Becoming French for a week-10 days

A suggestion that might approximate your overall idea might be to arrange for an extended stay at a gîte where you would live and interact with the owner. It would take some investigation on your part and the owner/visitor dynamic required for success is an intangible that may not be easy to achieve. Still, you could look through some properties and see if any might interest you:

Many of the gîte operators do not speak English meaning you will need to speak French and most also are table d'hôte meaning that they cook for their guests.

http://www.fleursdesoleil.fr/
http://www.cheznous.com/
http://www.gites-de-france.fr/

For language study, I have heard from a number of people who have really enjoyed the Institut de Francais in Villefranche.

There is a french institute school where you can take French lessons for a week-Alliance Francaise(sp?). I'm not sure how good your French is but I believe these schools are located in different regions in France.

There are locations for the Alliance Française all over France and the world. You could prep with a session of classes before you go, and then do more French lessons when you arrive.
I have also heard good things about Cavilam in Vichy. I applied for a scholarship which the French government runs to take a class there (for French teachers in the US) and I know they do homestays and cultural excursions.
https://www.cavilam.com/en/

Road Scholar has a 45 day program in Aix-en-Provence that includes language classes, cooking, museum excursions, etc. Technically you'd have to be over 50, but I don't know how strict they are about that. Living & Learning in Provence. They also have similar programs for French language in Paris and Quebec.

I studied at CAVILAM in Vichy quite some time ago. I don’t know what they offer now, but when I was there, they had excursions, but not every day. I would imagine cooking classes could be arranged as Vichy is a spa town.

Try Workaway, https://www.workaway.info/1547311674a9-en.html. You interact with the host/family you are staying with while working the land. This option is available in other countries throughout Europe.

Thank you for posting that link, Brushtim! I was not aware of that organization. I , personally, am a bit long in the tooth to be of much use on a farm, or laying bricks, but what a splendid concept for those who are able to contribute with a bit of labor and be immersed in the culture at the same time.

Try googling “gite with French lessons” - I got a number of hits for home stays with lessons in different parts of France. Not sure these would include excursions but they look interesting!

A suggestion that might approximate your overall idea might be to arrange for an extended stay at a gîte where you would live and interact with the owner.

The problem with that is figuring out in advance what gites would fit that bill. We've stayed at a few gites, a week at a time, where we've spent time with the owners, such as having dinner at their house and/or having them over for dinner. But it wasn't planned or expected, it just happened.

gwen,

Camille Chevalier, who runs the French Today learning website (https://www.frenchtoday.com/) has relationships with several instructors scattered around France who may be able to help structure a program that meets your needs (https://www.frenchtoday.com/learn-french-in-france).

In the north west of France, in Brittany, you may have a look at http://visite.bretagne.free.fr/index.php/en/brittany-differently.html . It is located in the town of Combourg, there are both tours and French lessons, with accommodation on the spot or not. But there are no cooking lessons, this would be possible in the cities nearby, in Rennes or St Malo.