Come and learn English with Emma and Stephen in the sunny Vendee, France!
We are a brother and sister who both wanted to move to France and decided to pool our resources and buy a large house together, allowing us to live independently yet not alone!
My brother has a film production company and is passionate about his work, music and cars and I teach English (TEFL qualified) both at home and online and I have a love of horses and, in fact, am lucky enough to have 2 at home.
We live in the beautiful and sunny Vendee region, which has plenty on offer, including wonderful beaches, canals, forests, lakes and miles of walking and cycling trails, as well as a wealth of attractions to visit.
We are happy to host people across most ages and capabilities including people with specific language needs such as TOIEC exam preparation or business language skills. I am TEFL qualified and have been teaching English as a foreign language for several years and Stephen has a degree in English.
We can host up to 2 people at a time - family members, friends or work colleagues!
We are full time French residents, have clean police background checks and up-to-date public liability insurance that covers us for tourist stays.
For under 18's we offer Full Board Immersion stays only during which they spend the majority of their day with us and get involved in our daily life - so maybe helping with the horses, doing a bit of gardening or DIY (supervised), cooking and baking, shopping or painting! We prefer a minimum age of 13 years of age. **Please see requirements for lessons and activities.**
Whilst all children will be supervised at all times, they are also allowed to have some 'free time' to catch up with family and friends or read a book/play on their computer etc. We have an electric keyboard here too for any budding musicians! We can tailor stays to meet parental requirements.
**Full Board Immersion holidays require an hour of formal or informal structured lessons to be booked per day. You can book additional lessons if you wish - however we strongly advise no more than 2 hours a day for under 16's. Please message me if this isn't suitable for your needs and we can discuss.**
**NB: Full Board Immersion holidays also require a minimum of 3 paid activities to be booked for all stays of 5 days or over. If the listed activities do not appeal to you please feel free to discuss other options with us.**
The Full Board Immersion option is available for 18-25's, adults, and seniors as well, but for those who want to have more time to themselves, we also offer these age groups a B&B option.
**The B&B option requires 1 hour a day of informal lessons to be booked per day. You can book more lessons if you wish.**
**If you wish to book additional paid activities along with your B&B stay please feel free to do so.**
---Please note that on the B&B option, where no activities are booked, we expect that guests will be out and about during the majority of the day/evening, visiting the local area and we cannot offer self-catering for B&B guests. Please do feel free to message us if you have any questions or want to look at other options---
Our normal day consists of breakfast between 8 - 9am – what’s on offer?? Cereal/toast/yoghurt/fruits – we follow a gluten-free (not celiac) diet but can cater to other requirements. Then structured classes in the morning (these can be formal grammar and vocabulary lessons or more informal conversational lessons with practical tasks like cooking).
Lunches are kept light, sandwiches/eggs benedict/omelettes etc, so you are not too full to enjoy the afternoon activities!
Aside from the paid activities we also have a heated pool at home, a few bicycles – with miles of local cycling paths to explore and about 1.9 hectares of land to wander around, including a small wooded area.
Got some frustrations to work out? Have a go at one of our boxing bags in the barn (gloves and helmets provided) and test your skills on our balance board.
You can also help with the horses if you wish to! For older students who fancy trying their hand at other diy tasks – we have lots of walls that need chauxing, fences that need building and endless gardening to do!
Then perhaps a film in the evening (in English of course, but we can pop subtitles on so you are not completely lost!) or maybe some board games and we have quite a lot of English books you can browse through. We find that people learn and improve their language skills just as well outside the classroom environment,
So whether we are cooking at home, boating along the Marais Poitivan, splashing around at O'Gliss or lounging around our pool, you can gain in confidence, improve your fluency and expand your vocabulary whilst having fun at the same time!
Il a passé une petite semaine en compagnie d'Emma et Stephen. Il a été très satisfait des activités effectuées (piscine, bowling, canoë). L'environnement lui a bien convenu et il était très content de voyager dans la belle voiture de Stephen.
A very nice, welcoming et friendly family. Emma helps me a lot to understand better english grammar and Iloved cookink wtih her. Ma fille est revenue enchantée. Emma et Stephen ont su la mettre en confiance. Je sens qu'elle a passé un cap dans la compréhension mais aussi dans l'expression. Merci à eux !
From 880 € / week