Our Vacation to France!
A WebQuest for French Students

by Lee Kirby
University of Richmond

Introduction| Task| Resources| Process| Evaluation| Conclusion

Link to Teacher Page- Information for Teachers about this webquest.

Introduction

Your family has decided to take a trip to France. It's the first time you have been to France and you are all excited. This is your one chance to absorb as much of France and what it has to offer in just one week. The problem is that each one of you has different interests and likes so you must make an intinerary that fits all of your interests and needs. Once you are in France you have to visit all of these fun and exciting places and bring back information and pictures for a scrapbook. You want to have a great trip and bring back plenty of memories!

Your task as a "family" is to search the net for places in France that fit your interests, "visit" these places, gather information, and take "photos" of the places you visit. When you get back "home" you will put all of the information and "photos" into a scrapbook so you can have a place for all of your family's memories of your trip to France.

A map of France - (Use this to pick cities to visit!)

On the internet there are many resources to find information about France and what it hasto offer. Here is a listing of these sites for you to "visit" and gather informationfrom. They are divided by "Country Guides", "City Guides", "Monuments and Museums", and "Other Places of Interest".

• Country Guides:
• France Way- Guide to French history, culture, and travel.
• France.com- Information on culture, travel, and cuisine.
• Tourism in France- Information on hotels, restaurants, French wine, monuments, museums, and transportation. In both English and French.
• Tourisme en France- Map of France which you can click on a region and see what places of interest that area has to offer. Site in French.
• Guide to Southern France
• City Guides:
• Arles- An ancient city in France where you can see ancient architecture and experience ancient France.
• Bordeaux- French wine country.
• Normandy- Discover Mt. St-Michel, Rouen, the beaches of D-Day, the Bayeux Tapestry, and much more.
• Sightseeing in Paris- Here is a map of Paris which you can click on and get information about each district and its places of interest.
• Paris- Information on all sorts of stuff in Paris. Includes history and pictures of many monuments and museums.
• Marseille- Official site of the city of Marseille. Site in French.
• Nice- Official site of the city of Nice. Site in English and French.
• Lyon- Discovering Lyon. Site in English.
• Monuments and Museums:
• Chartres- Site of the famous French cathedral, Chartres. Plenty of pictures and information on the cathedral.
• Eiffel Tower
• Chateau de Versailles- Famous castle of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Gorgeous gardens and museum.
• Le Louvre- Home of the "Mona Lisa" and the famous pyramid.
• Musee d'Orsay- An old train station that was turned into a museum in 1986.
• Centre Georges Pompidou- National Museum of Modern Art.
• Other Places of Interest:
• The Loire Valley- Home of many famous chateaux and gorgeous countryside.
• Disneyland Paris- Even France loves Mickey!
• Discovering French Chateaux- Information on French chateaux with pictures of the chateaux, their gardens, etc.
• Claude Monet's Gardens in Giverny- Pictures of Claude Monet's (a famous painter) home and gardens.
• Vaux le Vicomte- Home of Nicolas Fouquet. Pictures of the many beautiful gardens of this chateau.
• Le Mont-Saint-Michel- An old abbey and village situated on a huge rock in the water. A must see!
• Jardin d'Acclimatation- Gorgeous park and gardens in France.


You may also use search engines, such as Yahoo or Lycos, to find additional information or other places of interest that you may think of on your own.

You will be assigned a "family" of four people- a dad, a mom, a sister, and a brother. Decide on a last namefor your "family". Pick which role you want to play. Each member has different interests and wants to "visit"different places. Let me introduce you to your family:

 
• Dad- Dad is a big history buff. He loves anything related to World War II. He also is an architect so he loves old houses and interesting architecture.
• Mom- Mom loves nature. Put her in a garden and she's happy. She also loves good food and wine.
• Sister- Sister wants to see all the hot spots! She has learned all about France and wants to see the famous monuments! She also loves art and wants to see the famous paintings of France.
• Brother- Brother just wants to have fun! He also likes to surf and loves the beach.


After you've decided on a role, you need to start your voyage. Each person should "visit" the places that fit your interests.Gather information and "take" pictures (by printing them) of the sites you visit. (Limit your choices to 7 sites.) Once you have gatheredall of the information and "returned" home to the United States, you will need to make a scrapbook of all of your "memories". Use the pictures you took andwrite a couple of sentences about each location from the information you gathered. You may divide the scrapbook up by place or any other way you want to do it. For example, you could divide it by city and have all of the placesyou visited within that city all together or do one page per place you visit. BE CREATIVE! The finished product will contain memories of your trip for your "family"to enjoy forever. Make sure the scrapbook is fun, colorful, and creative!
 

Your scrapbook will be evaluated based on creativity, content, and howwell your group worked together. The purpose of this project is to learnmore about France and to work together as a group. Because this is a fun scrapbook,creativity is key, too! There will be one grade for the whole group. Creativity will be 40% of the grade, content will be another 40%, and working together as a group will be 20%.You will also present the finished product to the class once you are finished. They will evaluate your work as well and will choose the best scrapbook for a class prize! (Not a trip to France! SORRY!)

France is a wonderful country with so much to offer. It is rich with culture, history, and tons of fun stuff to do! Now that you have completed your adventure to France, you have learned abouthe hot spots to visit if you ever take a real voyage across the Atlantic.

This document was created by Lee Kirby, a student at the University of Richmond studying in the department of Education. She completed the original version of this document as a project for the class EDUC 343: Technology in Education, during the spring semester of 1999.

Assistance for this project was provided by Dr. Patricia Stohr-Hunt. She has maintained and revised this document as an interactive resource for educators, students and parents. All inquiries and comments regarding this document should be mailed to her at the following address: pstohrhu@richmond.edu

Based on a template from TheWebquestPage.