If you are planning a trip to France (or another European destination), you might want to pick up a bit of language skills before you head off into the Parisian sunset. Enter Manisha Snoyer, educator and proprietor of Into this City. This unique company not only offers foreign language classes, but also provides acting classes in both English and French.

Among the French classes scheduled is Act French for Travelers, which is further described as a basic French language class with cheese tasting. My husband and I attended this class on a Friday evening earlier this month and were pleasantly surprised. In addition to learning key terms and phrases concerning introductions, ordering food and inquiring about where someone is from, Snoyer offers participants with the opportunity to sample four different French wines, each paired with a different cheese.

Moreover, drawing on her acting experience, Snoyer teaches language skills utilizing a variety of activities and games. There is very little occasion to sit still in this class. Instead, students are called upon to identify pantomimes to reinforce the names of months, adding a physical or tactile learning approach to the already verbal one, further enhancing knowledge acquisition. Afterward, while standing in a circle, a ball is tossed from person to person, with each one calling out the French number in sequence. Next, the assembled group is divided into smaller groups and menus are distributed. Returning a few minutes later in the guise of a server, Snoyer takes each member’s food order. And, toward the end, classmates must circulate throughout the room, asking an assigned question and providing a prize (stickers) for correct responses en Français, of course.

Breaks between these exercises are punctuated with the wine and cheese, while French music plays in the background and the structure, aromas and flavors of the wine are discussed. Admittedly, Snoyer is not a wine educator, but she does a nice job with this aspect of the class as well.

The students themselves were a diverse mix of people — different nationalities, different ages and different professions — adding to the atmosphere and congeniality of the evening. All in all, it was a lot of fun, and, we even improved our French. Bien sûr!