Student Visa Details

Like Beppi mentioned, the normal procedure is to go to the nearest German consulate or embassy, which in this case sounds like it would be in France. But one usually has a local residence if not applying from their home country, so this might complicate things a bit if you are just traveling in France rather than residing there.

And it isn't clear what kind of visa you presently have? Americans don't get tourist visas; they get an allowance of 90 days visa-free travel in Schengen – so they don't technically have a visa under these circumstances.

And have all of your documentation together for the student visa. As I understand, it is one of the last steps in the process of studying in Germany. One has to first get accepted to a University which is of course based on fulfilling various requirements and producing the needed documentation. Without acceptance to a University, then no visa.

I recently read that the time to process a student visa is max. 3 weeks and 5 days – assuming all of the documents are in order. If one is just starting the process to apply to University as a non-EU student then it supposedly takes at least 6 weeks, easily more. I think the process is streamlined when one applies from a University in one's home country as an exchange student since the initial qualifications to attend an accredited University will already have been checked.