We're studying world geography this year by choosing several countries from each region of the world to spend a couple of weeks studying. Our plan is to learn about the basic geography, important monuments and natural features, some basic history, do a cooking project or two, and do some sort of craft or art project for each country.
The first country we chose to study this year was France. We mostly chose to start with France because we love French food, and my girls were excited about making crepes and French onion soup, but also because I took 4 years of French in high school. It's a country I already know a lot about, so that made it an easy place to start.
Basic Information About France:
France is a country in western Europe, boarderd by the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Andorra, Monaco, and the Mediterranean Sea. The north western region of France is mainly plains and rolling hills. The south eastern region is mountainous. Most of France has cool winters and mild summers, but along the Mediterranean coast the summers are hot and winter is typically mild.
Capital City: Paris
Population: 65,295,040
Size: 547,030 square kilometers
Currency: Euro
Type of Government: Republic
National Bird: Fench Imperial Eagle
National Anthem: La Marseillaise
French Flag:
Famous Places and Monuments:
The Eiffel Tower: The Eiffel Tower is one of the most recognizable structures on Earth. It was built in 1889 as the entrance arch for the World's Fair. It stands 984 feet tall and is constructed entirely of iron.
Take a 360 virtual tour of the tower and all of it's levels with this cool video: 360 Virtual Tour- Eiffel Tower or for a longer tour, check out this video from Wanderlust Travel Videos : Eiffel Tower Paris.
The Louvre: The Louvre, in Paris, is the world's largest art museum. The museum is housed in the historical Louvre Palace, built in the late 12th century. It's entrance is a huge glass pyramid, constructed in 1989. The museum offers virtual tours of some of it's exhibits on it's website: Louvre Online Tours. Or check out this post from the Geographical Cure to find out how to take a more in depth virtual tour: How to Take a Virtual Tour of Paris' Louvre.
The Palace of Versailles: The Palace of Versailles, just outside Paris, served as the royal residence of France from 1682 until the beginning of the French revolution in 1789. Today it serves as a national monument, famous for it's expansive gardens. Take a short online tour of the gardens and fountains here: Gardens of Versailles.
The French Alps: The western edge of Europe's largest mountain range, the Alps, extends into the easter region of france. They are a popular vacation destination famous for their alpine ski resorts. Here are some pictures: Winter is Coming to the French Alps.
The Camargue Salt Flats: The Camargue is the largest river delta in western Europe, famous for it's pink and red tinged water. The coloration comes from pink colored salt. You can see some pictures and read more about them here: Pink Salt Lakes in Camargue, an Off the Beaten Path Destination in France
French History
France was originally inhabited by tribal people known as the Gauls until it was conquered by the Romans, and later the Frank's from Germany. The Franks called the region France.
France was a powerful monarchy during the middle ages and the renaissance. By the late 1700's though, the people of France became unhappy with their leaders. In 1789, the French revolution began with the storming of the Bastille (a prison holding political prisoners). The revolutionaries eventually took control of the country, changing name and leadership many times throughout the revolution. The revolution lasted 10 years, and ended in 1899 when a general named Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the revolutionary government and established the French Consulate.
Originally the consulate was to have 3 consuls leading the government, but Napoleon gave himself the position of first consul, essentially making himself a dictator. Napoleon involved France in a series of conflicts with other European countries, which resulted in France controlling much of Europe. His downfall began with his invasion of Russia, which resulted in the death of most of his army. With his army decimated, the rest of Europe turned on Napoleon and forced him into exile.
After Napoleon's rule ended, France went through a series of revolutions and monarchical governments until the February revolution in 1848, which led to the creation of the second French Republic.
For more information about French history check out these links:
-Napoleon Bonaparte from Ducksters
-The French Revolution from Ducksters
French Recipes
I love French food, so we decided to do two cooking projects. We made chocolate and strawberry crepes for breakfast one morning, and French onion soup with roast beef sandwiches for dinner one evening.
Crepes:
For this recipe you will need: 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs, and 2 tablespoons of oil.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and eggs, then slowly add the milk and oil. Wisk until there are no lumps.
Lightly oil a small frying pan and place over medium heat.
Pour a small amount of batter onto the hot frying pan. You want just enough to lightly cover the bottom of the pan. Swirl the pan to spread the batter out to the edges of the pan.
Cook about two minutes, or until the bottom is starting to brown. Carefully flip with a spatula and cook the other side.
Serve warm with fruit, Nutella, or whipped cream. They are also delicious with peanut butter and bananas.
French Onion Soup:
For this recipe you will need: 2-3 large yellow onions sliced thin, a stick of unsalted butter, 2 cloves of garlic, 8 cups of beef stock, 1/2 cup of white wine, 2 bay leaves, 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme.
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until caramelized, stirring every couple minutes. Caramelizing takes some time and patience, usually around 20 minutes. You want all of the onions to be golden brown and soft. If your onions start sticking at any point add a tablespoon or two of wine.
Add the beef stock, wine, thyme, garlic and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat, and cover. Let it lightly simmer for about 30 minutes.
Discard the bay leaf, and then it's ready to serve. Some people like to eat it with toast and gruyere cheese on top. We used ours as a dip for roast beef sandwiches.
Art Project
For our final day studying France, we spent the afternoon learning about Georges Seurat and pointillism, and then we tried making our own pointillism Eiffel Tower paintings!
Georges Seurat was born in Paris in 1859, and is best known for developing the painting techniques known as pointillism and divisionism. Pointillism is a technique in which the artist paints a picture with tiny dots instead of brushstrokes. Divisionism involves using tiny dots of separate colors which interact optically.
Here are a couple short videos about Seurat and his painting techniques that I found on YouTube:
-Art With Mati and Dada- Georges Seurat
For our paintings we used plain white paper, watercolors, a pencil, and a small philips head screwdriver.
We started by sketching a rough outline of the Eiffel Tower as a guide, and then filled in the tower and the background with tiny dots of paint. My preschooler used her finger tips and the eraser end of a pencil to make her dots. My 5th grader wanted smaller dots, so she used the sharp point of a screwdriver for hers.
If you enjoyed this post, check out:
-Learning About Ancient Rome- Activities and Resources for Elementary Students
Follow me on:
Very cool! We studied France a little bit in our geography course. The kids made these cool paper Eiffel towers that 'stand' and painted them.
ReplyDeleteFun! My 9 year old is working on building an Eiffel Tower out of toilet paper rolls. I should let her paint it when she's finished!
Delete