"This is the first time that I have taken this kind of job. I was earlier working in an embassy in Europe," Leroux says.

"My main mission is to popularize French and also to hold cultural events depicting various European and sometimes even African cultures. In other words, what we are doing is akin to opening the window of the French-speaking world to China."

In May this year, Leroux and his colleagues organized a Europe day, with an exhibition of photographs from 31 European capitals. "We prepared Italian food and French wine, and had a good turnout of more than 120, considering that the entrance fee per head was around 100 yuan," he says.

"That is exactly what we are looking for as Chinese people are our main target audience rather than expatriates," Leroux says.

"Next year we are planning to do something even more bigger, like getting European delegates to come here. Chinese people often think we are from different countries, but they don't realize that France and most other European countries are part of the European Union. So sometimes we organize events in the name of the EU also."

Leroux, however, emphasizes that Alliance Francaise is a non-profit organization. He has two bosses in China - the French ambassador in Beijing and the consul general in Shanghai.

"We have no pressure to expand aggressively to earn money from students," he says. "In each country, we have a delegation to support the small centers, to help them buy tools, rent classrooms and offices," he says.

"There are also business commissions here, for economic reasons; but this is not my mission."

But Leroux does have pressure in raising money for events, as the Nanjing center is supposed to be self-supporting.

Every year the Nanjing Center teaches French to about 750 students, while in China the number is 27,000, increasing by 11 percent every year. The 10-year old Nanjing facility is a "medium-sized" center in China and has 28 employees.

"Sometimes we have to invest a big fortune on training. Last year, we sent a teacher to France for two weeks - you can imagine how expensive it is to pay for the international airfares and local hotels."

The revenue comes mainly from the tuition fees paid by the students. Every summer, the humble and little-noticed building greets crowds of students, from teenagers to adults in their 40s, who are keen to learn French.

"Usually students come during the summer vacation to study for a month, because they consider learning French as a hobby. The real 'hot season' for Alliance Francaise is between mid-September and the end of December, when students come for intensive classes before they take a language test in order to study in France."

With joint efforts from his colleagues, Leroux has successfully managed to break even on the financial front. "After you find sponsors, the event is not that expensive; and I'm lucky to have students helping out; most of the time, the events are quite cheap - for example, we invite professors to give lectures in our library, we just have to take care of refreshments.

"We publicize ourselves to more than 2 million people in Jiangsu province," he says.

Leroux is happy to be in Nanjing as there is no embassy or consulate of France. "In essence we are the window of France."