The area surrounding the IES Center also offers many shops, cafes, restaurants, and theaters. Orientation begins immediately upon arrival in Nantes with a full week of intensive language study. In Nantes, students are housed in private rooms with local families to facilitate integration into daily French life. The host family provides daily breakfast and three additional meals per week. Students must rely on their own resources for other meals.
Many students choose to eat at university cafeterias or inexpensive local restaurants.
Students who wish to make independent housing arrangements may do so. IES organizes field trips as an integral part of its programs. Throughout the year, the IES Nantes staff organizes several one and two day trips to nearby places of interest. Field trips to the Loire Valley and Mont Saint-Michel usually take place the first two weekends of each semester. Additional excursions that may be taken are to the Bordeaux vineyards, Normandy with its W.W.II landing beaches, the south of Brittany and the Gulf of Morbihan.