Parent Preparation

The Well-Informed Parent

We understand that as parents of a VIE traveler you want to be informed about your child’s trip to France. The Organizing Teacher will be your primary contact for most information about the group’s travel program.

You will receive a blue Parent Information sheet with important deadlines and policy information once your child has registered.

Before your child departs for France, the Organizing Teacher will provide you with the following information:

Program price information
Final itinerary and hotel list
Emergency contact phone numbers
Flight information
Contact information for the French host family
Information about medical and trip cancellation insurance

Your child will receive a Student Handbook and Journal, an essential tool to prepare for the upcoming trip. VIE provides students with passport pouches and luggage tags as well.

Please click here for important Parent To Do List!

Communicating with your child in France

VIE provides parents with phone numbers for the group’s hotels and contact information for the French families hosting their children. We know that parents like to be in touch with their children while they are in France, but please keep in mind that as your children are traveling, their busy itinerary will not allow for much free time for phone calls.

We recommend that you limit your phone calls to your child. Frequent phone calls can promote homesickness. Allow your children to become savvy travelers on their own!

If your child chooses to call home, we recommend that he or she purchase a French calling card that can be used from a public phone or from the French family’s home. We ask that students do not bring cell phones or laptops to France.

While your child is with his or her French host family, you may have the opportunity to exchange emails. Emailing is an excellent way to stay in contact without disrupting the plans your child and the French host family have made and taking into account the time differences between the United States and France. However, not all French host families have email and internet service in France is more expensive than in the U.S.