Goals
What you'll be able to do- 📰 Read a French ad / info panel
- 🥖 Understand the place of bread in France
- 🗺️ Know the geography of France
- 🏛️ Understand French administrative organisation
- 📚 Review all the tenses learned so far
- 🎉 Wrap up your A1 level!
Read
Reading text"If you don't eat bread, one day… there won't be any left!"
📊 Did you know?
The bakery is the French people's favourite shop.
📈 Trend: in 1900, the French ate 328 kg of bread per person per year. Today, they eat 58 kg. And tomorrow?
If you stop eating bread, one day, perhaps, there will be no more bakeries… And your children will never know the fantastic taste of a real baguette!
💡 Notes — focus on the pronoun en
- "Si vous ne mangez pas de pain, un jour il n'y en aura plus." — classic ad sentence. Uses si + present + futur simple (Lesson 35) and the pronoun en!
- The pronoun en replaces de + noun, partitive (du, de la, des), or quantity expressions. There's no real English equivalent — that's why it's hard for English speakers!
- Examples:
- Tu manges du pain ? — Oui, j'en mange. "Are you eating bread? — Yes, I'm eating some." (en = du pain)
- J'en ai trois. "I have three (of them)." (en = of those things)
- Aujourd'hui, ils en mangent 58 kg en moyenne. "Today, they eat 58 kg of it on average." (en = du pain)
- Il n'y en aura plus. "There won't be any (of it) left." (en = du pain)
- Mangez-en ! "Eat some!" — imperative + pronoun en, joined by a hyphen. The lesson title!
- Word order: en goes before the verb, except in positive commands where it goes after (with hyphen). Compare: J'en mange. / Mangez-en! / N'en mangez pas.
Vocabulary
Words to remember| French | Type | English |
|---|---|---|
| une boulangerie | n.f. | bakery |
| un / une boulanger / boulangère | n. | baker |
| un commerce | n.m. | business; shop |
| un document | n.m. | document |
| fantastique | adj. | fantastic, amazing |
| un goût | n.m. | taste, flavour |
| même | adj. | same |
| la moyenne | n.f. | average |
| en moyenne | phrase | on average |
| moyen / moyenne | adj. | average; medium |
| un nombre | n.m. | number |
| un peu | phrase | a little, a bit |
| peut-être | adv. | maybe, perhaps |
| probable | adj. | likely |
| une publicité | n.f. | advertisement |
| connaître le goût | v. | to know the taste of sth |
| savoir | v. | to know (a fact); to know how to |
| une langue étrangère | n.f. | foreign language |
| la consommation | n.f. | consumption |
| un département | n.m. | département (administrative county) |
| une région | n.f. | région (regional administrative unit) |
Cultural snapshot
A bit of background🗺️ The geography of France
L'Hexagone
France is a country in Western Europe. Because of its six-sided shape, it's often called "l'Hexagone"! Surface area: 543,965 km² — the largest country in Western Europe by area (about twice the size of the UK).
🌍 Neighbouring countries (8 in total)
🇧🇪 Belgium
to the north
🇱🇺 Luxembourg
to the north-east
🇩🇪 Germany
to the east
🇨🇭 Switzerland
to the east
🇮🇹 Italy
to the south-east
🇲🇨 Monaco
south-east (Côte d'Azur)
🇪🇸 Spain
to the south
🇦🇩 Andorra
in the Pyrenees
🏔️ Mountains and natural borders
- Les Alpes — the Alps (east) — highest peak: Mont Blanc (4,810 m / 15,781 ft).
- Les Pyrénées — the Pyrenees (south, border with Spain).
- Le Massif central — Central Massif (centre).
- Le Massif armoricain — Armorican Massif (west, in Brittany).
- Le Bassin aquitain — Aquitaine Basin (south-west).
🌊 Seas and oceans
- L'océan Atlantique — Atlantic Ocean (west).
- La Manche — the English Channel (north, between France and the UK).
- La mer Méditerranée — the Mediterranean Sea (south).
🏞️ Main rivers
- La Loire — the longest river in France (1,012 km).
- La Seine — runs through Paris.
- Le Rhône — runs through Lyon.
- La Garonne — runs through Bordeaux.
🏛️ Administrative organisation
France is divided into 4 administrative levels:
| Level | What is it? | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ① Région | "region" — 13 in mainland France | Île-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Bretagne… |
| ② Département | "county" — 96 + 5 overseas (≈ a US state county or a UK county) | Paris (75), Bouches-du-Rhône (13), Gironde (33) |
| ③ Arrondissement | district — subdivision of a département (in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, the city itself is split into arrondissements!) | Bordeaux is the chief town of an arrondissement of the Gironde |
| ④ Commune | town/village — the smallest unit | ~35,000 communes in France! |
📌 The capital = Paris (chief town of the Île-de-France region).
🏝️ Outre-mer (overseas France — DROM-COM)
France also has overseas territories in several oceans — these are full parts of France, not colonies:
- Caribbean: Guadeloupe, Martinique
- South America: French Guiana (next to Brazil and Suriname — yes, the Ariane rocket launches from there!)
- Indian Ocean: Réunion, Mayotte
- Pacific Ocean: French Polynesia (Tahiti), New Caledonia
💡 When you fly "to overseas France", you stay in France 🇫🇷 — same currency (euro in DROM, local franc in Pacific), same laws, same language. They vote in French elections!
🥖 The baguette — UNESCO listed!
In 2022, the baguette was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list! A win for French bakers.
- A real baguette is made with just 4 ingredients: flour, water, salt, yeast.
- It weighs around 250 g and measures 65 cm (about 25 inches).
- The annual "Best Baguette in Paris" Competition is famous — the winner supplies bread to the Élysée Palace (the President's residence) for a year!
- Other famous breads: la ficelle (thinner version), le pain de campagne (country loaf), le pain complet (wholewheat), la fougasse (Provence flatbread)…
💡 Did you know? 80% of French people visit a bakery at least once a day. The baguette is meant to be eaten fresh — that's why it's bought daily! A day-old baguette is called "une baguette rassise" — stale. Bakers traditionally close one day a week (often Monday) to rest.
🇬🇧 vs 🇫🇷: in the UK and US, sliced packaged bread (like Wonder Bread or Hovis) dominates supermarkets. In France, those exist as "pain de mie" but are usually for sandwiches and toast — fresh bakery bread remains the norm.
Practice
Try it outExercise 1 · Bread by the numbers
True or false, based on the document.
| Statement | True | False |
|---|---|---|
| 74% of breads sold in France are baguettes. | ||
| The French ate more bread in 1900 than today. | ||
| Today, they eat 328 kg per person per year. | ||
| There are 34,000 bakeries in France. | ||
| 83% of French people eat bread every day. | ||
| The baguette has been UNESCO-listed since 2022. |
Exercise 2 · French geography
Match each item to its location or characteristic.
- The Pyrenees are in the…
- The Alps are in the…
- Longest river:
- The river that runs through Paris:
- Highest peak in France:
- The shape of the country is called:
Exercise 3 · Administrative levels
Put the levels in order, biggest to smallest.
Région · Commune · Département · Arrondissement
①
②
③
④
Exercise 4 · How will it be tomorrow?
Read the sentences and complete the second clause with the futur simple.
- Si on ne mange plus de pain, un jour il n'y plus de boulangeries.
- Si tout le monde parle anglais, plus personne ne la même langue.
- Si on n'a plus de cinéma, on ne plus de films.
- Dans tous les cas, dans tous les pays du monde, il assez à manger.
Exercise 5 · The map of France
Find the city for each clue.
- The capital, on the Seine:
- On the Rhône, France's 2nd-largest city:
- The wine capital, on the Garonne:
- Oldest Mediterranean port:
- Gothic cathedral in Alsace:
Communicate
Real-world tasks🥖 What about back home?
With a partner, compare bread in France with bread in your country:
- What's the staple bread where you live? (sliced loaf, sourdough, pita, naan, tortilla…)
- How many bakeries are there in your town?
- How much bread do you eat per day / per week?
- Do you have bread competitions in your country?
🗺️ The geography of your country
Present the geography of your home country to a French audience. Use the France template:
- Shape of the country (France = the Hexagon — what about yours?)
- Neighbouring countries (how many? which ones?)
- Main mountains
- Main rivers
- Seas and oceans
- Administrative organisation (states, counties, provinces, regions…)
🎉 A1 wrap-up — your perfect day in France!
You've finished your A1 level! To celebrate, describe your perfect day in a French city:
- Where? (Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Avignon, Marseille…)
- With whom?
- What will you do in the morning? afternoon? evening?
- What will you eat? (the baguette!)
- What will you visit?
💡 Use the futur simple or futur proche. Bravo for getting this far! 🎉