Why Staying with a Host Family Is the Best Accommodation Choice for Your Paris Language Stay
Choosing your accommodation is one of the most important decisions you will make when planning a language stay in Paris. You can choose a hotel, a residence, an apartment or an aparthotel, but if your goal is to improve your French, experience real Parisian life and keep your budget under control, there is one option that must be seriously considered: staying with a French host family.
For international students coming to study French at ACCORD Paris, a host family is much more than a place to sleep. It is your first point of contact with French life, your opportunity to continue learning and practising after class, and often your first real relationship with people who live in Paris.
And there is another important advantage: compared with many other accommodation options in Paris, a host family can offer excellent value for money, particularly when meals and the everyday costs of living in the capital are taken into account.
Your French course doesn’t stop at ACCORD school door
Imagine your typical day. You arrive at ACCORD at 8:45 and spend the morning studying French in a multinational class of your level with your teacher. You learn new vocabulary, practise grammar, improve your pronunciation and speak French with classmates from around the world. Then class finishes. After a nice and quick lunch with classmates, you enjoy visits with them or go back to ACCORD for additional lessons, but what happens when it’s time to go back to your accommodation.
If you return to a residence or private apartment where you spend the evening alone, your French practice may stop until the next morning. With a host family, the lesson continues naturally.
You ‘come home’ and speak French with your host, you explain what you did at school, ask questions. You hear expressions that your teacher may not have taught you, you discover how French people speak in everyday situations.
At dinner, you can talk about your day in Paris, food, films, travel, your country and your plans. Without even realizing it, you are practising French. This is one of the greatest advantages of a homestay: you are not simply studying French, you are living it.
ACCORD specifically recommends host-family accommodation for students who want a fully immersive experience, with opportunities to continue practising French after class in a relaxed family environment.
Learn the French you will use
Classroom exercises are essential, but everyday conversations teach you something different. Living with a French family exposes you to the language of everyday life:
- informal expressions
- everyday vocabulary
- conversations around the dinner table
- the cultural references that make communication feel natural.
You can ask your host: “What does that expression mean?” and instead of looking it up , you get an explanation from someone who uses it.
The next day, you can try using the expression yourself. This is how vocabulary becomes active vocabulary. And for students who need French for their university studies in France or future professional career, that daily practice can be extremely valuable.
Important French lessons may happen over dinners!
For many students, dinner becomes one of the highlights of their homestay. ACCORD’s half-board option includes breakfast and dinner every day, including weekends. This means that after a busy day of classes and sightseeing, you return home to a welcoming environment and share a meal with your host family.
And dinner is not just about food. It is an additional French lesson, but without the feeling of being in a classroom. You can talk, listen and make mistakes. You can laugh, discover French cuisine and French eating and evening habits. And perhaps most importantly, you can be yourself in French.
For students who are nervous about speaking, this informal environment can be particularly helpful as there is a difference between completing a speaking exercise in class and having a conversation about your day.
A host family can be a smart way to control your Paris budget
Paris is one of the world’s most desirable cities, and accommodation can be (very) expensive. This is why students should look beyond the advertised price of a room and consider the total cost of their stay.
With a host family, depending on the option selected, your accommodation can include breakfast, dinner or sometimes kitchen access. Think about what that means financially.
If you rent a private studio, you still have to buy food. You need to shop, you need to prepare meals, you need to equip your accommodation or pay for services. With a host family, some of those everyday expenses and practical complications are already taken care of. That is why the real value of a host family can be considerably greater than the room price alone suggests. For students on a budget, this can make a significant difference.
Compare the prices between accommodation in a host family and another type of accommodation in Paris
To help you understand just how cost-effective a homestay room is compared to other accommodation options such as residences, aparthotels, or even online platforms, here are some 2026 homestay rates.
Price per week:
- Single room with breakfast: 370 euro
- Single room with breakfast + access to kitchen: 420 euro
- Single room with breakfast + 5 dinners: 450 euro
- Single room with half-board (breakfast + dinner): 500 euro
And no “Taxe de séjour” (Occupancy tax) to be paid, a tax you will have to pay if you stay in a hotel, a residence, a hotel or an aparthotel.
What is the “Taxe de séjour” (Occupancy tax)?
Since July 1st, 2015, all clients staying in a hotel, residence or aparthotel in Paris have to pay an occupancy tax. This tax is per night and per person. It can’t be paid in advance, and it has to be paid at the reception on arrival. No “Taxe de séjour” on a host family accommodation.
And you stay in Paris, not in faraway suburbs
This is another important advantage: ACCORD’s host families are located in Paris rather than in distant suburbs.
ACCORD French Language School is located in the 15th arrondissement, close to the Eiffel Tower and Champ de Mars, with convenient Metro and bus connections. Your host-family experience combines two important elements: a real Parisian neighbourhood and easy access to your school.
Your own private room
Some students hesitate when they hear the words “host family”. They imagine that they will have to share everything, share someone else’s life and perhaps feel like a guest in a stranger’s home. The reality is different.
With ACCORD host-family accommodation, you have your own room, while becoming part of the household and adapting to its everyday routine. This is not a hotel experience. And that is precisely the point. You are not simply checking into a room, you are experiencing how people actually live in Paris. You will discover things that no hotel brochure can teach you: at what time and what people eat for dinner, what they have for breakfast, how they organize their evenings, what they watch on television, where they shop, what they do at weekends and how they talk to each other. These details may seem small. But they are French and Parisian life.
