Join Us in France · Sunday, August 30, 2026
Nan and Marty Deniston, longtime listeners of the podcast, share their experience of spending three months in Avignon to significantly improve their French language skills. They utilized a private tutor, structured their days around lessons and excursions, and found unique ways to immerse themselves in the language and culture.
“So as we got older and as we approached our retirement, we started focusing more on, that was one of our objectives, to maintain fluency and increase fluency, and also update our French. I mean, you know, we used to joke that we spoke 19th century French- … and we don't know street French or current French or, you know. So that was one of our focuses, that we really wanted to improve our fluency in French.”
“But it still does not replace a long-term stay in a foreign country where you're hearing the foreign language from 7:00 AM in the morning to, you know, midnight at night. There's no replacement for that.”
“She was a professional French as a second language teacher. And we started working our itinerary around that. So first we found the teacher, made the schedule of meeting with her twice a week to learn French, then we proceeded to look for a place to rent in Avignon, and that was a trick.”