We Graduated!

​Mon-Fri, February 23-27, 2026 — Villefranche, France

Alas, the last of our four weeks at “l’institut” is done! Personally, I could have spent another four weeks here as there’s absolutely no shortage of things to learn or practice. Maybe next year!

View of the Institut from the garden

It has been a little sad saying goodbye to our classmates and new friends. Meg and I certainly plan to visit folks the next time we’re in Europe!

Lunch with Victor (Meg’s teacher), Kei, and Bradley
“Seance Practique” in the Grand Salon with Sylvie

I think we actually ended up eating out every single night this last week as a result of wanting to spend time with everyone. Monday night, a small group got together at the one restaurant on the main road above town. I wrecklessly went out on a limb and ordered the steak tartar, not realizing it would be premixed with horseradish, which I’m not a big fan of. Penny kindly offered to exchange with me. 

Penny, Jan, Claire, Nicole, and Meg
Steak TarTar

For Tuesday night, we had planned a small gathering at the bar down the hill. Ironically, the impetus was to say goodbye to Dennis, who in the end wasn’t able to make it. We made due without him — some beer, some appetizers, and a few ferocious games of “baby-foot” (foosball)!

Where is Dennis?
Baby-Foot!

Wednesday night was a special dinner to celebrate the last week. The food was excellent as usual prepared by the school chef Anthony. It was super fun chatting with the other students as French was pretty quickly abandoned among the din and wine!

Clockwise from left: Nicole, Claire, “Moi”, Zoe, Meg, Mark, and Jan
Mmm
Chef Anthony and Sarah (his wife)

Thursday evening, I joined most of Meg’s intermediate class for dinner down by the waterfront. Two of her classmates, Inna and Valentina, are Russian, so it was fun to talk to them, mostly in French. There is, apparently, quite a large population of Russians in Monico. 

Meg’s class: (left to right) Mark, Meg, Victor (teacher), Jan, Julie, Zoe, Penny, Stefan, Inna, and Valentina

Friday, the last day of school, there were no classes (yea!) Instead, we were all given the exact same test as the very first day (boo!) — beginning, intermediate, and advanced students alike. The test took less than two hours, but evaluated our written and oral comprehension skills along with our written and oral presentation skills. The writing portion was simply to quickly compose one or two sentences describing four simple drawings, while the speaking test required us to spend five minutes alone with a teacher describing a series of 16 pictures — a family going through their daily routine. Of course, for me, this was pretty basic… “The man is getting dressed, then he goes to take a shower.” I definitely wasn’t getting any points for creativity. 

My class! Me, Kako, Christine, Elodie (teacher), Nicole, Kei, and Bradley

Finally, after our final lunch together, we got together in the Grand Salon. Together, we sang a famous 1947 song by Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose, before being poured a glass of champagne, and being called up to get our certificates. Although the certificates are certainly not a big deal, it was super nice to all be together one last time, and to cheer for our fellow classmates one at a time. 

Champagne in hand!
Meg with “le directeur,” Frédérique

Although, I didn’t feel that confident about the test, I apparently did reasonably well — at least compared to my first test (note to self: always set a very low bar!) In the end, three students were recognized as having “bien pase” (well passed) the class and three as having “tres bien pase” (very well passed) the class. I was genuinely surprised and pleased to be the final student called up for my certificate. Maybe I learned something.

Getting my certificate 
Me with Frédérique and Elodie
Cheers! All done!





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