Tours Langues

Standing outside Tours Langue on my last day

My 6 weeks at Tours Langues are complete! I loved it. The school was exactly what I wanted. It was small and personal. The teachers were good, friendly, and really looked after the students. Some of the students remain in Tours for as long as one or two years, and they need help with getting cell phones, finding apartments, traveling to other cities, looking for apprenticeships, etc. The teachers really go out of their way to help the students out. There were a ton of Japanese students at the school who were all really friendly. There were also Mexicans, Spanish, other Americans (only my first 2 weeks), Italians, and Africans. The class sizes were small - 10 students max. The school was in an old building just off of Place Plumereau which is the center of the medieval part of town.

Class Life

The view of Place Plumereau from my classroon window

My friend Judith left the week before I did, so our class had a little fete and we all brought food from our country. I asked the class what American food they wanted and EVERYONE requested brownies, so I found a recipe for Cheesecake Brownies on David Lebovits’ blog (my fave baker). He is an American living in Paris, and all of his recipes have the ingredients’ measurements by weight as well as cups/spoons. This came in handy since Martine only uses a scale to measure her ingredients. The brownies turned out pretty good. Judith made a banana cream tart from Mexico, my teach, Virginie, made a chocolate cake, and the Japanese students made an assortment of food that I had never seen or tasted before. Everything was super tasty!

The spread

The following Friday was my last day of class as well as Ayumi’s. She starts a month long course in flower arranging on Monday at a different school. On top of that, it was Sayumi’s birthday, so Virginie (my teacher) baked two cakes – one yogurt and one chocolate. Sayumi’s host mom also baked a chocolate pear tart, so we pigged out during the break. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, but we’re all Facebook friends now, so we can keep in touch!

Did I mention there were a lot of Japanese students?

Eating cake with my afternoon professor, Yannick

Last day of class