If you are anything like I was a year ago, you will already have pre-conceived images of how your year abroad will pan out. Personally, I was dreaming of a winter in the French Alps, skiing every weekend and having a view of the mountains from my bedroom window. When I found out that I had got my first choice of the académie of Grenoble, I was thrilled and my dream was one step closer to being a reality. However, my dreams were quickly dashed when I finally discovered that my school was in a tiny village in the Ardèche called Largentière which has no more than 800 inhabitants, and that the Alps were at least four hours away by car, or seven hours using public transport.

Upon arrival in France many things seem bizarre and inexplicable. As you continue to observe and mix within the natives you slowly begin to understand their ways. Or not at all.*

Kristin Scott Thomas is an English actress, most famous for her roles in Four Weddings and a Funeral, the English Patient and Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long. While training to become a drama teacher in London, she was told she would never be a good enough actress and so she went to work as an au pair in Paris aged 19. Speaking French fluently, she studied acting at the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre (ENSATT) in Paris, and her incredible career took off from there. Kristin brought up her three children in Paris with her French husband for 18 years, and she considers herself more French than British.