A Community-Based Cultural Exchange, For Every Generation
A Community-Based Cultural Exchange, For Every Generation
The Alliance Française of New Orleans is proud to partner with MyFamilyAbroad, a cultural exchange platform that connects families and individuals in France and the United States through a trusted international community.
MyFamilyAbroad is built on a simple belief: authentic cultural exchange grows from trust, reciprocity, and shared everyday life.
Rather than focusing on one-directional experiences, the program encourages real, human connections that evolve naturally over time — all within a secure, supportive, and accessible framework. Today, MyFamilyAbroad brings this experience to two generations of participants: teenagers seeking linguistic and cultural immersion, and adults and retirees looking to travel or host in a simpler, more affordable, and more authentic way.
MyFamilyAbroad gives U.S. families three ways to open their home — or open the world — to a teenager:
1. Host a French teenager in your home. Welcome a young French student (ages 12–18) for 2–4 weeks and offer them the chance to discover American culture from the inside. Host families simply include the teen as a new family member — no special activities required.
2. Send your own teenager to live with a French family. Give your child the experience of full immersion in everyday French life, staying with a carefully selected, vetted French host family.
3. Choose a reciprocal exchange. Your teen stays with a French family, and you host their child in return — a natural cultural match, built on trust and shared expectations.
MyFamilyAbroad isn't just for teenagers. A growing number of adults, solo travelers, and retirees are using the platform to experience an authentic, affordable, and human way to travel — or to welcome that same experience into their own home.
Travel to France and stay with a host family. Skip the hotel: stay with a French host, at a fraction of the cost, while living everyday French life and practicing the language with native speakers.
Host a French adult in your home. Welcome a French adult traveler into your home in the U.S. — no travel required. Share American life, practice your French, and build a genuine connection at your own pace.
Available year-round, with flexible timing that fits retirement schedules, off-season travel plans, or U.S. holiday periods.
Every participant — teen, adult, or retiree — joins a carefully curated community. All participating families and individuals are interviewed, vetted, and supported to ensure a safe and meaningful exchange, at every age.
This community-based approach allows people to share culture, language, and daily life in a natural and human way.
As part of the partnership between MyFamilyAbroad and the Alliance Française, members who register through the Alliance benefit from exclusive partner advantages, including free credits — whether they're enrolling a teenager, planning a trip to France, or hosting a French adult.
This benefit reflects the shared commitment of both organizations to promoting accessible, high-quality cultural exchange for members of all ages.
We're hosting two online information sessions, each tailored to a different audience:
Hosting, sending, or exchanging
Date: TBD | Link: TBD
Traveling or hosting as an adult
Date: TBD | Link: TBD