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French Studies Program
Main Image for Study Abroad Programs

Study Abroad Programs

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Why Study Abroad?

The mission of our recommended programs in France is to:

  • register students in courses taught in French alongside French students;
  • expand cultural experience through life with a host family, internships, and cultural events; and
  • provide academic and logistical support, such has applying for the carte de séjour, facilitating the opening of a bank account, and enrolling in courses.

Affiliated Programs

Center for University Programs Abroad (CUPA)

CUPA is a rigorous immersion program enhanced by personalized methodology and language mentoring, and by the extensive academic, cultural, and personal resources provided to its students. A mutually demanding and rewarding relationship exists between CUPA and its participants, based on interaction, dedication, and individual advising, and common values of respect, responsibility, and independence. CUPA offers semester, year, and summer programs.

Academic Programs Abroad (APA)

The uniqueness of APA is that it offers American college students the opportunity to discover a new culture by immersing themselves in French academic, cultural, and social life. We believe that it is only through immersion, however surprising and difficult it may sometimes be, that one will be able to fully comprehend the very heart of the French culture and society and therefore able to master the language. Take classes in one or several Parisian universities (over 10 to choose from) and study in any desired field. For each university course, APA creates an additional course called a “Cours Complémentaire.”  This “cours,” or course, is taught by the actual university instructor as as means of suppont to help students to bridge the gap between the French and American educational systems and prior curriculum difference.

Optional joint internship with IFE: A valuable complement to APA Paris’s university placement know-how, IFE provides solid expertise in intensive cross-cultural learning in workplace settings. It offers an ideal setting to help students perfect their language skills and acquire comparative knowledge and experience in their chosen field.

Institute for Field Education (IFE)

For more information on IFE, visit their website: ife-edu.eu/.

Institut d'Avignon

The Institut d'Avignon offers a six-week intensive program in French literature, history, and theater studies, founded in 1962 by Michel Guggenheim and René Girard. Some courses carry graduate credit. The Institut director and faculty members are French professors, teaching in colleges and universities in the United States and Europe. Classes are held at the Médiathèque Ceccano. Library and research facilities are available to the students in the Médiathèque Ceccano, with its fine collection of 250,000 volumes, and at the Université d’Avignon. Applicants for admission must have strong academic records and have completed a course in French at a third-year college level or the equivalent.

At the Médiathèque Ceccano, and during all activities of the Institut, students are required to converse only in French. Students will be asked to sign a pledge agreeing to comply with this rule. During the Avignon Festival, students will have an opportunity to attend plays produced by various French drama groups. The cultural and architectural wealth of Provence will be explored on Wednesdays.

Christian Destremau Scholarship Fund


Christian Destremau Scholarship Fund

Christian Destremau is one of the most loyal supporters of Bard’s French Studies Program. His generosity has enabled us to send our most motivated students to study in France. A number of these students are now pursuing graduate work in the best French departments around the country. Destremau is a freelance French historian. His coauthored Louis Massignon: Le Cheikh Admirable (written in 2005 with Jean Moncelon) won the Grand Prix de la biographie de l'Académie française. The book documents the life of one of Lawrence of Arabia’s great rivals, a legendary professor at the Collège de France whose writings about Islam remain essential today. His most recent book is Ce que savaient les Alliés (What the Allies Knew), the gripping account of the thousands of secret messages—unearthed by Destremau in the British Library—written by the German and Japanese during World War II. Destremau’s discoveries and daring interpretations are creating a sensation in France; they are already forcing us to reassess what world leaders and politicians really knew. Destremau has been very active with human rights and has volunteered in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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