A “second family” in Paris
One of the most beautiful aspects of a successful homestay is that the relationship can continue beyond the end of your language course.
ACCORD partners have a network of host families that have been welcoming international students for many years. Some families have hosted ACCORD students for almost two decades, and many former students remain in contact with their hosts or return to Paris and ask to stay with the same family again. This is something a hotel simply cannot offer. You may arrive in Paris not knowing anyone. A few weeks later, you may have people in Paris who know your name, know where you come from, know what you are studying and are interested in your life. For a student travelling abroad for the first time, that can make an enormous difference.
A safer and more reassuring choice for younger students
For parents sending their children abroad to study French, accommodation is naturally a major concern. A host family offers a reassuring alternative to having a young student live completely alone in an unfamiliar city. There is someone to welcome the student home, someone to ask questions, someone who understands everyday life in Paris and someone who can provide a familiar presence.
ACCORD also supports the accommodation process and uses information supplied by students to help match them with the appropriate host family. Students are encouraged to provide details about their preferences and lifestyle, including matters such as smoking, pets, children and dietary requirements. This matching process is important. The objective is not simply to find an available room. It is to find a suitable living environment.
For students between 16 and 18 y.o. the accommodation option has to be “Single room with half-board”. No other option (like “Single room with breakfast”) is possible.
You arrive ‘at home’
Another advantage of organizing your accommodation through ACCORD French language school is that you have support. Once you have enrolled and selected a host family, ACCORD’s accommodation partners’ process helps prepare the placement, and students can contact their host family before arrival. This gives both sides an opportunity to introduce themselves and makes the first meeting much easier.
Discover French culture from the inside
A language stay should be more than a series of French lessons. You come to France because you want to learn French but also understand France. A host family gives you access to the country from the inside. You will discover:
- French food: not just what you see on a restaurant menu, but what people eat at home.
- French way of life: the routine in the mornings, evenings, weekends and family life.
- French conversation: everyday language.
- French culture: traditions, habits, humour, television, music, celebrations and everyday life.
- Parisian life: not the Paris of postcards alone, but the Paris where people live.
The perfect option for solo travellers
Travelling alone can be exciting, but it can also be lonely. After a day of French lessons, you may return to an empty hotel room or studio. With a host family, there is a much greater possibility of having someone to talk to. Perhaps you will have dinner together. Perhaps your host will recommend a museum or a ‘quartier’ to visit. Perhaps they will tell you about an exhibition you had not heard of. Perhaps you will spend part of the weekend together. Or perhaps you will simply have a conversation in the kitchen. These apparently ordinary moments are often the ones students remember most.
With ACCORD you can choose the option that suits you
Not every student wants the same experience. That is why ACCORD offers different host-family options.
You can choose, subject to availability:
- Single room with breakfast
- Single room with breakfast and kitchen access
- Single room with breakfast and 5 evening meals
- Single room with half-board (breakfast and dinner every day)
The half-board option is particularly popular because it combines accommodation with breakfast and dinner every day, giving students both convenience and additional opportunities to practise French.
What makes an ACCORD host family different?
Choosing a homestay independently through an online platform can feel uncertain. Who will you be living with? Where exactly is the accommodation? Does the host regularly welcome international students? Will they understand that you are here to learn French?
With ACCORD, the host families are part of a network specifically accustomed to welcoming international students. ACCORD’s accommodation partners carefully select families, and students’ profiles and preferences are used to help identify an appropriate match. This experience matters. A family accustomed to international students understands that you may make mistakes in French. They understand that you may not know every French custom. And they know that communication is part of your learning experience.
A host family is not just accommodation. It is part of your French course.
This is perhaps the most important thing to remember. When you book a host family together with your French course at ACCORD Paris, you are effectively extending your learning environment from the classroom into everyday life. For example:
- Morning: French lessons.
- Afternoon: explore Paris, study, meet friends, or additional French lessons at ACCORD.
- Evening: dinner and conversation in French.
- Weekend: discover Paris and French life with your language skills becoming increasingly natural.
This is why the combination works so well. You learn something in class, you use it at home, you hear it again, you try it, you make a mistake, you try again, and French becomes less of a subject you study and more of a language you live.
Your Paris experience starts when you choose where you live
When planning a trip to Paris, it is tempting to think only about the French Language School, the French course and the attractions you want to visit. But your accommodation will shape your entire experience.
A host family can give you something a hotel or rented flat cannot: a home base, a daily connection with French life, opportunities to practise French, meals, human contact and a genuine sense of belonging. And because ACCORD’s host families are located in Paris, you can enjoy the capital rather than spending your language stay commuting from far outside the city.
For students who want the best combination of immersion, comfort, cultural discovery and value for money, a host family is difficult to beat.
Come to Paris to learn French. Stay with a French family to live it.
Your French course at ACCORD teaches you the language. Your host family helps you make it part of your everyday life. Together, they can transform a few weeks in Paris into something much more memorable than a language course. It can become a life experience, one that continues long after you have returned home.
Choose ACCORD Paris, choose a host family and discover what it really means to live French in Paris!
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