Summer Abroad in Paris through UC Berkeley (currently inactive as of Summer 2022)

UC Berkeley’s Summer Abroad Program in Paris is a seven-week program, with two weeks on the Berkeley campus followed by five weeks in the French capital.  Monday through Thursday, participants take a French language or conversation course in the morning (beginning, intermediate, or advanced-intermediate level), and a French history and culture course, taught in English, in the afternoon.  Fridays and weekends are left open for students to fill as they wish. 

While the program is run through UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara students are welcome!  Course units are transferable towards a UCSB undergraduate degree and financial aid is available through UCSB.  You are eligible as long as you have a GPA of 2.0 or higher and have completed at least one year of college-level coursework by the end of Spring 2017.  The program director in 2015 was Dr. Sarah Roberts (sroberts@frit.ucsb.edu), who teaches in the French and Italian Department at UC Santa Barbara.

The program dates for Summer 2017 are: June 25-July 28.

While in Paris, participants stay in student housing in the Latin Quarter, right in the heart of the city, at the Foyer International des Etudiantes.  This is a beautiful old building, complete with a magnificent library, classrooms, communal kitchens, laundry facilities, and a rooftop terrace overlooking the Eiffel Tower! 

The French history and culture course offers a rich survey from the Romans to the present and is designed around field trips so that what is covered in class one day comes alive in the real world the next.  For example, students learn about the formidable Sun King Louis XIV, and then visit the Palace of Versailles where he lived; they learn about the French Revolution, and then explore the Conciergie prison where famous prisoners like Marie Antoinette spent their final days before being sent to the guillotine; they learn about nineteenth-century French painting, and then enjoy a tour of the Musée d’Orsay where they see examples of the art they have been studying.  Other destinations include impressionist painter Claude Monet’s house and gardens in Giverny, the Pasteur Institute, the Garnier Opera House, the Sainte-Chapelle, and the Musée de Cluny.  Students also take a tour of Paris by boat along the river Seine and go to the theatre to see a performance of Ionesco’s La Cantatrice chauve, the play they study in the program’s language and conversation classes.

For more information please go to: studyabroad.berkeley.edu/summerabroad

Or contact former program director Sarah Roberts: sroberts@frit.ucsb.edu; 5322 Phelps Hall.