Going to France to study. Anything i should know or take before i go?

This October i will travel to France (either Rouen or Tours) for 6 years to study French language. Is there anything i should take or prepare or know before i go there to make my stay more easy and complications-free?

Don't ask to take the food home with you at a restaurant.The french think it's rude. But they don't think it's rude when you sound like a elephant when you are blowing your nose at the table when people are trying to eat.
Annoying self-ish french foreign exchange student we had

read some good books about France, like Lonely Planet. Make sure you will not get bored in Rouen, make sure to ask US people from Rouen to let you know about to avoid, etc.

Discovering a different culture is a fantastic experience. I am glad I crossed the pond some time ago and that I work in an international environment.

I found this book very interesting and I wish I had read it before I moved. Raymonde Carroll in "Cultural Misunderstandings: The French-American Experience", a French woman married to an American man, living in the USA, analyzes the US and French culture differences from an anthropologist perspective.
book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226094...
author: http://www.oberlin.edu/romance/raymonde....

Another interesting book: Edward T. Hall in "The Hidden Dimension" illustrates the concept of Proxemics with interesting points on cross-cultural understanding.
book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385084...
author:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_T._H...
Proxemics: http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/13

I recently found this book writtent by Pascal Baudry, who teaches in Berkeley, CA., that you can download for free. I haven't read it yet.
book: http://www.pbaudry.com/cyberlivre/index_...

A good practical tool based on a family experience who moved to the French Riviera: http://www.kiechle.com/france/index.htm

You could also have a glance at these articles from the Tocqueville Connection Web site:
- http://www.adetocqueville.com/cgi-binloc...
- http://www.adetocqueville.com/cgi-binloc...
- http://www.adetocqueville.com/cgi-binloc...
- http://www.adetocqueville.com/cgi-binloc...
- http://www.adetocqueville.com/cgi-binloc...

This Web site should help too:
http://www.understandfrance.org/France/I...
http://www.understandfrance.org/France/A...
http://www.understandfrance.org/

The Cultura Website by the French department of the MIT should also be interesting to explore: http://web.mit.edu/french/culturaNEH/

Bon s茅jour ! :-)