Why add "aller" after Je vais?

I have come across thé sentence "Je vais aller au musée la semaine prochaine" in lesson 6.3. I'm wondering why you would need "aller" if je vais means "I am going." It seems to translate as I am going going to the museum next week. Any help or insight would be appreciated. Merci! Julia

Ah, here's where it helps to be a little persnickety with grammar. :) While in English, we say "I am going to the museum next week", what we are <i>really</i> saying is "I *will be* going to the museum next week" because it's a future action. So this calls for the future tense of aller ==>*J'irai* au musée la semaine prochaine. To avoid conjugating in the future tense, you can also say: "I am going *to 'do something'*", ie. "I will write a book." = "I am going to write a book." The "I am going" is where the first, conjugated *aller* comes from (je vais). The second, infinitive *aller* is the "*to* 'do something'" part. So what you're saying with "Je vais aller au musée la semaine prochaine" is: "I am going *to go* to the museum next week."

Another way of putting it is that "Je vais aller" is the near future (le futer proche). This tense is formed by conjugating "aller" and adding the infinitive of whatever the action will be. Examples are "Je vais manger," "Il va venir," "Nous allons cuisiner" and "Vous allez nager."

Aha! Excellente explication. Merci beaucoup!