It's a chance to spend three weeks on the French Riviera soaking up the sun and learning the language, but there's only today to get your applications in.

Alliance Française Des Bermudes is offering scholarships for high school students aged between 15 and 17 to study French and today is the deadline.

Students will leave Bermuda in July through New York directly to the airport in Nice, Cote d'Azur, where they will be greeted and taken charge of by host families.

The participants will attend the Centre International d'Antibes, an educational facility recognised for its excellent French immersion programme (www.cia-france.com). They will receive French lessons every morning, and will tour Nice or take part in activities in the afternoon.

Applicants are required to submit a 500 to 1,000 word essay in French saying why they are interested in French, their previous experiences with the language, why they should be chosen to live in a French-only environment for three weeks, and how this would benefit the applicant's future.

Alliance Française has already sent many Bermudian students to study French in Canada and France.

The Royal Gazette spoke to two previous scholarship winners, Matthew Hogan, 15, of Saltus Grammar School and Erin Vickers, 18, who is currently in her first year at Exeter University in Devon, England.

Last July, Matthew was sent by Alliance Française to a French immersion course at the Notre Dame de Fois campus at Université de Laval in Quebec, Canada.

"It was Quebec's 400th anniversary and there were a lot of activities going on," said Matthew. "We stayed in university dormitories.

"In the morning we would have four hours of French class. It could have been boring, but in fact they tried to make them interesting for us."

Matthew said the programme helped him get a better grip on conjugating verbs, and it also improved his fluency.

"It flowed out of my mouth without me having to think of words as I was speaking," he said. "While we were there the people leading the group were Québécois.

"They were university students who signed up to help with the camp for the summer. "They spoke English, but for the purpose of the camp, if you wanted anything you had to speak to them in French.

"It would get awkward sometimes if you had a complicated situation. They would be like 'quo' ?" or 'what are you saying'."

He said there were a handful of Americans and Mexicans in the group, but the majority were Canadians from the Newfoundland area.

"Sometimes we would venture into Quebec City and go shopping," said Matthew. "There were different concerts and street shows going on. The climax of the trip was when we took a bus ride, about three hours to Montreal to Six Flags."

Matthew applied to go on the trip because he thought it would be a great experience.

"I was looking for something to do over the summer," he said. "I thought it would be a way to improve my French."

He is considering law as a career.

"If you had multicultural clients it would probably help to be bilingual," said Matthew. "When companies send their employees on business trips they often look for people who speak other languages to represent the company."

He said just the experience of being away at camp was invigorating.

"It was good to be at camp with other people your own age for that period of time," he said. "There were counselors but it was 80 14 and 15-year-olds just living in a college dormitory. It was fun. We went to giant shopping malls the size of Bermuda.

"One was one of the biggest in Canada. It was balanced out, because you did learn French at the same time."

Erin Vickers was a 14-year-old Warwick Academy student when she went on her first Alliance Française trip.

"The teacher made us all enter the competition, but I really wanted to do it, because I really like French," said Miss Vickers. "It is one of my favourite classes. I got involved in that and we had to do an interview.

"They asked us about our essay and other questions to see if we were able to speak French and keep up.

A few of us were chosen from different schools around Bermuda. We all went to a camp near Mont Tremblanc, Quebec. It was lovely because it was in the summer time and very warm.

When Miss Vickers was 16 she took part in another Alliance Francaise programme for older students."They do the summer camp for the younger kids, then for the older kids then offered three weeks, all expenses paid to Cannes, France," she said. "I entered that."I had to do an essay on why I wanted to do it, and why I should be chosen."Then I had to do an interview. This one wasn't mandatory byWarwickAcademy. No one forced me to do it, but I really wanted to do it because I had so much fun in Quebec."Miss Vickers fell in love with Cannes which is known for its annual Cannes FilmFestival."The school we did French classes in was a five minute walk from the beach," she said. "We would go to French class in the morning, take our towels and bathing suits and go to the beach in the afternoon."Sometimes, we would go for dinner. It was like living there. You really got to talk to all the people there. It really improved your French.Miss Vickers is now studying law and French."I was originally going to just do law, but I really wanted to keep up my French," she said. "In the third year of university I am going to be spending a year in France in Aix-en-Provence."That is through a different programme. We had first, second and third choice and that was my frist choice."She said she has studied French since she was ten-years-old, and she really wanted to keep it up."I wanted to become bilingual," she said. "After going to France with Alliance Française, I did extra French classes once or twice a week. That really helped me."She thanked the Christian Humann Foundation that sponsors the scholarships."I think they are amazing, and it is so amazing that they put so much money and effort into it," she said. "Having another language gives you such an edge."In Europe most people are bilingual. It is not a novelty out there. It gives you so many more opportunities to work abroad if you want to, or just get around in France." For more information, contact Alliance Française des Bermudes at alliance.francaisebmyahoo.com or telephone 336-7901.