What does it mean to find a teacher? I have seen people beeing adviced to find a teacher countless time.
I am interessed in the practicalities of finding a teacher, since I live in France and I have never met any buddhist in my entire life.
I assume in other countries where buddhism is more widespread things are a lot different. Please excuse the naivety of my question.
What is a teacher ?
Is it the kind of person who owns of diploma or certification and teaches for a living, like one whould teach maths, history or biology in high school ?
So finding a teacher would be like attenting a class ?
Or is it more like finding a mentor, somebody who is more exerienced and who whould guide you along the path, like a friend.
Perhaps it is a mixture of both, a person who provides advices for a living by having face to face chats with it's pupils.
I can imagine the concept beeing more abstract. A teacher can be a book, or a community on the internet.
Knowing that, where do I need to go in order to find teachers ?
Are there places buddhist like to meet, like churchs for christians ? People often mention retreats or retreat centers, what are they ?
Do I need to travel to India or Tibet ? Judging from what I've heard, it seems like a must.
Please note that I am not intersted about the question of finding the right teacher, for now I just want to find teachers.
When I say, "find a teacher" I just mean, don't rely on your understanding of books alone. Go to an actual resident Buddhist master of any denomination, like a teaching Theravada bhikkhu or a Zen Master or a Tibetan Buddhism Master (Rinpoche). They usually reside at a temple (or a private residence turned into a temple) and have little sanghas formed around them. Talk to them, hang around them, and validate your insights against theirs. More often than not they got enough realization to at least check where you are obviously mistaken and point out the blind spots.

Sometimes they do lecture, like actual teachers, or do Q&amp;A - and at other times they build personal connections with students and become mentors. Expectedly, the depth varies.

As for diploma, a good rule of thumb is to prefer someone within a tradition, who can point out their lineage, to someone who is merely self-proclaimed (with rare exceptions). They usually have some paraphernalia and entourage, e.g. my Zen master had a scroll on the wall listing his entire lineage of teachers all the way back to the Buddha, not to mention that he had converted a barn into an actual traditional meditation hall in Korean Seon tradition.

Of course being a part of tradition does not always mean the teacher is good and has complete realization. You can never know for sure, until you are a teacher yourself - but a good rule of thumb is to see if they can cut through masks and bullshit and gently touch the student's heart.

If you search www.buddhanet.info you should be able to find someone in your locality; I see a Vajrayana temple in Ardennes. 

Finally, if you don't have anyone nearby, or anyone you like and can connect with, at least find a more senior fellow practitioner that can provide some guidance and support.