For Valentine’s Day, two former IEF students come back to tell us about their beautiful meeting and the beginning of their touching story. At the IEF, we learn French but we also meet great people who are strong and wonderful!

On Valentine’s Day, a sharing of love and beautiful stories!

Who are you? Could you introduce yourself in a few lines? Where are you from? What do you do in life?

We are Alena (25 years old) and Stefan (24 years old). We come from Switzerland and are both students. Alena is in her last year of studies in a school in Lucerne. She wants to become an architect. This summer, she will have finished her studies and will enter the world of work. I’m studying tourism at a school near St. Moritz.

When did you come to IEF? How long did you stay in Montpellier?

It was in 2017. We arrived in Montpellier in the spring. I stayed there for about three months and Alena for two months.

How did you meet? Were you in the same class? Did you have any friends in common?

When Alena arrived in Montpellier, I had already been there for a few weeks. We have never been in the same class but it never takes long to get to know someone at IEF thanks to the activities offered. Today, we even still have good contacts with our friends in Montpellier.

So, let’s meet again! We had a lot of friends in common. As a result, we did a lot of outings with friends in our free time. In particular, we often went to drink glasses of wine at the bar Le Rebuffy. With the IEF, we also made many excursions together. For example, we visited Arles, Sète, the Beaux de Provence or Avignon.

During these activities together we got to know each other better and better and fell in love.

How was your stay at IEF?

We both have great memories at the IEF and in Montpellier in general. Alena and I learned a lot in class and met great people from all over the world.

After your stay, did you think you would be able to continue your story? Did you live far away from each other? If so, how did you deal with this?

Everything went very fast in Montpellier. But I think it was obvious to both of us that our relationship was serious from the beginning. That’s why we didn’t have any major problems finding each other in Switzerland in everyday life. We were lucky to live very close to each other at that time. Today we are still together and happy for almost 4 years now.

What about today? Have you moved closer together geographically? How do you live your relationship? Do you live together?

Because of our studies, we are still not living together at the moment. But in the summer of 2022, we plan to live together. At the moment, we mostly spend our weekends together. Seeing each other during the week remains difficult since my school is 4 hours away.

Thank you both for sharing your great story with us! We wish you a lot of happiness and a lot of Valentine’s Day together!