LES ATELIERS FL - INTERNATIONAL HOUSE Reviews 

The examiners are the best and the kindest. The ambiance was very cool and far from the stress.

The school - incuding the only toilette - is kind of gunge. The rooms are inappropriate for schooling: bad acustics and bad ventilation.
The teachers are between good and very good, the didactics are very good - except the temporary help, who ius completely un able to cope.

Worst experience in a language school in my whole life.

The school is completely disorganised and they are not able to meet everyone's needs: they don't give you a book to study and you are obliged to bring your laptop, moreover -after sending an email with the timetables - when I arrived the first day, they changed my timetable from the morning to the afternoon straddling the lunch break, with these timetables it was impossible for me to make the most out of the day (I couldn't visit almost anything in 2 hours time in the morning, because museums open at 9 or 10 and my class was starting at 13, and from 12:00 I had to have lunch and move towards the school). When I asked to be moved, I was told no. The reason? They didn't had enough classes or professors because they gave all the classes to big school groups. This makes me understand l that they give more importance to organised groups from schools or companies, whom are likely to come back next year, so if you go there as an individual they treat you with less importance. Also, my impression is that, the advanced class was treated better, they always had classes in the morning (during 3 weeks they never changed that to make it equal and fair). Also, EVERY WEEK THE TIMETABLE WAS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT, for the filles au pair or working students it was impossible to organise themselves, and they had to skip some classes!!

The school hardly ever organises activities and if they do, it's in the afternoon. Having the classes in the afternoon was impossible for me and my classmates to participate.

There were only two classes (beginner+intermediate level and advanced level), I was placed in the lower level class, but the students with me had a much lower level than me, I am B1 and I had people in the class who needed explanations in English (A1). Even the students in the advanced class were not happy, because the levels of participants were too different. Also, the lessons were quite boring and sometimes too easy for me.

The school doesn't have a suitable structure at all, there's no computer room for example, and in general in my opinion it's not up to standard: one day in class the TV fell on the teacher's head (very dangerous and unprofessional). All the chairs in the coffee area were stained with damp, the school in general stank of damp. There was only one toilet which was always dirty and not at all accessible and there was no water to drink either.

None of the students I spoke to were satisfied with the school.
______

Update/answer after reply: I am sorry, I don't want to be mean, not every school is up to the better standards, everyone knows it, but the truth must be said. I am not the only one who has noticed these problems in the school - especially the change of schedules and classes with different levels (i.e. the review dated 12/12/23), and the activities scheduled during class time (i.e. review dated 11/08/23). One only has to read the other negative comments to see the correspondence of many of my complaints.

Also, I would like to make it clear that it is not my problem if the school is in a busy period or if the test you make us take before arrival is not effective. If I get an email saying that my classes will be in the morning I expect to have classes at that time.

Moreover, when I complained about the level of the class I was put in, you told me that the higher level class was full "maybe next week" you told me. Then you said i
I was not ready for the higher class. Ok, I can understand, but how comes you don't have an intermediate class? This is unbelievable. So, to make me happier you promised me to give me more advanced exercises to be given "in parallel". I agreed because I thought it would go better. But the fact remains that the service is not up to the standard of many other language schools.

Then, many older people or adults, had difficulty or did not want to use computers. You insisted and made them do the classes with their desk mate (from one computer) and only the older ones were given photocopies. This is not professional at all, at the reception stage you could have asked each one about his or her needs so that everyone could enjoy the classes, but you did not.

As for the activities, the girl in charge is very smart and nice and does her best, however she is probably not supported enough by the school to organize things other than going for coffee at the café, taking a walk around town, maybe once visiting a museum... in 3 weeks those were the only activities you organized ahah WOW

This is not the fault of the girl who organises the events, it's the school that is disorganised.

Best regards,
Susanna

I had a fantastic experience in my French class ! Met fantastic people and had a wonderful teacher ! The area is beautiful and full of places to explore.
I wish I had some more time to practice at the school. Perhaps some extra activities would be helpful.

