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The City Located in the heart of the Loire Valley château country, Tours offers the advantages of life in a provincial city but is only about an hour from Paris by high speed train. Tours is a young city with a population of 125,000 (and 225,000 including surroundings) that boasts 30,000 university students, making it an ideal setting for getting to know the locals. Regional trains and buses make it easy to take day trips to visit
charming villages, royal châteaux, and delightful gardens in the area. Outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy biking on paths that
run out of town along the Loire or Cher rivers.
  
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Housing
There are two housing options in Tours:
• a private room in a suite at the Résidence Universitaire du Technopôle (arranged by BGSU)
• a room or apartment in town (arranged by the student)
Click here to view a movie by Cullen Colapietro about the Technopôle residence.
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BGSU rents furnished student apartments at the Résidence Universitaire du Technopôle for our graduate students, with the exception of those over the age of 28 (this age restriction is imposed by the French
university).
Located on the banks of the Cher River, the Technopôle is next to a large park with a lake and the Centre Aquatique. The residence
is about 15 minutes by bus from the center of town, and the program provides students with a monthly bus.
BGSU’s on-site director will assist students over 28 in finding appropriate housing, and will provide a housing allowance
equivalent to the amount that we pay per student at the Technopôle (approximately 2,100 Euros).
Alternately, students may find independent housing in town. We recommend that such students arrive in Tours no later than September 1st in order to find their housing. BGSU will cover
expenses only to the amount it pays for suites at the Technopôle (approximately 2,600 Euros but subject to change). Any housing
expenses over and above this amount will be the student's responsibility.
Courses
BGSU’s program combines special core courses taught by French faculty uniquely for our graduate students and regular university classes with French students at the Université François Rabelais. French tutors assigned to BGSU students ease their transition to the French university system while helping with course
readings and assignments. Students normally take 15 credit hours in the fall and 12 credit hours in the spring.
Required “core” courses:
• Introduction à l’analyse textuelle (3 credits)
• Grammaire et style I (3 credits)
• Grammaire et style II (3 credits)
• Civilisation française contemporaine (3 credits)
• Survol d’histoire littéraire (3 credits)
Students may choose courses at the Faculté des Lettres from any department provided that the course meets the following criteria:
it must deal primarily (at least 50% of the content) with some aspect of culture in France or the French-speaking world, which
could include literature, cinema, history, political science, philosophy, etc. All course choices must be approved by the
on-site director.
Examples of elective courses taken at the Faculté des Lettres in recent years: Histoire du roman, Histoire de la langue, La
linguistique, Art et Poésie, Littérature pour la jeunesse, L’Enseignement du Français, Pratiques de la lecture, Lyrisme dans
le roman, Tragi-Comédie Baroque, Education Sentimentale, Esthéthique Théâtrale.
Internships
Motivated students are invited to apply for an internship in Tours during the month of June. The student must propose an
area in which to work, writing a letter de motivation and providing a CV for the on-site director. Students who are accepted for an internship receive a housing grant at the
Technopôle.
In recent years, our graduate students have obtained positions at The Wall Street Institute (an English language school),
L’Institut de Dégustation, Le collège privé de Saint Martin, Le Secours Populaire (helping disadvantaged people), La Nouvelle
République (a newspaper), Arbona (luxury house products), La Mairie de Tours (in the cultural affairs office), and at the
Agence de Développement de Touraine.
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