More on the Alliance Francaise

So, I've been thinking of going to the Alliance Française in either Sydney or Paris (or both) but I think I am slightly getting turned off now. My friend went to the Alliance Française in Sydney and raved about them. He also said the class sizes are small when I queried him about that (8 or less) but I've found out that the textbook they use is "Connexions" and according to the Reviews on Amazon this textbook sux. I know it's just the opinion of 3 people but I really believe it's the method that makes your learning successful or not. I might sign up for their conversation classes though because I really need to practise speaking and having a conversation with real life people!

There is quite a lengthy discussion here on KungFu Dana's blog about the Alliance Française in Paris but I think that this problem would probably mainly exist in the lower levels (A1 and A2 mainly). I could have guessed this. and I read that their classes are huge, 20 people or more. So I'm not too sure I want to go there now either :(

I know what the author is talking about.. these immature, spoilt, rich young things who probably have their parents pay for everything and don't take anything seriously and are just there to socialise - ugh!

From a quick search around the 'net I've found that all the Alliance Françaises around the world use different textbooks.. Connexions and Alter Ego are the most popular ones but I've found all of these mentioned somewhere:

Alter Ego
Connexions
Campus
Forum
À grand vitesse
Festival
Taxi