This paper reports on an experiment carried out in December 2021 with students of the preparatory course for French as a Foreign Language (EFLE) at the University of Lausanne, which resulted in a visit to the exhibition "Van Gogh alive". The objectives were the appropriation of language through a project in the artistic field as well as socialization and acculturation around this project. The approach includes a phase of impregnation upstream with the realization of a role-playing game in class which allowed the mobilization of useful language resources before the visit (lexicon, syntax), then the real visit and the writing, afterwards, of an e-mail reporting on the said visit. In this article, we will therefore rely on an analysis of the role play conducted and filmed, then on some photos of the visit as well as on some activities carried out afterwards and on a written production testifying to a student's feedback on this experience. In this context, we are particularly interested in the role of sensations and emotions in language learning, and in the links between this experience of a "living" language and creativity.