The building and its location is beautiful, but the rooms for teaching are very small and when its raining it is hard to get frech air inside…

The staff and the teachers were very gentle.
The way of teaching was a big dislike for me. It was like 25 years ago in school.
You make absolutely no use of the fact that we are in France and could go outside to learn in Real Life. 20min of the whole week were planned to talk to french people in Biarritz for an Interview.
And there was no use of online tools. It was useless to bring a Laptop of an iPad as you asked for.

Make people speak while they are having actual fun and you will be surprised how quick humans can learn.

I have a supportive opinion of my girlfriend who is a studied educator for adults and she says that the way of teaching is so much outdated.
Its a pity because all the schools, including for children, in France and Germany, never change.

I really enjoyed my stay at the école. I learned a lot and had small classes, which was very helpful to advance my French. I am super grateful that my afternoon class took place regularly, although I was the only student in that class.
The école is beautifully located close to the beach, which allows for nice breaks between the classes.
Really the only thing I would have wanted differently is that there was no window in my class room but that would not keep me from coming back.

The teachers were nice and very helpful, it was also very interesting to have the lessons completely in French.

It was a really cool experience and I got to meet many other cool people from around the world - many from the US and Brazil in my course.

I would highly recommend booking 2+ weeks, because with only 1 week you just barely connected with the other people and don't have a weekend to spend in the city

Upgrading courses (i.e. standard -> intensive) when there is really easy, but downgrading is often not possible.

-1 star because the housing situation with guest families can be a bit chaotic and a few people in our course had some issues with theirs.
I would personally recommend booking only breakfast (if at all) for housing, as the dinner cuts into your evening activities and was very minimal anyways in my case

Overall a great experience and I would recommend anyone who wants to learn some French to visit them in Nice :)

The whole experience was amazing. I would like to thank all the school staff for being so kind and also thanking Mona for being a great teacher.

Even though I could understand French well before coming to this school. The classes and activities presented opportunities to talk about a range of topics which I would not have had staying at home or even travelling around the country myself. I now feel more confident actually using the language.

Good teachers and great location that allows for surfing during lunch breaks

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed her experience at a week long stay in Biarritz. It was the perfect balance of language learning, activities, surfing and fun. My daughter found it really easy to make friends and the programme was varied enough over the week to keep everyone busy and entertained. The language teaching was good with students organised by ability and all instruction given in French. Biarritz is safe and easy to navigate by bus. Definitely worth the time and money!

It was ok, but I was hoping to have more structured classes and be able to advance in levels after 4 weeks. But when I arrived I was placed in a B1+ level and stayed there the whole time. There was not another more advanced group. My teacher is more of a spontaneous teaching method and often spend a lot of time asking the same question to each student. I would have preferred to have more structured classes where each day you will learn or review a topic. But overall it was ok.

It was an incredible experience studying here, I am very grateful for their professionalism, their hospitality and their kindness. I highly recommend the school as they have excellent teachers.

Pros:
The staff was really great. The location is very central. The teachers make an effort to explain everything really well.
Cons:
The course was quite expensive. The class room was way too small for 7 people. It gets too loud when the windows are open and too hot when they are closed.

The school was great and so was the activities, but our host family was absolutely terrible. She barely gave us any food and forgot to give us both lunch and breakfast several times, the apartment smelled really bad and the lady didn’t flush the toilet when she had gone there. She also didn’t talk to us and was barely home.

First of all, Madame Geraldine was very nice and really patient with us. She made us understand and the class environment is really good. I have learnt alot and will be back next semester.

Best professors
Commitment
Sense of humor
Deepness
Experience

Best of the best : Marie-Louise, Audrey Nicholas and Geraldine

Le professeur Marié est magnifique!
Mon expérience été très bien, Je vais continuer avec pratique et faire exercices. Merci beaucoup por una expérience exceptionnelle.
I am very new to the French language and I really like it.

Attending les ateliers was overall a good experience. The teachers have different levels/methods of experience teaching. So, I would encourage anyone to change teachers if you are having a difficult time.