Le Tour de France

Yesterday I blogged my list of resources for 14 juillet.  Today, here are some useful links and resources for another important French event which will be taking place at the end of this term: the Tour de France.  Please feel free to add in the comments any links that you think other people would like!  you can find a list of French festivals and celebrations here.

• The Tour de France website
  
• Podcast about the Tour de France, and its transcript
  
• List of useful words, with explanations, from the BBC
  
• Some online activities, including a quiz, from the BBC
  
• BBC Newsround article about the Tour
  
• A labelled diagram of a bike
  
• Bike-related games and puzzles from Momes.net
  
• Lots of resources from Tête à Modeler
  
• "C'est quoi, ce maillot jaune?" Article from 1 jour 1 actu
  
• Interactive game and quiz in French from FranceTV
  
• Lesson ideas from Teach Primary

14 juillet

After this week there is only half a term left of this academic year.  We are starting to think about our lessons for that last half term, and starting to look for resources that will help us to include 14 juillet (la Fête Nationale / Bastille Day) and the Tour de France in our French lessons.

I've been looking around for some resources for 14 juillet, and thought I'd share my findings here.  Please feel free to add in a comment any resources that you've found that you think people would like!

• Qu'est-ce qu'une fête nationale? explanation of the event from 1 jour 1 actu
  
• Information about Bastille Day on Wikipedia
  
• Fête nationale - dossier from Momes.net, including information, games and craft activities
  
• Useful links and information from Fête-enfants
  
• Dossier from Tête à Modeler.  Lots of craft activities.
  
• pdf dossier of information from Citoyen de demain.
  
• The children's book La tour Eiffel a des ailes ends on 14 juillet.  Here's a video of it.  Bout de gomme has resources for the book, like this one.
  
• Symboles de la République from Bout de gomme
  
• Make your own Paris
  
• Podcast about 14 juillet.  Transcript here. 

French festivals and celebrations

Festivals and Celebrations are a part of the new GCSE syllabus, and we are always looking for cultural aspects to include in our French lessons in Key Stage 2.  Yesterday's post had a list of Spanish special days, so today here is the list for French.  Again, if I have missed any, please let me know in the comments.

You can download my French Festivals and Celebrations Tarsia and dominoes here.

le Jour de l'An	1st January	New Year's Day
la Fête des Rois	6th January	Epiphany
la Chandeleur	2nd February	Candlemas
Saint-Valentin	14th February	Valentine's Day
Carnaval	February, leading up to Lent	Carnival
Mardi Gras	Tuesday in February	Shrove Tuesday
la Fête du Citron	February/March	The Lemon Festival
Pâques	March/April	Easter
Lundi de Pâques	March/April	Easter Monday
Journée Internationale de la Francophonie	20th March	International Francophonie Day
Poisson d’avril	1st April	April Fool’s Day
la Fête du Travail	1st May	Labour Day
8 mai 1945	8th May	VE Day
Lundi de Pentecôte	May	Pentecost
Jeudi de l'Ascension	May	Ascension
la Fête des Mères	last Sunday in May	Mother’s Day
la Fête des Pères	3rd Sunday in June	Father’s Day
la Fête de la Musique	21st June	Music Day
le Tour de France	July	the Tour de France
la Fête Nationale	14th July	Bastille Day
l'Assomption	15th August	Assumption of Mary
la Rentrée	beginning of September	the return to school
la Toussaint	1st November	All Saints' Day
l’Armistice / le 11 novembre	11th November	the Armistice, Remembrance Day
la Veille de Noël	24th December	Christmas Eve
Noël	25th December	Christmas
la Saint-Sylvestre	31st December	New Year's Eve

Reading about France and French culture

Sometimes I have a young class which needs settling at the beginning of a lesson or a class who finish all their work and need a little something to fill in the end of a lesson.

I have a selection of reading books in English but about France and French things which I read to them on such occasions. I thought I would share with you the books that I have:

Mr Chicken goes to Paris to visit his friend Yvette, and they go on a sight-seeing trip.  Nobody seems to notice that there is a giant yellow chicken in the city!  I think this is Year 2's favourite.

A little girl and her grandfather go on a walk around Paris.  There is lots of useful information about the sights of the city.

Adèle picks up her little brother Simon from school and they walk home through the city of Paris.  On the way, Simon manages to lose most of his belongings.

Anatole is a mouse who gets himself a job tasting cheese in a cheese factory.

A Lion in Paris is the (fictional) story of how the statue of a lion came to be in the Place Denfert-Rochereau in Paris.

Do you have any recommendations that I could add to my list?