For Learning French, Nice Is Nice And Paris Is...
By Marc Dubois
If you want to come to France to vacation or to learn French, you can go to Paris. It's a bundle of contradictions. Noisy, grandiose, dirty, pompous, rude in that special urban cocktail that the French have concocted all by themselves.
Or you can go to another city. Like Nice on the Mediterranean coast. In Nice, the sun shines, the waves break gently on the sands that lie before the city, you can find food that has the best of both French and Italian cooking and people smile.
Do you think I am biased? You bet! But then I consider that I have good reason to be. Everything about Nice pleases me, from the balmy weather (they have snow about once every hundred years, so if you want to bring skis, make sure they are water skis) to the town with its small winding streets in the old quarter and the backdrop of the French Alps.
And they have more time. How, I don't know. You would think that everyone gets the same ration of time and that's all there is to it. But compared to the frenetic pace in Paris, its traffic jams and the surges of people in and out of the capital morning and afternoon, Nice is a city at peace with itself.
You can put your French lessons to good use and meet local people who have more time to engage in conversation with you. You can browse the markets and stroll down to the restaurants that line the quays of the port without feeling that Parisian pressure to "get on and get out".
Nice. Is it an accident that Nice is nice and Paris is, well, just…Paris?
About the author
Marc Dubois is an active instructor working in both English and French. He knows what makes learning French successful for you, the mistakes you need to avoid, and how you can have fun and make progress. Find out more on how this approach to speaking French can help you and try out a free mini-course by visiting http://www.speak-french-now.com