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...

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...

          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...

Where have the last two months gone?? With my apologies for the lateness, here are handouts and links for topics we've covered in October and November 2019.           1. Movie: Demi-paire Demi-paire is a court-métrage (short film) by Yannick Pecherand-Molliex. The movie itself is silent, but we used it in class as a way to practice descriptions. I've adapted my class handout from the document created by the Institut Français . (Their document includes an answer sheet and some information about the film's author. It's designed for the teacher, though, so it's not easy to understand.)           2. Joyeuse Halloween ! Halloween was almost unknown in France fifteen years ago, but now it's everywhere. Cultural enrichment or commercial exploitation? You decide... Here are the activities we did in class: Halloween Vocabulary (created by mafaldita47 at  ISLCollective ), followed by Halloween Crosswords (also by mafal...

Here is everything we studied in connection with Chapter 13 of French Made Simple . 1. Shopping for clothes Our study of numbers took us on a detour down the clothing aisle of our favorite department store. We started with the following exercise from Podcast Français Facile : Listen to the price  (numbers from 1 to 400): t his text describes a customer's shopping trip to a boutique. Listen to the audio file from the link above and fill in the prices in  the class handout . I adapted my handout from   this original pdf , which includes the answers.  Buying Clothes   (created by tkdana at ISLCollective ): w e took the shopping theme a little further with these two short dialogues between a customer and a clothing store attendant. In class, we used these as templates to improvise little dialogues.  [BEGINNER] Clothing vocabulary : t his is a useful vocabulary list, also created by Podcast Français Facile . You can hear an audio vers...

Tentez votre chance ! ( Try your luck! ) Today we are talking about the loto . When people in France talk about jouer au loto , they can mean two things : either the National Lottery , which is drawn every night or so on TV ( here's a random example ), or a more traditional game that resemble the American bingo. The latter is also called loto traditionnel , quine or loto bingo , depending on your region. (I'm from the South-East and I've always called it "loto".)  Organizing loto evenings is a great way for associations, towns and villages to raise money. They can take place year-round, but they are particularly frequent around Christmas. The prizes are usually donated by local businesses. Here is a TV news report about one of those events in the town of Saint-Sauveur, in the South-West of France: I handed out in class a transcript of the video , with accompanying vocabulary. Each one of the cards used to play loto is called un carton . Y...

As we've seen, feasting takes a prominent place in Christmas and end-of-year celebrations in France. So, after all these excesses, in early January, what do French people do? They eat cake! 😂 The "fête des Rois", or Épiphanie, is a popular holiday for French people, no matter their religion (or absence thereof.) The video shown in class, from FrenchPod101.com, gives a very good overview of the subject. Our first handout this week was a crossword puzzle with accompanying vocabulary (adapted from this webpage .) We also worked on a fill-in-the-blanks exercise . You can find here the audio document the exercise above is based on. Scroll up and click on the first video to hear the text. Just under the video is a multiple-choice exercise you may find entertaining, and a little below is the full transcript of the text. And, by the way, how do you make this famous galette des Rois? Well, apparently, it's child's play. Enjoy! 😋

As we end 2018, here are some handouts and links that, for some reason (such as me being absolutely terrible with anything having to do with the Internet) never made it to the blog after I taught the corresponding class. This is material we studied between June and September 2018. Hopefully, posting this, even late, will be useful for returning and new students alike.       Texts / Dialogues La fête des voisins: Neighbors Day      1. Text and exercises:  Voisins, voisines      2. Learn more about France's Neighbors Day  here Booking a Table      1. Dialogue:  Réserver une table au restaurant      2.  Dialogue in pictures  (both documents created by  carolebim  at  Tes )       Exercises Crosswords to Practice the Present Tense      1. Mots Croisés:  présent des vacances  (created by  dodeuil  at ISLC...

For our last class of the year, here is a series of Christmas-related links and resources.  I hope you'll find them interesting and entertaining.  🎄 Joyeux Noël à tous, et à l'année prochaine ! 🎄 Here is the first video we watched in class, explaining how Noël is celebrated in France.  The video is in French, with both French and English subtitles. It is produced by FrenchPod101.com. The second video we watched comes from a language school in Germany. This one is only in French (with a little bit of German.) But don't worry, it's not difficult ! Clic Here  for the class handout that includes questions about the video, as well as a full transcript. I also recommend the following videos: Christmas in France: So. Much. Food! (video in English) Easy French: Noël in France (Interviewing French people about Christmas. A great way to hear the way regular people talk. In French with both French and English subtitles.) Easy Fren...

The first part of our class about devinettes (guessing game) was a couple of beginner-level dialogues from Podcast Français Facile , introducing the vocabulary and sentence structure needed to describe an object. Here are the two dialogues (with the audio recordings), and the accompanying vocabulary . [BEGINNER] We then used a vocabulary in pictures about classroom items in order to practice the guessing game. (source: ISL Collective, originally created by mafaldita47 and updated by me.) [BEGINNER] And finally, here is the list of 10 devinettes we went over today. You all did a great job guessing the answers. Congratulations! 👏

Si vous avez manqué un cours (ou perdu une feuille), voici ce que nous avons étudié lors des cours précédents. If you've missed a class (or lost a handout), here is what we studied during the previous classes. Dialogues Le petit déjeuner   ( Breakfast) (source: podcastfrancaisfacile.com) À la boulangerie   (At the bakery) (source: ISLcollective, créé par sarahISL) Grammaire (Grammar) Les articles (source: grammaire française Larousse) Exercice: articles partitifs   (source: podcastfrancaisfacile.com) Grammaire : articles partitif ou pas ? (source: ISLcollective, créé par arliette) not either/not anymore Women's professions and titles Fêtes et culture  ( Holidays and Culture) La Saint-Valentin   (Valentine's Day) (source: podcastfrancaisfacile.com) Jeux olympiques d'hiver   (Winter Olympics) (source: ISLcollective, créé par silvia lefevre) Lexique du printemps   (Spring Vocabulary) (source: ISLcollective, créé pa...