The Absolutely French team is made up of people recruited for their values and skills:
caring, listening, service, excellence and creativity.
The bonds we share as a team are evident in this photo, featuring some of our incredible members, including our five independent teachers: Marie, Olivia, Karine, Dorothée, and François.
The hand you see is mine (Armelle), and the threads represent our shared values: sharing, caring, listening, helping each other, and tolerance. We started the photo shoot and ended up swaddled in these threads, symbolising our unity
Armelle Perben –
CEO Absolutely French
Armelle loves organising surprises, games (all of them!), Paris: especially the lively districts where you’re always meeting new people, French cuisine and good wine, especially Burgundy! Kindness is her watchword. As the spouse of an expatriate in 7 countries, she created Absolutely French for the well-being of expatriate spouses, and to develop their potential. Armelle loves sharing her knowledge, and ‘boosting everyone’ – she’s not the founder for nothing. She has made Absolutely French a second family.
Pauline Allais –
Community Coordinator
Pauline looks after the practical well-being of the students on a daily basis. She also organises and runs Absolutely French events. Finally, she runs the community on Slack. With her refined palate, she loves sharing her passion for wine with others, by recommending food and wine pairings or organising tasting evenings.
François Ledroit – Teacher
After teaching abroad, he realised that he would thrive best in welcoming people from other backgrounds to France. Supporting, listening, explaining – in short, sharing – are the foundations of his work. All he has to do is sprinkle in a little humour and a lot of good humour.
When he’s not on the course, this apprentice yogi, amateur swimmer and film buff is always ready to set off with camera in hand to discover new regions, new countries and new cultures.
Marie Nilsson – Teacher
As a theatre fan who has always practised and taught, she is the best person to put you in imaginary situations, with or without costume, and to invent ever more daring games! With Marie, you won’t feel like you’re learning, and yet! She’s incredibly efficient! She also loves to sing and make you laugh!
Olivia Kurkdjian – Teacher
As a fan of board games and an advocate of a different kind of teaching, you’ll get plenty of attention from Olivia, who is a gentle and caring person. She knows how to manage a group like no one else and will integrate you quickly. She knows Paris like the back of her hand, so adventure is always at the end of the road with her.
Sandrine Caro – Teacher
Sandrine has been a teacher since January 2023. She runs the courses, monitors the learners and acts as an educational consultant for her groups. She is also responsible for relations with the learners in her groups.
Sophie Buzer – Teacher
Sophie has been a self-employed teacher since March 2023. She runs the courses, monitors the learners and acts as an educational referent for her groups. She also acts as a relay, passing on learners’ requests or questions to the team.
Emilie Lefèvre –
Teacher
She skilfully gets the best out of everyone. With her, no-one is sidelined – people are her forte. She’s our Play and Learn specialist. She loves travelling around Paris and France to give us the keys. Her mantra? ‘Knowledge is built together, our wealth is what we learn to share’. Our students love her for all this, and so do we!
Karine Bererd – Teacher
Formerly the spouse of an expatriate living on several continents, with a natural aptitude for meeting foreigners and a keen interest in exchanging intercultural experiences, her path was clear for her to join the friendly Absolutely French team! Her watchword? Tolerance: indifference to our differences. An undeniable unifying element!
Manuel Cardenas -E-learning Engineer
Straight from Colombia, with a passion for swimming and yoga, he is the quiet force of the team. His mission? To prepare top quality lessons to help you progress quickly and effectively. His kindness and pedagogy have proved their worth with our members!
Kelly Gros –
Community manager
A little extravagant and always ready to listen, she brightens up our days with her good humour! Always hungry for food and new expressions, she communicates with you on all the networks and shares her good tips and our Absolutely French adventure with you!
Chloé Lacombe –
Community manager
Bubbly and creative, Chloé concocts some stunning visuals! On the lookout for fun facts and other original Parisian tips, she’ll always have the right address to recommend. Curious and with the utmost precision, she enlivens the Absolutely French community with ever more unexpected information. There’s no routine with her!
Valérie Biguet –
Teacher
On her return from expatriation, she needed to return to this multicultural environment that is so enriching and open to the world. Her mission: to bring the richness of our beautiful country and language to expatriates in Paris. Dynamic and curious, she loves sharing and discovering other people, their culture, their habits and their country …. never a session without a smile, laughter, good humour and the pleasure of learning.
Laurie Ambroise –
Web developer
Passionate about computers. She codes better than anyone! She looks after our e-learning platform, our intranet and the Absolutely application. She’s the one who responds to technical changes that need to be made. She also loves video games, raspberries and Frida Khalo!
Absolutely French is a responsible company whose aim is to integrate foreigners arriving in France through French, culture, language and Club “Absolutely French”.
Working in harmony with the environment is one of our core beliefs.
This is also reflected in the organisation of Absolutely French.
We use only recycled paper for our course materials and advertising brochures.
We offer our students meals cooked with organic, seasonal and, as far as possible, local food.
The aperitifs, wines, coffees and teas served with our lunches are also organic, for the sake of the planet but also for the health of our students.
We save water, with a rainwater recovery system; we have a compost heap, and sort our waste. Our cooking utensils are as environmentally friendly as possible, with ceramic frying pans and stainless steel saucepans and kettles.