Leuven Travel Forum

Hello....I speak Dutch and English and some Chinese, but now I'm looking at learning French. What is Leuven like? I am a 25 year old student, interested in a serious French certification. What does Leuven have to offer? Are there any universities or colleges there? What is the night life like? Please let me know any good insight!

The University of Louvain is one of the oldest and most respected in Europe. It was established in the early fifteenth century.

Leuven/Louvain is a beautiful old, university town. If you want somewere very traditonal with lots of history, this would be a nice place for you. I was lucky enough to stay as a guest in one of the student inns there.

Here is a nice link:

www.trabel.com/leuven/leuven.htm

Leuven is a Flemish city, you won' t be able to study in French there. It is a very beautiful city, with lots of students around and a great nightlife.

If you want to take your studies in French, you are probably talking about Louvain-la-Neuve, which is more or less the French equivalent of Leuven. It has less to offer regarding sites or nightlife though.

And to make it completely complicated. Leuven = Louvain in French. So when French speak about Louvain, they mean Leuven, not Louvain la Neuve. Complicated, isn't it? :-))

The story is that there used to be two universitites in Leuven, one Dutch-speaking and one French-speaking. Then the French-speaking one moved to Brussels, but still kept the name (they claim the city did not want to have a French-speaking university and they were forced to move). The bottom line is that the university which is located in leuven now is not French-speaking.

Blanter's story is incorrect. There never were TWO universities in Leuven. There has always been only ONE university in Leuven. Originally being a Flemish university, having passed through a period that the courses were mainly taught in French, it had become bilingual by the first half of last century, meaning that (almost) all courses were given both in Dutch and in French.
When it split in 1968, the French courses did not move to Brussels. A complete new village was built near Ottignies: they called the place Louvain-la-Neuve, which means New Leuven.
In 1970 the two universities became completely independent.
The "Dutch" university in Leuven is called "Katholieke Universiteit Leuven".
The "French" university in Louvain-la-Neuve is called "Université Catholique de Louvain".
Translated in English, it is exactly the same: "Catholic University Leuven".
And of course you can study French at the Flemish university in Leuven.

Thank you for posting that. I didn't want to be the one to say it!

Thanks for the posts.....apologies for my naivete....
Leuven seems like a fantastic town, but I think it would be advantageous to me if I lived in a french environment even outside my learning program...I speak Dutch fluently, so there is no point to learn if everyone around me speaks Dutch!! Next question, then....where to go that is:
1)a primarily french speaking region
2) has a 'recognized' french program
3) has a good ambiance
4) still is relatively inexpensive to live

Well, generally everything below Brussels is French-speaking, and even Brussels is mostly French-speaking, allthough it is a bilingual city.

Possibilities:

- Louveain la Neuve: lots of students, not really a beautiful city.

- Mons: nice little city, lots of students as well

- Namur: nice city and nice green surroundings.

- Liège: sorry, don't know that city very well.

- Brussels: maybe the best option, multicultural, in the heart of Belgium and Europe, lots of things to do.

I don't know if all these universities offer the programm you look for. You might need to contact them.

Greetz,

Chinagazer, your story is also not 100% correct. This is what they write at the official site of the University:

Mais c'est tout près de nous, au vingtième siècle, qu'il faut chercher un nouvel événement majeur de son histoire. En 1971, suite aux pressions du monde politique flamand, hostile au maintien d'une université francophone sur le sol de la Flandre, l'Université catholique de Louvain est purement et simplement dédoublée en deux universités distinctes, l'une flamande qui reste à Louvain (en néerlandais Leuven) et l'autre francophone qui émigre pour la plus grande partie dans le Brabant wallon, sur une terre qui prend le nom symbolique de Louvain-la-Neuve. La Faculté de médecine s'implante, elle, à Bruxelles (Woluwe-Saint-Lambert).

http://www.ucl.ac.be/institution/temps.html

Anyway, it is not really important for the OP question.

The medical campus of UCL is indeed in Woluwé.

What is the longest VT forum thread ever? LOL