The Dordogne

I was so excited because we were going to the Dordogne, which is about six hours away from my house in Mormoiron. We took off early in the morning for Roquefort, which is famous for its blue cheese. When we arrived we went into one of the best Roquefort cheese stores, Papillon. We went on a tour through the cellars where they mature the cheese. To make Roquefort cheese, they get a special loaf of Roquefort bread and they bake it until it burns on the outside. They then leave the bread in the cellars to collect mould. They then scrape the mould in the form of penicillin, off the bread. When they have done this, they test the penicillin to make sure that it's the special Roquefort penicillin. Meanwhile the ewes of the valley are milked.They sprinkle the penicillin over the processed sheep's milk curd. The final cheese disk is then placed in the caves, at a constant thirteen degrees celsius, to mature for a period of ninety to two hundred and forty days. It has been regarded as a special cheese for hundreds of years. For example, in 1411 Charles VI liked it so much that the cellars that stored Roquefort cheese were turned into a protected landmark. We saw a map on the tour that showed the area where you can call your cheese Roquefort. It was only 2km long and 300 metres wide! At the end of tour when we came out of the cave, we had a taste of the blue cheese. It was delicious, so we bought a large piece. When we left Roquefort, we bought a loaf of bread and sat at a lookout whilst eating the cheese and bread with enthusiasm!

After the Roquefort cheese visit, we drove to Le Viaduc de Millau. This bridge crosses the valley of the river Tarn and is 2460m long and 245m metres high. The bridge is thirty metres taller than the Eiffel Tower and thirty seven metres shorter than the Empire State Building. We exited off the highway, after we had crossed the bridge, and stopped at an information centre. From there we hiked up to a look-out on the hill where we looked at the bridge itself! It was amazing! There were white poles coming out of the top of the bridge and thick suspension cords slanted towards the base of the bridge.

We arrived in the Dordogne later that night where we were greeted by friends and a fantastic dinner of spaghetti carbonara. We stayed in the town of Thenon.

The next morning we went to Sarlat which is a town close to Thenon. There were huge markets on with products ranging from food to art. I bought myself some churros which are straight shaped doughnuts. I scoffed the whole bag! They were fantastic. We were walking along when we approached a square were a crowd was gathered. We pushed our way to the front and saw that a man was manipulating a soft snake over his hand. It looked quite amazing! We bought our own and were soon doing the same thing. The trick is that there is a see-through string connected to your waist and you could manipulate the snake without others seeing! Ivy and I

played with them all the way home.

That afternoon we went to the River Dordogne were we sat and tore a hot chicken to pieces with a bread stick. Ivy and I dipped our feet in the water and fed the ducks while Mum and Dad bought boat tickets for a tour on the river. We hopped on to the boat and left with a loud ring from the boat's bell. As we floated along the river we saw four châteaus and a bridge built in Roman times. The sun was baking down on everyone, so the staff wound out sun-shades.

The next day was very exciting with a trip to La Roque Saint-Christophe. It is a huge rock face, one kilometre long and eighty metres high, were people used to live in indentations in the rock face. People lived there from fifty-five thousand years ago until the Religious wars in the fifteen hundreds, when a lot of it was destroyed. We walked along, and inside the rock exploring the different parts of the village. My favourite part was seeing the "squirrel lifter" operate. A man got inside a wheel and ran! He looked like a guinea pig on an exercise wheel! As he ran, a load was lifted up and when he ran the other way, it went back down. The sight is unique because of its size, its age and the length of its occupation by man.

After that, we drove to "Les Jardins de Marqueyssac" which was an amazing château with gardens and hedges fashioned into swirls and shapes. We went for a walk to the peak of the gardens where there was a beautiful view over the Dordogne valley. Ivy and I enjoyed the numerous playgrounds while Mum and Dad strolled along the paths together. I really enjoyed the maze where Ivy and I had races in and out of it. When we got back to the start of the walk we saw a man carving things out of wood! He made spin-tops, cups and more. I had a vanilla and caramel ice-cream with hot coffee and cream drizzled over it with Ivy. It was absolutely delicious!

