Back from Lac de Bois

We got back yesterday from Lac du Bois on Turtle Lake, outside of Bemidji, Minnesota. French immersion camp was exciting, exhausting, and refreshing. Grace didn't hardly seem to pay attention to what was going on sometimes, since her attention wandered often - and yet it was very clear by the end of the week that she was picking up everything. We have some photos of the trip posted that you can see by clicking here. I have some of the photos below.

Would we go again? Absolutely. Aimee brushed up on her French, Grace got her first experience, and I finally developed a foundation in French. By the end of the week, I was understanding something new every hour. It was amazing how the immersion experience worked. The staff was outstanding - including native French speakers from Morocco, Canada, Cameroon, Switzerland and of course France.


Paris in the center of all action in Lac du Bois. This is where meals are served and where everyone congregates for activities.


Twice per day, we broke into small groups, divided by our ability to speak French. Here an instructor helped us practice speaking French. This is Nelson's group, led by Josephine from Cameroon, who was fantastic.


Aimee was in the more advanced adult group, led by Yani, from Cameroon.


This is the Swedish language village for immersion into Swedish culture and language. All of the villages owned by Concordia Language Villages are constructed in the style of the country.


They have all sorts of creative ways to get everyone speaking French. Here, at the Crocodile Cafe, the children pretend to be waiters taking orders in French from the customers.


During fencing, I was unbeatable!
(Actually, I duelled with the two instructors.)


The food was excellent, and all food served was traditional food in a French-speaking country. Beacoup du baguettes. They had an espresso machine for the adults available all day long. And before every meal they took 15 minutes or so to talk to us in French.


Speaking of baguettes, Holden loved them. And they were an ideal distraction to let us eat.


And of course, Turtle Lake is beautiful, and excellent for canoeing.


Staff perform skits at various times of the day to help teach French. One of the staff studied acting in Paris, so the skits were often quite funny with pratfalls and other humor.


They pull out any trick they know to get and keep the children's (and parent's) attention.


The staff don't see any babies all summer - so Holden was very popular. The staff would pass him from staff person to staff person, and we would see Holden being carried all over the village.

Here's a slideshow of all pictures: