DESCRIPTION
and LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
This recorded oral exercise is a virtual
walk through several arrondissements in Paris. It is intended to help
you get your bearings in the city and to learn to describe directions of where
you are going and what you are seeing. It is a review of the vocabulary in Allons-y!,
Chapitre 3. This exercise will also help you to prepare for your final project
for the semester: planning a short visit to Paris.
This website contains over 125 photos and it begins on top of the Samaritaine department store where you get a panoramic view of the city and the places you will go. You will be assigned a series of photos that will consitute your part of the walk.
The objective of this exercise is to give you the opportunity to carefully prepare a text that you will record on the computer describing your section of the walk. Most of the vocabulary for this exercise has to do with directions and spatial relationships-only this time you're not looking at the drawings of Tarascon that are in your textbook, you are looking at real places in Paris.
Description of the entire collection of photos:
The photos are presented in the consecutive order of the
walk, from its beginning at the top of the Samaritaine department store (in the
first arrondissement) where you will get a panoramic view of the whole
city, including a bird's eye view of where the walk ends. Once you come down from
the observation deck of the Samaritaine, the walk takes you to the Quai de la
Mégisserie along the Seine, down to the Pont au Change (and the Quai de
l'Horloge yes, there is a clock there!) and on to the Boulevard du Palais (on
the Ile de la Cité) where you will catch a glimpse of Notre Dame cathedral.
Then it's across the Pont St. Michel in the Quartier Latin (the 6th Arrondissement).
You'll walk down the Boulevard St. Michel for a while. At the intersection of
St. Michel and St. Germain, some of you may have the choice of either continuing
on St. Michel, or turning on to the Boulevard St. Germain (if you can get through
the demonstrators, that is...).
There are lots of things to see and
do, as you will see from the pictures. There are a couple of museums to go to;
cafés to stop in if you're thirsty, want to get a bite to eat, or just
want to rest for a bit; stores to browse in; places to exchange money, etc.. Oh,
yes. There is one more thing: you will discover (if you get that far): a demonstration
(une manif) that will interrupt your walk at one point! But you can work
your way through it and continue on your way!
You can also access maps
of the whole itinerary, so that you can see the street names and exactly where
you are at any given time as you plan your walk:
To get an overview of the
entire walk, click on the Google Earth image
which indicates the paths in red and selected
placemarks with a yellow pin.
Click here
for a map of the area near the Samaritaine, the Pont Neuf, and the Quai de
la Mégisserie.
Click here
for the St. Michel and St. Germain maps.
The panoramic view that
you have in the first 12 images will help to orient you in the whole of the city.
These are not images that you will use in your presentation.
If you
continue on St. Michel, you will go past the Sorbonne and end up at the Panthéon.
If you continue your walk on the Boulevard St. Germain, you will wind up at the
church of St. Germain des Prés, one of the oldest in Paris and right opposite
the famous café des Deux Magots home to the philosophers and intellectuals
of the post-World War II years in Paris (Jean- Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir).
INSTRUCTIONS:
You are not going
to "walk" through all 100+ areas shown in the pictures. The photos are arranged
in chronological order--that is, they are sequential. You can go forward, but
you cannot logically go backward.
To start, you should look at the maps of the area covered and browse through all the pictures to get an idea of what's there and what you might want to do with your friends during this walking tour. You should also get a sense of the entire itinerary by going through all of it.
You will go through the pictures that have been assigned to
you on the main pages of the walk (that is, by clicking on the arrows at the bottom
of each page to get to your series of images). Read the captions carefully, since
they indicate where you are, what's there, where you are going. You should also
look to see if you can identify any other buildings, restaurants, things of interest
that are in the pictures. You can print out your pages to make describing them
a bit easier. You can use the Index Page (with
no captions) to look at your images more quickly after you have read the captions
on the main pages.
You will prepare a script describing your walk (what's
in front of you, where you're going straight ahead, what's on the right, the left,
etc.). It should be about 5 minutes long. You will go to the Modern Languages
Media Center and record your text. You are not expected to memorize your text!
You will bring it with you and you can bring printouts of the pictures with you
as well.
You will have one opportunity to listen to your entire recording
and, if you decide that you don't like it, you can re-record the entire text.
You can get help with your text from your instructor, the tutors, or from each
other. The idea is that should be your "best effort." You will hand
in your script in class on the due date for the recording.
Your text should begin by stating whether it is you, personally, who is going on this walk or whether you are with your friends. For example, you will say something like: "Je vais faire une promenade du Boulevard St. Germain jusqu'au Café Procope" (or wherever you are starting and finishing) OR "Nous allons (On va) faire une promenade du Boulevard St. Germain jusqu'au Café Procope." Remember that all your sentences need to be consistent: if you're walking by yourself, you will use je; if you're with your friends, you will use nous or on. Use the vocabulary that we have studied in class--without trying to be too "fancy" or complicated. You are describing what you are seeing in the pictures: what's in front of you, in back, to the left, to the right, where you are turning (and which way you are turning!). If there's a restaurant or a café where you want to stop, say, "je voudrais un café, une limonade, un sandwich, etc." In other words, muster all the vocabulary from all the lessons covered so far to make your walk as detailed as possible.
You are to use the captions in English as a guide to describe what you are seeing. Do not translate what is in the captions. Use your imagination. Some captions tell you to try to find information in the picture (for instance, the name of the café or museum, what's on the menu, etc..). See if there are details that you can find in the pictures that strike you as interesting. If you decide that you are walking with your friends, tell us what your friends (or friend) wants to do at a particular moment.
Put on comfortable shoes, take your camera and allez-y!
Introductory Image: Your first panoramic view of the city
comes from the rooftop observatory of the Samaritaine department store, one of
the oldest in Paris. Alas, as of spring 2005, the fate of this famous department
store is up in the air. It's being closed for renovations and no one is sure if
it will reopen. This is the fate of many department stores around the world and
especially in New York City.
Image #1: Hmm. Too bad the weather isn't as nice as it should be. No problem. You can see in the distance a church spire-the spire of St. Germain des Prés, where your walk will end. It's on the other side of the Seine. That tall building in the background is one of the first skyscrapers in Paris: the Tour Montparnasse.
Image #2: You're looking a bit more to the left now-but you can still see the Tour Montparnasse. The bridge you see crossing the Seine is the Pont Neuf which, despite its name, is one of th oldest bridges in Paris. Those boats are the Bâteaux Mouches-the tourist boats that go all around Paris. That's an activity best left for the evening, since Paris, the Ville Lumière, is at its best then! The buildings that flank either side of the street on the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) lead you directly into the Quartier Latin (the 5th Arrondissement).
Image #3: You are looking further south from the previous picture, and the dome you see is that of the Panthéon-where many great writers, philosophers, and politicians are buried. Don't worry... You'll get there on your walk!
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