I launched French Steps in 2024 to offer individual immersion courses to adult learners at my home, a comfortable farmhouse set among the Gaillac vineyards in the Occitanie region. I have been teaching French as a foreign language since 2001, working with anglophone students at all levels of proficiency. Having lived in England for over thirty years, where I also worked as a translator, I have a precise understanding of English and its syntax, which enables me to put points of language across with clarity and pertinence. My teaching focuses on stimulating a thoughtful and engaged way of learning that suits each student.

My immersion programmes balance targeted practice sessions with practical, real-life interactions – one encouraging analysis and reflection, the other pragmatism and spontaneity. I prepare each focused session to produce tangible progress, drawing on the grammar notes and topical exercises I have developed and refined over the years. In class I welcome your questions as opportunities to strengthen your confidence, your mistakes as springboards to lasting learning, and repetition as an intrinsic part of internalisation.

Along with helping me finely gauge the course content and its pace to meet the learning priorities identified when preparing your arrival, my long experience informs the way I lead you to explore, practise and consolidate each point, so as to ensure that progress is not only achieved during your stay, but also sustained afterwards.

I offer an environment and a working atmosphere that I strive to keep relaxed, focused and enriching. I work with you throughout the day, whether in one-to-one sessions, structured activities or informal moments shared at home or out, always with the aim of creating a learning climate in which you can take genuine pleasure in practising and progressing.