The French Department offers a wide range of courses in French and francophone language and literature, contemporary France, cinema, and more. All courses are taught entirely in French.

Valedictorian Nora Marie Fiore '12, a French and Film & Media Culture double major, celebrates at Commencement with Middlebury College President Ron Liebowitz. (Photo by Brett Simison)

Activities

The department sponsors concerts, plays, films, and lectures, open to the campus and the wider community. Students also have many other opportunities to use French outside class, including at the French tables and the Maison Française.

Students perform Ionesco's Rhinocéros in the Château theater.

Study abroad

Middlebury College has its own School in France, with sites in Paris, Poitiers, and Bordeaux. A large number of students-by no means limited to French or International Studies majors-study in France or another francophone country every year. It is possible to begin French at Middlebury and study abroad in the junior year, sometimes in combination with a summer at the French School.

Le Château

Le Château was built in 1929 as one of the first Maisons françaises in the country. It houses French Department courses, French faculty offices, and a theater for foreign language productions.