There are several past tenses in French, and each is used in very specific situations. As we already know, the passé composé is the most common past tense; it is used to relate actions or events completed in the past. The passé composé may be translated into English in three different ways depending on the context.
Marc est allé en France.
Mark went to France. Mark has gone to France. Mark did go to France.
FORMATION
The passé composé consists of two parts, the present tense of an auxiliary, or helping verb (either avoir or être), and a past participle. In most instances the auxiliary verb used is avoir.