Suitable for intermediate learners, the lesson plan is built around the theme of holidays. It offers students the chance to practice their reading skills while learning about intensifiers, idioms and informal language. If you want additional lesson plans and support, including teachers’ notes, be sure to register for a free Off2Class account.

1. R-407
ESL Lesson Plan Holiday in France

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3. What is your favorite kind of holiday?

4. When you go on holiday, how do you
communicate with your family and friends back
home?

5. How’s all with you? OK, I’ve got a lot to tell you. In my last email I
think I was still in Barcelona, right?
Anyway, after that, we started to head north into France. But not
too far… first we took the train to a really wonderful town called
Perpignan. Typically European, lots of totally gorgeous squares
with old buildings and a massive fort. Here’s something incredibly
interesting. People speak Catalan here. I always thought that
Catalan was spoken only in parts of Spain. But no, the street
signs here are in French and Catalan.
5

6. Anyway, our next stop was Montpellier, another utterly gorgeous
place further along the coast. Montpellier is a very interesting
place because it does not have any Roman or Greek history.
Weird, right? Wherever you go in Western Europe, the cities and
towns were always founded by the Romans or the Greeks. Still,
it’s not a young city. It has one of the oldest universities in the
world. Lots of really excellent food here too. I can’t get enough of
the seafood!
After a few days wandering around and enjoying the sun, we
visited the historic city of Arles. OMG! Too beautiful! It was so full
of historic monuments that we didn’t see it all. And I didn’t even
know that the very famous Vincent Van Gogh painted 300
paintings in Arles. Alex went to watch a football match while we
were here too. Loads of fun.
5
10

7. OK, we are about to go for breakfast so I’ll finish here. But today
we are in Marseille. We arrived quite late last night on the train
from Arles so we just got up! We’ve got a great view of the harbor
from our hotel window… but that’s all I can tell you. We’re going
to eat breakfast (yep, more seriously delicious croissants!), and
then we plan to visit Notre Dame de la Garde, a massive
cathedral that sits atop a hill and dominates the town. Absolutely
spectacular!
Alex and I both send our love. Gotta go!
Katie
5
10

8. Katie, who wrote this email, is a 25-year-old
woman from Coventry in England. Who do you
think she wrote this email to?
Alice
Alice
Anyway, our next stop was Montpellier, another utterly gorgeous place further along the coast.
Montpellier is a very interesting place because it does not have any Roman or Greek history.
Weird, right? Wherever you go in Western Europe, the cities and town were always founded by
the Romans or the Greeks. Still, it’s not a young city. It has one of the oldest universities in the
world. Lots of really excellent food here too. I can’t get enough of the seafood!
After a few days wandering around and enjoying the sun, we visited the historic city of Arles.
OMG! Too beautiful! It was so full of historic monuments that we didn’t see it all. And I didn’t even
know that the very famous Vincent Van Gogh painted 300 paintings in Arles. Alex went to watch
a football match while we were here too. Loads of fun.
K, we are about to go for breakfast so I’ll finish here. But today we are in Marseille. We arrived

9. How does Katie express how much she is
enjoying her holiday? Look for particular words
and phrases that convey strong meaning.

10. Match the intensifiers with the adjectives in
utterly
highly
completely
seriously
bitterly
disappointed
talented
unbelievable
intelligent
delicious

11. Katie’s letter is very informal. How
would you re-write this paragraph if
you wanted to include it in a formal
essay?
Anyway, our next stop was Montpellier, another utterly gorgeous
place further along the coast. Montpellier is a very interesting
place because it does not have any Roman or Greek history.
Weird, right? Wherever you go in Western Europe, the cities and
town were always founded by the Romans or the Greeks. Still,
it’s not a young city. It has one of the oldest universities in the
world. Lots of really excellent food here too. I can’t get enough of
the seafood!