SNCF Website
SNCF Website
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Click here to look at the SNCF site.
Click here to look at the Activity on the SNCF site.
Click here to see the answers to the SNCF Activity.
The SNCF site is as large and comprehensive as you'd expect from France's national railway, and contains not only a wide range of travel details but also information about the company itself. However the most useful side to the site for the classroom are the travel times and prices that can be found for any journey across France and into other European countries. The fusée en ligne activity firstly looks at the French equivalent of the young person's railcard before heading for the "Horaires" section to practise the travel vocabulary learnt in Unit 6, especially on pages 96-8. The different headings encountered here, such as "lieu de départ", "choisissez votre localité" and so on are tested first so pupils should understand what to do here.
As well as asking for train times and details from the interactive timetable, you could develop the activity so that pupils give specific requirements of where they want to go, via where, how many times they're prepared to change and so on.
RATP Website
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Click here to look at the RATP site.
Click here to look at the Activity on the RATP site.
Click here to see the answers to the RATP Activity.
Similar to the SNCF website, the RATP covers travel inside Paris on all forms of transport, and also has more general information about getting round and going out in the capital. The main sections of the site are listed across the top of the screen, the most useful being "Itinéraires" for details of journeys from one point to another. However, our activity, after getting students to try out the various parts of the site, looks under the "Voyager" menu at which animals are allowed on the métro. You could set similar exercises for other parts of the "Voyager" section where there is information on restrictions on luggage, bicycles, lost and found, reductions and much more.
However, if you would like to use the interactive portion of the site then head for the "Itinéraires" section. To find a route from one point to another, you can enter a site (such as the Tour Eiffel etc.) at either end and the website will tell you the easiest way between the two points. Using this service you can practise the vocabulary and structures learnt on page 96 of the Student's Book (e.g. "On pourrait prendre le bus?"). Alternatively, in the "Plans" part of the RATP site you can see a map of the entire métro and bus lines and use this information for the same purpose. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer, make sure that you choose the GIF format at the top of this section (alternatively you can download Acrobat for free - click here to do this). Another point of interest is a separate site focusing on the centenary celebrations for the métro: "100 ans le métro". There should be a link to this site at the bottom corner of the RATP homepage - if not you can go to it directly by clicking here.