My French host sister Rose is one of those people who is incredibly pro-active and motivated professionally, I have met a lot of people like that whilst learning French in France. She does a lot of things in terms of work and has her fingers in many pies which is impressive enough. I like to think I’m fairly enterprising myself as I’m doing my intensive French immersion course for adults at the EasyFrench School in Montpellier and writing this blog alongside. Rose herself has a very cool lifestyle blog which has been inspiring for me but what separates us is that she manages to maintain, seemingly effortlessly, a very active social life. I tend to let the work pile up and spend too many free evenings in front of the computer but she manages to do a wide variety of stuff and threads it so well into her active life. I think that finding the right balance is essential for keeping yourself motivated and not burning out and that’s what I’ve been looking for since I started learning French in France. I thought she’d be a good person to learn from so I asked her what her secret was.
She told me a lot of it was down to the many ways of staying electronically up to date with what is happening in Montpellier. I had heard people at the Easy French Immersion School saying that there were a few decent sites and she said she is connected to several so she doesn’t have to go looking, she told me that a good one to start off with was MAMASOUND.
Your Best Friend for Your French Language Stay in Montpellier
This great little site is a one-stop shop for all things social and cultural in Montpellier. The home page will automatically show you a list of all types of events happening that day. They have some featured ones at the top for slightly larger events a bit further in the future so you know if there is something big coming up. You can also skip to whatever day you want to if you have a specific day for which you want to find something to do. So, you can either scan for something at any point during the week or for a specific day which is useful. You can search through the events of a specific type. There are lots of big music fans at the Easy French Language School and I think this is what it is most used for and there is plenty to see, being a student town Montpellier has got so many good events happening all year long. There are more in the summer of course when the tourists arrive to soak up the gorgeous southern French weather. The gigs they list all have a little logo and label to the side so you know what kind of genre it will be and the choice is huge!
There is a lot of variation though and on Mamasound you’ll also be able to find tons of plays and operas; the beautiful main building on the place de la comedie is an opera house and they run typical evening performances but also afternoon ones at a reduced rate so if you did want to taste the high culture of Montpellier you can nip over right after your French immersion course has finished for the day. Expositions are another big thing so whether you’re interested in hearing a discussion of a book or a particular art movement you can find something there. They are mostly in French of course but there are some talks in English and some that combine the two so you can practice everything you’ve picked up whilst learning French in France. It’s a fantastic site so rally up some of your friends from the Easy French Immersion School and explore what Montpellier has to offer. I have been using it since Rose recommended it and it’s really streamlined and revitalised my social calendar for my French language stay in France.