Theme 2.4: Travel and Tourism - Listening Comprehension
Listening comprehension for the Travel and tourism theme tests understanding of spoken French about holidays, transport, accommodation and past or planned trips, in monologues, dialogues and tourist-information-style texts at both tiers, with every item played twice. Examiners are testing whether a student can extract specific detail (destination, transport, dates, an opinion with a reason), follow narratives that move between past holidays and future plans, and catch numbers, prices, dates and negatives describing what did or did not go well.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Read the questions and options before listening; underline destination names, dates, and whether the question wants past or future information.
- Predict vocabulary from the title: transport (en avion, en train, en voiture), accommodation (un camping, une auberge de jeunesse, un hôtel), holiday activities (bronzer, visiter des monuments, faire du tourisme), and booking language (réserver, l'office de tourisme).
- On the first listening, focus on gist: where the trip was or will be, and whether the overall experience was positive or negative.
- Treat tense as critical: the perfect tense (je suis allé, j'ai visité) narrates a completed past holiday, the imperfect (il faisait beau, il y avait beaucoup de monde) describes the weather or scene during it, and the near future or conditional (je vais partir, j'aimerais visiter) describes a future or hypothetical plan - the same trip can be described in all three within one text.
- Catch dates and durations precisely: pendant deux semaines (for two weeks), du dix au vingt juillet (from the 10th to the 20th of July), l'année dernière (last year).
- Catch prices and numbers for accommodation and transport: le vol a coûté trois cents euros, l'hôtel coûtait quatre-vingts euros la nuit.
- Track negatives describing problems: le vol a été annulé (was cancelled), il n'y avait plus de chambres (there were no more rooms) - these often carry exactly the 'problem' detail a question is asking for.
- Note self-corrections around dates, prices or destinations, and use the second listening to confirm exact figures.
Worked example
You hear: 'L'année dernière, je suis allé en Espagne avec ma famille ; on a pris l'avion et le vol a duré environ deux heures. Il faisait très chaud et on a passé la plupart du temps à la plage. L'année prochaine, j'aimerais plutôt visiter une grande ville, comme Rome.' Question: Summarise the speaker's past holiday and their future plan.
- Predict vocabulary before listening: Espagne, avion, plage, ville.
- Identify the perfect tense for the completed trip: 'je suis allé... on a pris... on a passé' narrates what happened.
- Identify the imperfect for the background description: 'il faisait très chaud' shows what the weather was like.
- Catch the duration: 'a duré environ deux heures' means lasted about two hours.
- Identify the conditional/future contrast for the plan: 'l'année prochaine, j'aimerais plutôt visiter...' means next year he/she would rather visit a city instead.
- Full answer: Last year the speaker went to Spain with their family by plane, on a two-hour flight; it was very hot and they spent most of their time at the beach. Next year, they would rather visit a big city, like Rome.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1What tense is 'j'ai visité' and what does it show?Show answer
Answer: The perfect tense; it shows a single, completed past action ('I visited').
Q2What tense is 'il y avait beaucoup de monde' and what does it show?Show answer
Answer: The imperfect tense; it describes a background scene or state during a past event ('there were a lot of people').
Q3Translate: 'le vol a été annulé à cause de la météo'.Show answer
Answer: The flight was cancelled because of the weather.
Q4A speaker says 'l'hôtel coûtait soixante euros... non, en fait quatre-vingts euros la nuit'. How much did the hotel cost per night?Show answer
Answer: 80 euros - the self-correction 'non, en fait' gives the correct figure.
Q5Translate: 'on est resté pendant dix jours'.Show answer
Answer: We stayed for ten days.
Q6What does 'il n'y avait plus de chambres disponibles' mean?Show answer
Answer: 'There were no more rooms available' - ne...plus negates the availability.
Q7Translate: 'j'aimerais visiter le Japon un jour'.Show answer
Answer: I would like to visit Japan one day (the conditional of aimer).
Q8Before listening to a text titled 'Un séjour désastreux', predict two problems you might hear about.Show answer
Answer: Any two of: le vol annulé/retardé, les valises perdues, il a plu tout le temps, l'hôtel était sale/bruyant.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE French exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Transcript of the recording: L'été dernier, ma famille et moi sommes partis en vacances en Italie pendant deux semaines. On a pris le train, ce qui a coûté environ cent cinquante euros par personne. Malheureusement, notre premier hôtel était vraiment bruyant, donc on a dû en changer après deux nuits. Le nouvel hôtel coûtait un peu plus cher, soixante-dix euros la nuit, mais il était beaucoup plus calme. Malgré ce problème, j'ai adoré visiter Rome, surtout le Colisée, et l'année prochaine, on va peut-être retourner en Italie, mais dans une autre région. Questions: 1) Where did the family go, for how long, and by what transport? 2) What problem did they have with the first hotel? 3) What did they do about it, and how does the new hotel compare? 4) What did the speaker particularly enjoy? 5) What is the plan for next year?
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Transcript of the recording: - Client : Bonjour, je voudrais réserver deux billets pour Nice, du cinq au douze août. - Employé : Très bien. Malheureusement, il ne reste plus de places en train direct ce jour-là ; il faudra changer à Lyon. - Client : D'accord, ça ne me dérange pas. Et pour l'hébergement, vous avez des auberges de jeunesse pas trop chères ? - Employé : Oui, il y en a une à environ trente euros la nuit, petit-déjeuner compris. - Client : Parfait, je la réserve tout de suite. Questions: 1) Where does the client want to travel to, and for what dates? 2) What problem is there with the direct train, and what is the solution? 3) What does the client ask about next? 4) How much does the youth hostel cost, and what is included?
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 7 available
See real GCSE French past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
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