Which city should I not go to, or which cities should I go to?

I’m not sure I understand your question … are you trying to avoid places where whites could be in trouble ? Or are you trying to avoid places where blacks could be in trouble ??

As for the latter, there aren’t such places in France. I’m not sure they would in Germany either : do you mean they have like skinhead neighbourhoods ?? First time I’d hear about that !

My advice : get a school in Lyon. Nice town. Great food. Friendly people. Best soccer team. Not too many Americans I had two American english teachers when I was studying in Lyon university, one from PA and one from IL.

CRC

Orishas: Lyon is a fine city. I would have to defer to crc95 relative to racial tolerance within LaFrance. We’ve come a long way in the USA but you can still tell that racial prejudice has not been eliminated. You would know that better than me but the more we talk about it, the better we become. Donerail

hi!

I’ve heard about German skin head gangs and other such people. Germany is more conservative than France, I’ve had similar problems such as yours, and I’m lily white…

As long as you’re nice, polite, respectful to the French, you shouldn’t have any problems. The French don’t have the levels of discrimination that we have here in the USA. That being said, why don’t you consider living in Paris for while? It’s a big city and you’d love it. You could always take your vacation time and visit other parts of France to become familiar with provincal cities, such as Lyon (sorry crc)

Anyways, good luck in France!

Hi. You don’t say how long you are going to be in France and you didn’t actually say you wanted to study in France. On a quick reading I got the impression that you are going to be a fully qualified French teacher in a year and a half. You didn’t actually say you wanted to study in France.

On the assumption that you are just touring and improving language skills that are already excellent, I’m going to suggest Paris since it is such an ethnically diverse city AND it is also close to the Loire Valley where I’ve been told the most "pure" French is spoken. (Mind you, I got that information from a waitress in Paris who was from the Loire so it may not be accurate!)

Not knowing how long you’ll be there, why not start in Paris. Then you can take day trips or just relocate to the Loire Valley. If you have time, try to visit a couple other very different regions just to be able to share the experience with your students. crc95’s suggestion of Lyon is excellent and then perhaps go down into Provence for a while. You could take one of the inexpensive flights back north, perhaps to Rouen, and experience Normandy before returning to Paris for your flight home.

I taught in Haiti for many years so have many mixed race friends who have traveled extensively in France and they’ve never had problems. I think you’ll be very comfortable there.

If you’ll tell us how long you have and whether or not you want to study, perhaps we can give you some better suggestions.

Thanks a lot you guys!

What I meant to say was thatI am planning to be a teacher of English in France, not french in france, with the French Government program that they have.

Thanks for all your comments!