French with Flo

 France is a very diverse country. Each region has its own geography, landmarks, culture, characteristic landscapes, and even its own language in some cases. To complicate things, the administrative entities known as régions were re-arranged in 2016. The new map is supposed to be simpler, but personally, I'm still getting a bit confused! I guess it will take some time getting used to it... Here are a few activities to discover French geography and famous landmarks. Geography exercise :  La France, tu connais?  (document created by  FranRC91  at ISLCollective). In this exercise, you'll have to identify France's main rivers and mountain ranges, and associate cities, regions and pictures. Here's the answer key . [Beginner] French landmarks and regional features , based on the map from the exercise above. We started in class to identify and explain the numerous illustrations appearing on the map. This is an ongoing, collective effort. Here's the list (in progress)...

 " Les Grandes Vacances " is the term French schoolchildren use for the Summer vacations. They're called "big" because they last over 2 months, from late June to early September. Since workers in France get in general at least 5 weeks of paid vacations, families often take a long trip together during the Summer. Since we're having this class over the Summer, let's explore together the theme of Travel and Holidays with a couple of activities. Vidéo : Destination de rêve . This video produced by Easy French is a " micro-trottoir ", which means a video where ordinary people in the street are asked to answer a few brief questions. In this video, various French people talk about their dream destination for the vacations. Texte et Questions : Le voyage . Easy text with comprehension questions. [Beginner] And finally, talking about traveling, you may enjoy " La ville de Paris vue du ciel ", a quiz about Parisian landmarks based on a video ta...

 As you all know, July 14th is the French " Fête Nationale " (National Holiday). Here is a series of videos and other resources that will teach you (almost) everything you need to know about this special day for the French.  (By the way, you can also have a quick peek at my former blog on the topic , from the year 2018. I had focused mostly on "La Marseillaise", the national anthem.) In the first video I shared with the class, Ingrid from FrenchPod101.com gives a quick introduction to this Holiday. The video comes with French and English subtitles, so it's suitable for all levels. The second video we studied in class focuses on the Bastille , the royal prison that was stormed by insurgents on July 14, 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution. This is part of the "Karambolage" series on the German and French channel Arte .  Click here to watch the video.  I also wrote a transcription of the video with some vocabulary notes. Since the above vid...

Bonjour ! I hope everyone is having a very nice dimanche de Pâques (Easter Sunday) despite the shelter-in-place order ( le confinement in French). Since we're all at home, I thought you may enjoy a few fun, Easter-related activities in French. By the way, do you know that Pâques is one of the weirdest French words ? (Yes, I know, that's saying something...) The word Pâque  (no final "s") is a feminine singular when used in the expression " la Pâque juive " (which means Passover). Example: Le pain azyme est un aliment traditionnel de la Pâque juive . (Matzah is a traditional Passover food.) The word Pâques  (referring to the Christian Holiday) is a masculine singular (despite the final "s") when it is NOT accompanied by an adjective. It is never preceded by an article (such as " le "), either. Example: Parfois Pâques tombe en mars, parfois il tombe en avril . (Sometimes Easter falls in March, sometimes it falls in April.) But...

You already know that the French take gastronomy very seriously, but even so, cheese occupies a special place in our hearts and on our tables. No meal is complete without a piece of cheese. A lot of restaurants even offer lunch menus ending with "fromage ou dessert" (either cheese or dessert). I wonder if many people outside of France would consider that a piece of cheese is an acceptable alternative to a slice of gâteau au chocolat or a crème brûlée ... How many French cheeses are there? Hard to tell, but it might be in the thousands, according to this article . In the following activities, you'll get acquainted with a few of the most popular ones. Crossword exercise: Lexique des fromages de France (document created by dodeuil at ISLCollective . Includes answer sheet.) Quiz des fromages français , with answer sheet (based on this document .) Similar to wine, cheese is more than a food: it's a way of life, connected to many traditions and customs.  For example, do ...

Here is everything we studied in connection with Chapter 16 of our textbook, French Made Simple .           1. The Second Group Verbs (-IR) This is a set of regular verbs whose conjugation follows the verb FINIR . Remember, not all verbs ending in -IR belong to the second group. There are also some verbs, such as partir or venir , that belong to the third group and are irregular. See my previous blogs on the first + second groups and the third group for more information. Besides the grammar notes in the textbook, here is what we studied in class on this topic: Lesson on the 2nd Group Verbs  at Podcast Français Facile , with their handout .  This lesson includes a useful list of 2nd group verbs that are derived from adjectives, with the corresponding adjectives. (Be careful, there is a typo in their handout. the verb épaissir means "rendre  épais ", not "rendre paix". ) Also from Podcast Français Facile: a  dialogue (wit...

La Chandeleur (Candlemas), on February 2nd, is a very popular Holiday in France. The main reason? You've guessed it, food, once again! More precisely, in this case, crêpes. Candlemas is a religious Holiday (it celebrates the presentation of Jesus at the Temple) and it's also based on older, Roman and Celtic traditions, but to everybody in France, it's mostly known as Crêpes Day . If you want to know more about la Chandeleur and its origins, you can check the videos we watched last year on my previous Chandeleur blogpost . (Note: for the second video, you can find a transcript at the end of the handout.) Since we didn't have time to talk much about crêpes last year, I decided to focus on them this year. The following video explains how to make a very famous recipe: the Crêpes Suzette , which are cooked in citrus sauce and flambéed. The chef in the video uses lemons, but more traditional versions call for oranges, or sometimes tangerines. The alcohol used can be coin...

          1. Happy new year ! Since, in France, it is acceptable to offer New Year wishes until the end of January , I'm still on time! All joking aside, here is what we did for the first class of the year 2020 : Bonnes Résolutions  I made this handout using images and descriptions from documents found at ISLCollective (created by  silvialefevre , freedombird and sylviepieddaignel ). The first page of the handout presents a list of possible New Year resolutions. The second one has images that relate to the resolution list.  Working in pairs, the students asked each-other, about each image, if they wanted or were going to make that resolution. We ended the class by sharing our favorite resolutions, which I found very inspiring!           2. Who Am I? Famous Names in French History I found this series of portraits and quick descriptions of well-known characters in French History on the blog " La cla...

Unsurprisingly, the last class of the year had a seasonal theme! Thank you so much to you all for your cards, gifts and kind words. They mean a lot to me and I'm so happy to have such wonderful students. Thank you also for the amazing food. I'm sure we have the best potlucks in the Senior Center! 😋 This year, I had three Christmas-related handouts: Christmas Eve - Image Description (created by silvialefevre at ISLCollective.com) Christmas Vocabulary  (created by jannabanna at ISLCollective.com) Text - Fill in the Blanks  (created by cranberry2 at ISLCollective.com) Finally, here's a beautiful Christmas song about children and world peace. I hope you'll enjoy it. And here's the karaoke version: