French students opt for UK experience at home

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A growing number of British ex-pats are offering an alternative to French parents who want their children to experience learning the English language with a British family, but who have reservations about sending their children to the UK.

French parents worry about the weather, the food and the drinking culture in Britain, and more and more of them are opting to send their children to British families who are resident in France.  "This is something which is really increasing," said Laetitia Maury-Laribière, the programme director at Séjours Internationaux Linguistiques et Culturels, a firm that organises home stays for French children. "They share the daily life with the family but they stay in France. The parents feel more secure. If the kids are homesick, they can come home or watch French television."

Tens of thousands of French pupils cross the Channel for paid home stays every year, but their parents often complain that they are left to their own devices, fed a diet of frozen food and ignored by the rest of the household.

In a report on the trend last week, the TF1 television station said that French teenagers were able to learn English with British families in the South of France "more than 1,000km away from the bad English weather".  It showed film of a 13-year-old girl riding a horse under a cloudless sky as her hosts taught her la langue de Shakespeare.

The cost of a week's immersion with a British family in France ranges from about 500 euros (£400) to more than 3,000 euros - no cheaper than a home stay in Britain.