CAREL (Centre Audiovisual de Royan pour l’Etude des Langues) was created in 1966 jointly by the university of Poitiers and Royan’s City Council.

As soon as the University of Poitiers and Royan City Council had agreed to run CAREL jointly, the school became a pioneering centre for language teaching with audiovisual methods and priority was immediately given to oral expression and oral comprehension with language laboratories, a TV studio etc.

From the very beginning, CAREL offered language training especially French for foreigners. Ministries, Embassies, cultural centres and many other international organisations put their trust in CAREL. Then other languages (German, English, Spanish, Arabic and Russian) were also offered to French learners.

In 1970, the CAREL reacted decisively to new market conditions and demands, adopting new techniques, using the most-up-to-date technologies to create its own audio-visual based contents for courses and meeting orders from large publishing houses.

Then CAREL pursued its technological development by creating an information technology department and a multi-media resource centre. 

  

CAREL is now a multilingual centre that hosts over 70 countries every year from the five continents where French and international students meet for rich and varied cultural exchanges.

With its interactive teaching methods and exceptional multimedia equipment CAREL belongs to those highly efficient centres which recognize the needs of learners.