A Dedicated Team of Teachers

We are a team of qualified native French speakers who strive to offer you a full “Language Experience”!
Our teachers maintain a passion for the French language and culture and their bubbly and supportive personalities make learning fun and interesting.

Marion KermannSchool Director

Marion joined French à la Carte as a teacher in November 2019, and as its director in July 2020. Born and raised in Paris, she has been teaching French and English for over 15 years, in France, Burkina Faso, Belgium, and Estonia, before settling down in Sydney, where she has also worked at the Alliance Française and Macquarie University. Her experience in Customer Service and Project Management combined with years of teaching in various organisations are put to very good use to run French à la Carte and organise various new projects and activities for its students.

Her favourite French word is ‘voyage’, because it is what best describes the last 10 years of her life, and the many more to come!

Cathlin BarrettProject Coordinator

Cathlin is an Australian-born Francophile who looks after the marketing and communications for French à la Carte. Her French learning journey began at the age of 12, and she’s been in love with the language ever since. Her 2 young sons share this passion, as they are being raised in a bilingual household.
With a background in PR and event management, Cathlin is also an experienced language teacher who has worked in Canada, France and West Africa.

Her favourite French word is ‘patatras’ as it perfectly describes the sound when a tower of blocks comes crashing down, a common occurrence in a house of young boys!

Florence Perino-BertTeacher

Florence joined the French à la Carte team in 2013. She comes from Avignon and moved to Australia in 2012. She has a Languages Teaching degree from the University of Montpellier.
Her career spans more than ten years teaching French and Italian to corporate professionals and diplomats in Paris and Provence.

Florence’s favourite French word is ‘pipelette’ – because she has a lot of them in her classes!

Fanny GeppTeacher

Fanny comes from Paris. She moved to Australia in 2007 with her family after having lived in London for many years.
In 2013, after 20 years’ work experience in the hospitality industry, Fanny undertook a career change to follow her passion and genuine enthusiasm for the French language and its culture. Fanny is now a qualified DAEFLE teacher and joined French à la Carte in 2015.

Her favourite French word is ‘bienveillance’ – a difficult word to translate in English, she likes what it represents: empathy and kindness.

Blandine ContonTeacher

Blandine joined French à la Carte in October 2017, only a few weeks after arriving from France! She holds a Master’s degree in teaching French as a foreign language from the Paris Sorbonne University. She started working as a French teacher in various language schools around Paris and moved for a year to Latvia and two years to the Philippines, teaching French to university students.

Her favourite French word is ‘gourmandise’ because it promises the pleasure of chocolate and other sweet things. And Blandine has a sweet tooth!

Marie-Françoise AlexanderTeacher

Marie-Françoise has been teaching at French à la Carte for many years. She has become our conversation class specialist thanks to her enthusiastic personality and extensive cultural knowledge of all things French.

She regularly travels to her second home in Franche-Comté, a beautiful region in Eastern France near the border of Switzerland.

Marie-Françoise’s favourite French word is ‘libellule’ because this insect, with its translucent wings, evokes the lightness and fragility of people and objects.

Maëlle MaurinTeacher

Maëlle joined French à la Carte in October 2019. She’s from the Paris region and studied social work and education at university. She arrived in Australia in 2016 with plans to travel, but has now decided to stay in Sydney. In March 2020 Maëlle became a qualified DAEFLE teacher.

Maëlle’s favourite French word is ‘apéritif’ because it usually involves cheese, wine and saucisson!

Blandine Midi-BoutryTeacher

Blandine was born and raised in the Paris region but calls the Loire river valley her ‘French’ home. She studied Interior Architecture in Paris but upon her arrival in Australia decided to dedicate herself to the teaching of the French language – qualification obtained from UTS in 1999. She has since worked for different institutions, transferring her enthusiasm for the language and culture to all age groups.
She started at French à la Carte in 2018 as a replacement teacher and is now part of our dedicated team.
Her favourite word is COULEURS because without them life would be pretty dull.

Caroline ThimonierTeacher

Caroline grew up in the Rhône-Alpes region of France and has a degree in Languages, Politics and Economics from Grenoble University. She moved to Australia in 1993 after a career in industrial marketing and training in several European countries. As a qualified teacher of French as a foreign language, Caroline joined French à la Carte in 2012.

Her favourite French word is ‘étincelle’ because it sparkles!

?? THIS MIGHT BE YOU!!

Interested in joining our Team ?
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