France
Examples of universities in France in which you could go
as a visiting student:
*Université François Rabelais, Tours, France (History,
Music)
If you look for a nice medium size city with an old and
welcoming city centre, you should feel like home pretty quickly in
Tours! Even if the city is bigger than York (300
000 inhabitants), the city centre is quite alike York's, with
various cafés, shops and historical building.
Whether you come to study History or Music, the university
building will be into town, not far away from the city centre.
Usually the days are not too busy with lectures and seminars, even
though you would have to work at home by yourself a lot, like in
any European program.
The cost of living is rather cheap if you search carefully for a
flat. You can live for example on your own not far away from the
city centre for around 300- 450 euros per month. Sharing a flat can
be of course even cheaper, and you can also find accommodation in
Uni building - but not always that cheap though.
Food in France is cheaper than in England, and, of course,
really really good! In Tours you will live in the Touraine region,
famous for its royal castles and for its wines, such as Chinon and
Vouvray.
The weather is probably similar to the one in Paris : warmer
than England but still a bit colder than the south of France. The
good thing about it is that if it's snowing, University will
probably be closed... if not already on strike!
From Tours you can visit really nice places such as Chenonceau,
Chinon, Chambord (all famous for their modern period castles), or
even Paris if you bother taking the train for 1 or 2 hours... not
that bad, I swear!
Don't hesitate to go there if you would like to see some other
things in France than the biggest touristic places you already have
heard of. Tours is a really warm student city, with a lot a music
and cultural events, so come to have a look over there!
If you would like to know more about it, don't hesitate to
contact me!
Lucile Crété
lc574@york.ac.uk
To know more about the city itself, check
this! http://www.ligeris.com/
To discover further the
university, click here!
***
* Université Charles De Gaulle (Lille 3), Villeneuve d'Ascq,
France (Languages & Linguistics, Physics)
Lille is a big city in the North of France. There are about
230,000 inhabitants and it is very close to other European capitals
like London, Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam. It takes less than one
hour and a half to go to London, 30 minutes to go to Brussels and 1
hour to go to Paris by Eurostar and about 3 hours to go to
Amsterdam by car. There are two railway stations and one airport so
it is very easy to reach the city. And the public transportation
system is very efficient, no need to walk a lot or have a car.
It is quite a pleasant city with lots of things to do : there
are museums, gardens, a zoo (the entrance is free!), shopping
centers, pubs, nightclubs, monuments, cinemas, theaters... Lille is
a city with an interesting history and achitecture. However, the
cost of living is more or less similar comparing to York (maybe
slightly more expensive).
The university is not in Lille itself but in a city called
Villeneuve d'Ascq, that you can reach in less than 10 minutes by
the underground. Students don't live on campus, they mainly share
flats or houses with other students and some still live at their
parents'. If you're lucky to live in a student accomodation, it
will only cost you 150€/month (about £130). The food on campus is
rather cheap and you can eat traditional French food, chips with
roast, pizza or pasta for about £2,50 (starter and dessert
included).
There are about 22,000 students (including international
students) and the university has partnerships with more than 120
universities in the world. You can choose to learn a foreign
language among 21 different languages from Hungarian to Japanese or
other exotic languages.
There is also a cinema on campus and they show films in their
native language with French subtitles (about £3 for a film).
I've met many international students in the previous years who
really enjoyed their stay so I'm sure you will enjoy too (and if
you miss home, it's not too far!)
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, I'd be glad
to help!
Thi Tuy Lien DO
thituylien@hotmail.fr