Summer Language Camp in St-Cergue

Language lessons run Monday to Friday mornings, fifteen hours a week, and each student takes French, English or German. A placement test on the first evening sets the level, and levels run from beginner to upper-intermediate. Classes are capped at six students per teacher, which is the number the camp builds its timetable around rather than a best case.

The weekly price covers lessons, accommodation, homemade full board with snacks and special diets, three excursions a week with tickets and transport, the full leisure programme, round-the-clock supervision, the registration fee and a certificate of completion. Room upgrades, the intensive course option, accompanied train travel and the airport transfer are booked separately.

Students stay at Château Monteret, the camp’s own house in St-Cergue, set in private forest above Lake Geneva. A place in a shared 10-bed room is included; 5-bed and 2-bed rooms are available as paid upgrades. Supervision is round the clock.

Full board is prepared by the camp’s own kitchen team, with snacks between meals. Meals are made from locally sourced vegetables, meat, butter, honey, fresh milk and Swiss cheese. Special diets — gluten-free, lactose-free, vegetarian and others — are covered at no extra cost; the kitchen only needs to be told in advance.

Afternoons alternate between excursions and ateliers. Three excursions a week are included with tickets and transport, and they run to Lausanne, Geneva, Nyon, the high ropes park, the lasergame, or a hike and a swim. On the other afternoons there are sports on the camp’s own football and basketball grounds, art classes and cooking workshops. Evenings run from barbecue and campfire to camp games, movie night, and an international evening with karaoke and a disco. Saturday is a sleep-in, a special breakfast and a cultural excursion.

The camp occupies a private complex in the Jura Vaudois Nature Park at about 1000 metres, with its own football and basketball grounds, table tennis and campfire areas, and its own kitchen. The Chèvrerie-Monteret railway station is a short walk away, which is how the camp reaches its excursion destinations. Geneva airport is around 35 minutes by car.

St-Cergue is a village of about three thousand people on the Jura plateau, looking across Lake Geneva to Mont Blanc. Filolo is authorised by the DGEJ, the child and youth authority of the Canton of Vaud. A week runs from Sunday arrival to Saturday departure, and students who stay longer remain over the weekend on the supervised weekend programme.