Amelie plays on the TV, the smell of warm crepes drifts past, and a woman plopped on the designer sofa chats—in French—about her beloved Paris.

Is this a picture-postcard scene from the Champs Élysées?

Nope, it's 4225 East Avenue in Pittsford, N.Y. And it's a typical French House moment.

For more than 50 years, the converted mansion known as La Maison Française has served as Nazareth's hub for all things French. It's a swanky residence hall for students learning French, a cool salon for Francophiles seeking a dose of French culture, and a hot ticket for foodies looking for a gourmet meal.

Romance of Languages

Living in a hall where everyone speaks French lured Hope Lester '10 (Palmyra, N.Y.) to Nazareth.

"To really learn a language you need to surround yourself with it," the French and business administration major said. "I took seven years of French, but that's not the same as speaking it everyday."

But do residents have to speak French 24/7? No. This year's students voted to speak French on the first floor—until 8 p.m.

"It sounds like a funny rule, but it makes sense," said Ben Peak '12 (Belleville, N.Y.), a French and German major who lived in French House as a freshman and is now studying in Rennes, France. "After 8 is when you have your campus friends over. If they don't speak French, you can't just yap at them in French."

So what's the punishment for rule breakers? Luckily they get off easier than Marie Antoinette.

"Everybody looks at you with scolding eyes," he said. "But we don't do guillotines or public flogging."

Speaking French almost all the time sounds daunting, but Hope says it's a struggle everyone works through.

"The conversations are pretty basic at first: hello, goodbye, how was your day?" she said. "It's beneficial having upperclassmen there because they've studied abroad. They're near fluent, so you can learn from them."

Living in the house is both great preparation for studying abroad—all French majors spend their sophomore year abroad—and a supportive sounding board when you return, explained Candide Carrasco, head of Nazareth's Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

"When the students come back from France, they tell their parents how great it was, then they tell their friends," he said. "But after a while they realize people are getting tired of hearing these stories. It's important to have a group with a common background to continue these conversations."

What's Cooking?

Every Thursday night, French House hosts events ranging from French lectures to movie nights. House members serve as ambassadors for anyone on campus who wants to attend.

They also sell quiches to raise money for AIDS Rochester and stage French plays for local schools. They play French Monopoly (where République subs for Park Place), brew gallons of hot chocolate for sledding parties (a benefit of living atop the fastest slope in town), and prank each other by hiding a fake severed leg (it turned up in Peak's Christmas stocking).

But nothing at La Maison Française is better known than the gourmet dinners held several times a year. Consider yourself lucky if you can score one of the 60 seats. When you taste the Poulet au Calvados et aux pommes, you'll proclaim "Magnifique!" (If you don’t know any French you can go with, "The cream sauce with apples makes this chicken awesome!")

Which master chef does the cooking? It's just house residents working all day under professors Carrasco or Mireille Lebreton. They duck out of the kitchen to go to class, then dash back to stir the pot. For a group of rookies, there have been few kitchen disasters. Nothing, the professor admits, that "an extra amount of sauce can't drown."

Feels Like Home

Living in a mansion has its perks. With its hardwood floors, beautiful windows, and Italian sofas, the French House is fun to show off. Carrasco describes it as "well-lived. It's like an old lady with lots of makeup—and lots of charm."

Although she loves the charm of the building itself, Hope says what happens inside means the most.

"Living here will really define your experience at Nazareth. It becomes like a home, and your friends get to be like your family," she said. "So forget the language factor and go for it."