The challenges and benefits of having your natural family in Rennes.

If you are anything like me, change is scary. Thus, it should come at no surprise that when I arrived at the airport for my flight to Rennes, I was terrified. Travelling alone to a foreign country, with a foreign language was enough to put me in tears. I wanted to pack up my family in my suitcase and take them with me, but this was simply not possible. I would have to face the challenges of study abroad by myself. After all, I only had to wait two weeks before my family would come and visit me in Rennes. I held onto that fact as I boarded the plane.
 

The first two weeks in Rennes were not easy, I would be lying if I said they were. Things that normally felt easy were hard, and I missed my family. Everything was new or different, even if just by a little. Therefore, when my family finally arrived two weeks later, I was overjoyed. The first day in Rennes I took my family around the city to explore. We ate at my favourite boulangeries, walked around the shops in the city centre, and I showed them where I had been taking classes. It was so special to get to share everything I had been learning about Rennes with them. However, as with any trip or vacation, there were some unexpected challenges. Most mornings in Rennes I would visit Columbus Café for a coffee before class. That is why I decided to take my family there for breakfast on their first day. This is when I had my first unexpected challenge. I realized very quickly how challenging it is to order for a family of four when you are the only translator. Normally, I would have no problem ordering for my family in
English but when I was tasked with translating in French I became immediately overwhelmed.
 

Another unique challenge was switching between French and English on the spot all day. After speaking French for 2 weeks straight I was excited to speak in English, but it proved much harder to jump between languages than I had predicted. More than once I spoke English to the server and French to my family on accident. 

My final unexpected challenge was transport. I had planned my family’s trip using the metro because I had been using public transport to and from school everyday. What I had failed to consider was that they would need metro cards. These were all simple problems with simple solutions. And yet after two weeks of new and challenging experiences, they felt way bigger than they were. I was a little frustrated that my family’s visit was not feeling as easy as I had hoped.
 

Despite the challenges, the trip was also incredibly special. It was not until I took my family to dinner at a crêperie that I realized the immense progress I had made in my French skills. When you are surrounded by students in the program who are also progressing, it’s hard to recognize self growth. Being around my family made me realize how much I had learned, just in two short
weeks in Rennes. Additionally, my biological and host families had a chance to meet one another and my parents and sister got to see what life was like for me as a student abroad. It was nice to bring something from home into my new space in France.
 

Ultimately, bringing family abroad was not as easy as I imagined, but it was also far more rewarding than I had anticipated. Now when I call my parents and sister they have context for my stories and I can share moments of my trip knowing they will understand it just a little bit better. Overall, I feel very grateful that my family came to visit me and that I got to share this
beautiful city with them.

Laine Bénard
Tulane University, New Orleans
Calgary, AB, Canada

CIEE-Rennes Summer Intensive French Language 2025