIV pointing towards the South and Spain.

Tuesday morning - back to lessons today and then to the coast and the beach this afternoon, back on the tram and a bus for this one. Who's navigating and leading today? It's already 24 degrees and rising!

Tuesday - A busy morning at LSF, there are over 150 school students studying with this week. There's another school from England (Weybridge) and 3 Spanish schools all improving their French. One of our groups headed out to the market this morning to conduct a survey about the greenhouse effect and people's perspectives on it - very brave to ask questions and collate answers!

We had a quick lunch at LSF and then headed off to take the tram and bus to the beach outside Montpellier. It took about half an hour to get to Palavas, a holiday resort to the south. We spent some time playing football, volleyball and playing in the water before heading back in the early evening to our host families.

Wednesday - A little cooler today before the forecast says the temperature will rise again. Back to lessons this morning before our French cooking course starts later. It's near to LSF, so a quick walk to 'Observatoire' before we head home for the day.

We've been really impressed with our student's independence and confidence when out and about - french language skills are improving rapidly!

Thursday - We had some downtime yesterday afternoon once lessons were finished and the students headed out to the centre of Montpellier. Our cooking course was good, taught in both english and french. Back to lessons this morning and then we're heading out this afternoon for a game of petanque with one of our LSF teachers leading the instruction and strategy.

Well, the petanque was keenly fought in the Royal Gardens with 4 teams playing two tournaments. With instruction in French, the rules were quickly understood and with some coaching the games progressed well. The victors were 'Les Taureaux' and 'Les Tigres' after a tense few rounds. Language and vocab are definitely improving for all of our students. Once we had finished the petanque, we headed out on the tram to the Odysseum Shopping Centre before heading back to host families for the last evening in their houses.

A selection of photos from the past few days, once we finally were able to extract from the iphone to Google!

Friday - last day in Montpellier! We've really enjoyed our time out here. It's a lovely city with so much to see and do. There are huge preparations for one of the biggest celebrations of the year - Fete de la Musique - which happens throughout the city this evening. It looks really good and perhaps something that some of us will come back for in future years.

Lessons this morning include a drama presentation and a treasure hunt before our final lunch of Croque Monsieur! We have some time this afternoon for some souvenir shopping before heading to the airport in good time to make our flight to London Gatwick. It's all scheduled to arrive on time at the moment, so fingers crossed for an easy journey. We should be through baggage and immigration just before midnight we hope.