What is Pontlevoy, France like? Is the village easy or hard to feel at home in?
Pontlevoy is a tiny village of about 1500 people. You will know your way around in 2 days. And in a week you will know the owners of the café, the bakery and the folks who work at the post office. If you are like most Abbey students, Pontlevoy will become your “home” over the semester, so that leaving it in May will feel harder in many ways than it felt to leave your real home in February.
What is the Loire Valley like to live in as a region?
The Loire valley was chosen by the kings, queens and others of the French aristocracy to build their great chateaux back in the late middle ages and the Renaissance. Since then, tourists and others have agreed that the valley is lovely and unique as a place to visit and live. No part of France—a country that annually is listed as the top travel destination in the world—sees more tourists each year than the valley.
Do I have classes on weekends at The Abbey?
Only exceptionally do we hold classes on weekends. Sometimes we do a visit to Versailles or the Louvre during Abbey ParisWEEK on a Saturday or Sunday. Very rarely there will be other academic activities on the weekend. Mainly, students travel on the weekend and take advantage of the fact that we don’t schedule Friday classes past noon.
Do we have host families on The Abbey? If so, do we live with them or just socialize?
The Abbey sets up host families for those students on the program who really want to connect with locals and work hard on the their French. Students who elect to have a host family do not live with that family. Rather, they enjoy meals and outings together.
I like to volunteer. Are there volunteer or service opportunities at The Abbey?
Service learning and civic engagement have always been part of The Abbey experience. Some semesters, our students dig into the local schools and volunteer as student helpers. Sometimes they work on sport and fitness projects with the local community. More recently, our service to the community has centered on a participatory art piece called “The Ballade Blanche.” Designed and directed by local artists and using the acting, dancing, design and marketing talents of Abbey students and local kids in the town’s school, the BB has become in two years a centerpiece of Pontlevoy’s festive calendar. Be prepared to let your inner ham rule as you join in the BB or any of the other service challenges that your Abbey year chooses to develop, because when our program stages an event in town there will always be more huge turn out from the locals.
Do we have laundry machines at The Abbey?
Yes. There are free laundry machines on the students’ dorm floor.
My parents and maybe even my boyfriend might want to visit me on The Abbey. Is that possible?
Each semester some of our students discover that their parents want to join them for a visit to France. Or maybe a friend or boyfriend/girlfriend decides to invest in a short trip over. Our suggestion here is that visitors either come during our ParisWEEK or during the springbreak/Vision Quest, so that your visitors can get maximum time with you and also get something out of their time as guests of the program.
Is there WIFI at The Abbey?
Yes. But be prepared to use facebook and the internet in general less than you do at home. Not only are our classes and your travel plans going to keep you busy, but the village will call loudly to you and ask you to leave your room, get out and meet your new neighborhood. Like everything else in our 1000 year old building, retrofitting for wireless was a challenge. Be patient with the connections and their reliability. The building’s walls are more than 4 feet thick in places. Wifi hates that environment even if you will love it.
What will my Abbey dorm room be like?
Our Abbey rooms are all doubles and triples, located on the third floor of the historic Abbey’s main building. All rooms have at least a shower and sink, and many of them also have a toilet. For those rooms without a toilet, there are toilets out on the floor. Rooms have a workspace and storage space for each student and are bathed in light from huge windows. Down pillows and comforters are provided for each student. Room furnishings are designed in 18th century monastic style and are made out of 200 year old oak.
Should I take my US phone to France? What about my laptop or iPad?
The Abbey does have wireless internet, so bringing your iPad or laptop is a great idea. Contact your US cell carrier and find out about what plan you can get for basic coverage overseas in case of emergency. Then bring your U.S. cell for setting up skype calls or purchase an inexpensive pay-as-you-go phone for use while you are in France.
What about meals that the program price includes? What are they like?
You will get to know and love Café le Commerce, which is our program restaurant. Generations of Abbey students now years removed from Pontlevoy can still remember exactly what meals they loved most at this café. You may love the awesome roast chicken and fried potatoes that often are served on Wednesdays. Maybe the curried pork with rice will be your favorite? You will fall in love with the bread, which is served every noon in bottomless baskets for everybody. In a few words: the food at le Commerce is fantastic, and so are the owner and his wife—Julien and Carole (and their two gorgeous little kids)—who bring each noon meal alive for you. One thing you may find odd is that your lunch at Le Commerce will last about an hour. Nobody wants to rush this awesome time of each weekday. Like everybody else who comes to The Abbey used to eating fast food in a hurry for lunch, the slower pace and high quality of everything the café serves will become a huge highpoint of your time on The Abbey.
How do we manage our others meals at The Abbey, beyond the ones the program provides?
