LTJ

Hi My name is lydia and myself and hubby have moved here for the next year to see how we like it. We have had our house here for five years so know the area pretty well but obviously it is differendt when you are permanently living here. Our son jack 10 is going to the local school and my other son 19 is having a gap year here with us before going to uni to study french - seemed a good option! We think it will be a great idea for him to get a job asap altho idealy we would love him to be able to go to college to study the bacaro?? prb wrong spelling! Anybody got any knowledge about if that is do-able??? I have brought my horse with me so if anybody is local and horsey would be lovely to meet up. We are very much looking forward to throwing ourselves into the local life. I am a photographer and am doing weddings at Domaind dessenderias a local beautiful chateux and hopefully some of the other castles etc in the area.

dmu

Hi, and Welcome to the France forum!
You'd have to go and see your nearest Lycée about your elder son being accepted to take the Baccalauréat (Bac for short), but be warned that the Bac is always taken over two years. Unless he's really studied French literature and grammatical analysis, he'll need extra tuition to pass the French Bac (always taken in the second-to-last year at Lycée, "la 1ère"), and he'd have to catch up on French History and geography and prepare to learn philosophy in the last year ("Terminale"), not to mention take Maths, Physics, Biology... even if he does a Bac L (literature).
To my knowledge, French pupils never do the Bac in one year, so, if your son is definitely going to Uni in 2011, it probably won't be possible...
Good luck, whatever!

LTJ

see thats why i needed to know! Thanku - to be honest its just meeting people his age and mixing that we would really want for him. So a job or college would be perfect but maybe as you say the bac a little to much of a challenge!

dmu

Hi!
Be careful not to use the term college (=further education) in France. Collège in French is secondary school before the Lycée!
I can't help as far as Further Education is concerned. There again, if no one on the Forum has had experience of this, a consultation with the "Conseiller Principal d'Education" at your local Collège or Lycée might be useful.
Your Mairie can give a list of all the Associations in your town that you can all join to meet people with similar interests and make friends.