French and German Summer Camp at Estavayer-le-Lac, Switzerland

Two courses run side by side: French and German. Each is twenty lessons a week, Monday to Friday from 9.00 to 12.30, in groups of an average of six students. Levels run from A1 beginner to C2, close to mother tongue, and the group is set after a short placement on arrival. The school describes its teaching as the opposite of school benches: young teachers, speaking and using the language first, and the same teachers with the group again in the afternoon and evening. Extra afternoon language units in still smaller groups of two to six are sold separately.

The price covers the twenty weekly lessons in the chosen language, two workshops and three excursions a week, the evening programme, accommodation in the camp house, full board and the registration fee. Paid options are listed under Extras: the sailing course, a weekly water-ski or wakeboard session, a special diet, laundry, check-in assistance at the airport, accompanied train transfer from Bern or Zurich, and an upgrade to a four-bed room with its own shower. The school also sells extra afternoon language units and, for participants who decide during the camp to stay another week, an extra week - it publishes both only as a starting figure, so neither is carried here.

The camp house Abri Cotier stands two hundred metres from the Nouvelle Plage sandy beach, at the entrance to the Grande Caricaie nature reserve. It has sixty-four beds in two buildings - a sleeping block and an annex with a common room and kitchen. There are four four-bed rooms, each with its own shower and WC, and four multi-bed rooms; the multi-bed rooms hold twelve beds but the school limits them to ten children to leave more room and comfort. Life at the beach camp happens mostly outdoors, which the school says suits older teenagers who do not mind a rainy day.

Full board in the camp house. The timetable gives breakfast, lunch at about 12.45 and dinner at about 18.30, with a brunch on the arrival day. A special diet - gluten-free, lactose-free, vegan, halal and similar - is arranged for a charge listed under Extras.

Afternoons run from about 13.30 to 17.00 and change through the week: the optional sailing course or the optional afternoon language units, creative workshops, a beach day, and karting or laser game. Three excursions and two workshops a week are included, and Saturday is a full-day excursion to Fribourg. Water-ski and wakeboard sessions on the cable lift are sold by the session. Evenings are campfires, games, cinema and disco.

WiFi, a common room and a kitchen in the annex beside the sleeping block, and the beach five minutes' walk away. The sailing course runs with the Cercle de la Voile at Estavayer-le-Lac, and the water-ski cable lift on the lake is, in the school's words, the largest in Switzerland.

This is the oldest of the friLingue camps and the school describes it as small, familiar and with a good vibe. Participants are twelve to seventeen and come from Switzerland and from abroad, which is the mix the school builds its camps around. Arrival is on Sunday between about 17.00 and 18.00 at the house; departure is on Saturday afternoon at the station of that week's excursion town, or on Sunday for children who have booked a return airport transfer.