You will learn to cook at The Abbey if you don’t already know how to do it., because our old kitchen is a fun place to try some real cooking, sometimes for the first time. Your fellow students may come from the Midwest, the East or the South. Regardless, they will bring with them recipes and ways of thinking about food that will temp your taste buds. Not to mention the fact that the food to be found all over France will make you want to learn more about cooking. Try a simple French breakfast of a croissant and half a baguette. Then for dinner, organize with a few fellow students to roast a chicken, make a salad, fry some potatoes and feed about 4 of your for about $4 each.
Are there ways I can work on my leadership at The Abbey?
Abbey students are mostly leaders before they come to us. In fact, you may have done so much leadership in high school or a first term of college that you don’t want to do any in France. That’s fine. But if you want to be involved in student leadership, you can seek election as a “marquis” or “marquise” in our first week in France. In either position you will work with our professors and staff to run the program’s student life side. Or maybe you are a fledgling actor or dancer or photographer? Super. You can be a leader in the development of our Balade Blanche for your year. Leadership work abounds on The Abbey. Dive in!
Does The Abbey have internships during or after our semester there?
You won’t intern during The Abbey or work for money either. But after the program, the organization that sponsors the program in France—The Eur-Am Center—offers student internships in property and hospitality management in case you want to spend the summer in France after the program.
What kinds of things happen outside of class during the school week at The Abbey?
You will not be bored at The Abbey. Student government meetings happen on most Mondays in the evening, just after the program’s weekly dinner at the bistro in town. Tuesdays are usually chosen as costume and theme party nights at the student hangout in town, Le Commerce. Wednesdays usually feature films required in a few of the program’s classes. And Thursdays are a good might to leave open for studying or to see your host family for a dinner. The weekends are for travel and study.
If I don’t travel on weekends, what is usually going on back at The Abbey?
Students have a huge amount of homework to manage every week, so non-travel weekends are a great time for you to hit the books. Otherwise, the program offers cheap weekend fun and discovery through its “Loire Alive” excursions. For about $15 you can take off for a day with a few other Abbey kids and a professor in our van or one of our cars, taking in the fun and excitement of cities like Orleans, Chartres, Anger or Tours.
If I get sick in France or something happens to me health wise, what do I do?
There are two terrific doctors in Pontlevoy, who will even do house calls to The Abbey if you really get hit with a whopper cold. Otherwise, one of our bilingual staff will go to the doctor with you so you can get on the mend quickly. Doctor visits in France—due to the socialized medical system—are cheap. So are prescription medicines if your doctor visit indicates that you need them. The average doctor visit costs about $30.
Is Pontlevoy a safe town? Is The Abbey Program a safe program?
Pontlevoy is a tiny town with next to no crime ever against anybody. Our students have never had a problem with crime of any kind in 10 years. Still, we will ask you to take security very seriously in Pontlevoy and while you travel. Our iron gates close and lock each evening at the same time. You will have keys and be taught to always make sure that the gates are secure after you’ve gone through them.
What about in Paris and when I am traveling? How safe am I going to be then?
The Abbey will ask you to take your own safety very seriously. Our professors and staff will work with you over the course of your first weeks in France to think carefully and smartly about how to be safe when you are on your own, in Paris or traveling. We will help you to understand how to be safe in a group, how to manage yourself in cafes and bars, where to watch most closely for possible issues of safety and how to make careful travel plans. Our goal will be to teach you awareness and vigilance, as our program moves from tiny Pontlevoy up to Paris and then onto your Vision Quest/Springbreak. Beyond the counsel and coaching you will get from us, The Abbey will also insist that you carefully fill out your “away” travel forms, so that we know where you are going when you do travel. Finally, we will counsel you carefully about what to do in the event of any international incident that might occur while you are traveling. Our experiences with hundreds of students over many years shows that our system works, as we have never had a student be a victim of any serious crime either in Paris or while traveling.
Since we won’t have cars in Pontlevoy, how will we get around to catch trains and stuff like that?
Cars are what we use to get everywhere in the USA. Although they are also all over Europe, cars are just one way that people move around France and the rest of the continent. Most people take public transportation, just as we do when we travel from The Abbey. To help you get to where the trains start in our nearby towns, The Abbey shuttles students—using vans and cars and sometimes a coach—to Montrichard, Onzain and other places close us where train lines run and connect to Paris and beyond it. Our shuttles leave on Thursday (if we aren’t having Friday classes) or on Friday’s around noon, when classes are all done, heading to the train station. They are there, too, on Sundays when you return from your weekend trips, waiting to bring you home to The Abbey. There is no charge for rides on our shuttle system. If you want to travel at times when our cars or vans are not scheduled to carry you, there are several taxi companies in the area as well as busses you can take to the stations.