I had the great opportunity to spend my semester abroad in the west of France, very close to the Atlantic Ocean, in a small city with approximately 55 000 inhabitants. You have probably never heard of that city before, neither had I to be honest, but for me it was still worth spending my semester abroad there and experience the real French culture – In the following I will explain why it was the best decision for me and why you should consider it as well!

UNIVERSITY

For the last couple of months, my host university was ICES. When we (the Erasmus and international students) went to ICES for the 2 Welcome Days for the first time, the Association Globo prepared a warm welcome for us with a small traditional French breakfast, showed us the university, introduced us to the international office team and most importantly to us, as we grew closer together as a group over time. Globo also organized great events for us like going to the Puy du Fou, a wine tasting or a raclette night.

ICES is a great, rather young university and offers a wide range of majors. I was in the Licence Anglais L1 et L2 which means I took all my courses from the English major in Year 1 and Year 2 (besides Tuition in French and FLE – the French language course). The university gives you 4 weeks of tryouts before your final decisions of the classes, which is really nice because this way you can find out whether you like them or not or whether there are classes which fit your studies better.

At ICES there is one thing that is very unusual at first – the EMPLOI DU TEMPS. When we first heard about the way that the schedule works, we couldn’t believe it because you will have a different timetable every week and you can see your timetable for the following week only on the preceding Thursday before which makes it really hard to plan ahead. The reason though for that system is that many professors are coming from different countries like the United Kingdom or even the United States so you might have all the hours of a course in one or two weeks! Eventually, you’ll get used to it though.

One of the things I loved most about ICES besides the kindness of the people there were the associations: the university offers a wide range of associations which everyone can join: ranging from Politeia and Rock ICES (dancing) to rugby, soccer, volleyball, handball, sailing, naturae, choir and so many more! They had something for everyone and the most remarkable aspect of all this is their strong sense of team spirit. They all support each other, and I could experience it myself as I was lucky enough to participate in the volleyball tournament where a lot of students came with megaphones, ICES merch, flags and drums only to support our volleyball team – even the cheerleader association delivered an impressive performance, it was an incredible atmosphere! 

THE CITY

As I have already mentioned La Roche-sur-Yon is rather small, especially for people coming from larger cities such as Graz, it might be a bit of a shock at first because it has by far not as much to offer as bigger cities. And, since it was founded and built by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1804, you can see the military pattern and don’t find the picturesque architecture or the stereotypically “cute” version of France there that you have might imagined. However, as almost in every city, it’s not only about its look – a city’s heart is more than that, it’s also its inhabitants, and I can tell by experience that the people who live there and who are in charge of organizing activities for internationals try hard to make it as attractive as possible. To mention only some things: Café Polyglotte, La Joséphine, ice hockey matches, events in pubs and many more. Last but not least, there is another nice aspect about La Roche-sur-Yon: it is only 30 minutes away by train from the Atlantic Ocean! Les Sables d’Olonne is beautiful and has wonderful beaches!! And there are a lot of other nice places to explore not too far away by train or by car from La Roche-sur-Yon like Nantes, La Rochelle, Angers, Rennes, Le Mont Saint-Michel, Paris or Bordeaux! 

THE ACCOMMODATION       
Sadly, I was very unlucky with my accommodation. In fact, it was not the accommodation itself, which was bad, quite the contrary. The apartment where I lived was cute, it is less than 5 minutes by foot to the train station and not even 20 minutes by foot to the University, so it has nothing to do with its location – but with my roommates. I lived in a shared apartment with two French guys who gave me a very negative impression of French people. They were so dirty and not able to manage the household at all. I don’t even want to go into details, but my personal advice is to either try to live in a shared apartment with girls or even better to live in a dormitory.

INTERNSHIP

My personal highlight of my whole Erasmus experience was the internship. I had the amazing opportunity to spend my internship at the École St. Famille, and it was the best experience ever. I got the chance to immerse myself in the French school system and work with CP et CE1 (6- and 7-year-olds). Thanks to the wonderful teacher, who let me spent my time in his class, I could see different teaching methods and rituals in his class and learn a lot from him. However, one important point to note is that there is basically only one person who knows English and that’s the English teacher so it is a big advantage if you know French at least B1 level because neither the teachers nor the children can understand you otherwise and it is hard or almost impossible to teach without a solid knowledge of the French language. 

To sum up my time in La Roche-sur-Yon, I have to say that I learnt a lot about French culture, its people and about the country itself. Thanks to my internship I could see their school system from a different perspective and take some very important impressions back home with me. I can confirm that the stay abroad will for sure be beneficial for my future work as a teacher as I got in contact with so many different people and cultures which will for sure at some point help me to deal better and more equitably with heterogeneity in my classroom. As I had already done a semester abroad when I was 15, I would say that most of my development or change in my personality was done there but every experience shapes you somehow so yes, it has definitely influenced me in certain parts and I am grateful that I could have lived this unforgettable experience with so many great people I got to meet there.

Photos & Text: Luisa Haucke