Spring 2017, Isssue I

Highlights of the Orientation

    As many of you already know, the Rennes program begins with a 3-day orientation in Paris.

The novelty this spring was the visit of the Musée d’Orsay,

which was created in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.

On our way to Rennes, we stopped at Chartres to visit its cathedral

which boasts one of the world largest collections of 12^th-13^th centuries’ stained-glass windows,

and where our guide gave us a captivating lecture about the didactic function of the stained glass of the renowned cathedral.

Our program is designed to help students improve their linguistic and cultural proficiency in an immersion setting. Increasing one’s cultural proficiency is woven into every aspect of the Rennes program and the orientation in Paris sets a tone that continues through the experience. These goals are achieved by those students who take advantage of the great variety of opportunities available both in class and outside of class to live life “ à la française” on a 24/7 basis.

Being immersed in the culture is very important.  Yet, being immersed all the time can have a negative effect on learning.  So we strongly believe that it is important  for our students to carefully engage into the communities and find a happy medium—immerse themselves in the local culture and stretch outside their comfort zone, but  to seek out support or a bit of respite from the immersion experience until they are ready to engage fully again. 

Our students just returned from a one-week break filled with new travel experiences for many of them or local discoveries for others. We hope that this period of respite allowed them to recharge batteries and that they are ready to fully enjoy the rest of their sojourn in Rennes.

 

Highlights of our first excursion of the semester: Dinan and Mont Saint Michel

Instead of nestling on the valley floor like many other cities in Brittany, Dinan was developed on the hillside, overlooking the river Rance.

The port of Dinan and is connected to the town by the steep street Rue Jerzual and its continuation outside the walls the Rue de Petit Fort.

During our guided tour, we walked the footsteps of the knight Bertrand du Guesclin in streets lined with half-timbered houses with pointed gables, corbelled floors, and porches wood, testimonies of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

After lunch, we headed to Mont St Michel to visit this world famous Unesco heritage site.

Daniel Audaz

Resident Director