The Centre d'accueil, de développement et de formation en langues (CADFEL) de Trois-Pistoles is a non-profit organization founded in 1968. A Board of Administrators whose membership is drawn from representative regional organizations leads this corporation.

Working closely with the community leaders and l'École de langue française de Trois-Pistoles, run for the past 73 years by the University of Western Ontario, CADFEL has succeeded in creating a secure and supportive milieu for the school's French learning programs offered in Trois-Pistoles.

CADFEL has developed an enviable reputation for its administration of host family lodging, as well as for its experience in welcoming, settling, and providing language acculturation to immigrant refugees.

CADFEL has traditionally established partnerships with regional organizations and businesses in order to put in place and coordinate a number of highly regarded learning activities and programs. CADFEL has always maintained close ties with local organizations and with the local population, as both recognize the impact CADFEL has had on regional development.

Given the strength of its experience, and with the full support of its partners, CADFEL has decided to consolidate its presence in the region by creating l'Académie des langues de Trois-Pistoles in association with l'Université du Québec à Rimouski. Our vision is as follows :

CADFEL is an autonomous, non-profit organisation that fosters long-term business relations with its partners. It hopes this will lead, by 2008 to Trois-Pistoles being recognised as an international, cultural immersion and language studies campus. CADFEL, together with its privileged partner, the École de langue française de Trois-Pistoles which is administered by the University of Western Ontario, and the Académie des langues de Trois-Pistoles, promotes a diversified linguistic study and cultural activities program. This program is complemented simultaneously by an expertise that comes from long tradition and the warm welcome on the part of the townspeople. CADFEL with the collaboration of its partners and thanks to the establishment of solid partnerships with renowned academic institutions, wants to attract an international clientele. CADFEL relies on its existent contact with the Lower St. Lawrence communities to develop strategic alliances with promoters of touristic, linguistic and cultural immersion stays in order to ensure its reputation worldwide.

CADFEL is not a school as such, but rather the driving force behind a new vision of educational tourism through the development and establishment of educational stays, outdoor adventure and cultural exploration, in partnership with the tourism industry of the Lower St. Lawrence region.

These are the objectives that CADFEL has set for itself :

• Maintain on a priority basis its partnership with the École de langue française de Trois-Pistoles run by the University of Western Ontario;
• Develop the language learning sector in an original way in order to ensure that the community of Trois-Pistoles becomes a year-round center of immersion and language learning, in collaboration with both l'École de langue française de Trois-Pistoles and a post-secondary institution in the region;
• Play a major role in the integration and acculturation of immigrant refugees in Québec;
• Become an important force for the economic, cultural, and tourist development of the Trois-Pistoles / Les Basques region.