Before I begin to inspire you to Improve your French with Jazz Music this week, I invite you to visit the GET STARTED tab on my website FrenchTruly.com where you can sign up for my 3 step mini course to help you become a little bit French! It’s completely free!

Now we can start with this week’s topic: How to Improve your French with (Jazz) Music!

Vienne is the French city where I was born, almost at the same time as the International Jazz Festival called “Jazz à Vienne” I want to share with you today!

I am going to give you a quick presentation of Vienne and the festival, and remind you that we do spend one day in Vienne during our Full French Immersion Programs!

But back to our festival , I will also show you 2 kinds of videos I shot:

First of street music happening all over the city;

Second of one of the main stages designed to welcome the bigger bands. And actually that particular one was an arabo-jazzy orchestra and it was awesome! Everybody, including myself, danced and clapped all evening. It was such a happy carefree moment so I’m excited to show you! (below is a picture of Fanfaraï Big Band but you’ll see 2 videos of them above!)

Here’s a quick overview to help you picture and appreciate Vienne. It is beautiful little city of 30,000 inhabitants where you can admire 2000 years of History starting with the Roman empire deciding to make it one of its capitals because of its strategical geographic position along the large river Rhône, which flows all the way down to the Mediterranean sea.

Concretely what does this mean today?

It means when you come to Vienne, and if you are attending one of our Full French Immersion Programs you will see Vienne, you get to see Roman architecture and some of it extremely well preserved, such as a temple, which you will see in this video, an amphitheater, ruins turned into a beautiful garden, and even a remaining piece of the circus.

Once a year, Vienne celebrates music and jazz in particular, during the first 2 weeks of July.

Once a year, Vienne turns into a giant happy festive crowd dancing, strolling, lounging at cafés and eating ice cream with music everywhere you turn.

To give you an idea, 250 concerts take place during those 2 weeks, that’s a lot of concerts! 200 of them being completely free.  Each festival welcomes about 1000 musicians and singers and 200 000 festival goers! That’s a lot of visitors for a 30 000 inhabitants little city. It’s a mix of official stages and also bands playing almost at every bar and restaurant all over the city! (watch the video above to see both!)

Bear in mind this was just one evening and it goes on for 2 weeks every single day. You should come visit Vienne with or without jazz because it’s just beautiful and so rich in history everywhere you look. I mentioned the Roman origins but you will also see medieval churches, tiny little narrow streets, a gigantic stunning cathedral, renaissance architecture, houses, doors, alleys, the beautiful river Rhône – remember the very one that attracted the Romans in the first place – tons of cute little boutiques, cafes and restaurants everywhere, not to mention my favorite store of all times… Guess what it is?

If you’re feeling curious about Vienne, come experience it and practice your French during our Full French immersion Programs here in France!