The next day was the last, but the most exciting day of all the days we spent in the Dordogne. We went to the Gauffre de Padirac. It is a huge cave system and crater which was formed by the collapse of a cave. The huge crater measures thirty five metres wide and one hundred and three metres deep. There were two lifts from the surface to the bottom of the crater. From the bottom of the lifts, we walked eight hundred metres into the cave where there were boats waiting for us. Our guide paddled our gondola across the water and told us about the caves. My favourite bit was when he rocked the boat. At the end of the boat ride, we were taken on a tour in the caves. There were quite a few stalactites and stalagmites and the "Grand Cathedral" was spectacular. We walked one kilometres on the bottom and we climbed up four hundred and sixty five steps to get back to the base. The cave was discovered in eighteen ninety and was opened nine years later. They have explored twenty kilometres of the caves and nine kilometres in they found human, mammoth and cave bear remains!

Au Revoir

Cowboys in Provence

We went to the Camargue region and what a different part of France this was. The Camargue region is a large area of wetland to the south of us and west of Marseilles. We first went to the Pont-de-Gau bird sanctuary. It was amazing! There were all different birds flying around the park. My favourite was an owl who sat in the same spot for the whole day. We got quite a surprise when we came around a corner and saw huge numbers of pink flamingos walking about together in a very shallow lake! When they spread their wings and flew, they were fluoro pink with black underneath! We went for a two hour walk on paths through the marshes and saw the birds in their natural habitat. There were numerous viewing towers and hide-outs where we could see the birds interacting.

We then drove to a small town on the coast called Saint Mairies de la Mer, where we walked along the promenade. We changed into our togs and went for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea. The water was very cold! I swam to a buoy, climbed on to the rocks and walked back to the car with Mum, Dad and Ivy.

We left the beach and went to a horse riding farm. There were numerous ones along the road to choose from. We got to ride on the horses for an hour and a half! My rear was very sore afterwards. My horse, Maligne, kept stopping along the path to eat and then gallop to catch up with the group. My favourite bit was when we rode through a lake. My horse splashed me quite a bit. When I arrived back at the stables, I got off and hobbled from stiff legs. Was it just me or was everyone else sore, too?

We then went to a town called Salin de Giraud, which is the centre of a large salt industry. Flat shallow lagoons fill with sea water which then evaporate in the sun leaving behind salt deposits. There were very large piles of salt to be processed. The machines were huge and the conveyor belt systems extensive. We arrived home at ten o'clock that night!

On Thursday we went to explore Marseilles. After a two hour drive with a long traffic jam at the end, we finally arrived. We went for a walk around one of the oldest ports in Europe. It has been continuously inhabited for 2600 years. The highlight was the Cathedral de la Major because it was very grand and throughout was decorated with frescos, coloured marble arches and jewel encrusted religious artefacts.

We then took a ferry boat ride to Château d'If which is on a small island off the coast of Marseilles. On the way out of the port we passed two big forts one on either side of the entrance. One was built to protect the port from invaders and the other one was built to ensure peace in the city. When we arrived at the island we climbed up to the château. King François I built it in 1516 to ensure the protection of Marseilles. A few years after it was built, it was turned into a prison. It was on an island therefore nobody ever escaped.

Parents whose sons were troublesome used to send them there. They could choose to have extra luxuries, like a fireplace and even a window!! Alexander Dumas wrote a book called 'The Count of Monte-Cristo' about a man who escapes in a sac from Château d'If and swims to land. He finds his dead cell mate's treasure and becomes The Count of Monte-Cristo. Alexander Dumas also wrote 'the Three Musketeers'. The legendary man in the Iron Mask is also reputed to have spent time here.

That weekend was very exciting because I went with Ivy to Pascal's house for a sleep over. We went for lots of swims in their pool, even at one stage getting up at two o'clock in the morning and all of us - the whole family - swimming in the pool with Pascal! By the end of the weekend my eyes were so red that you couldn't see any white in them from all the chlorine in the pool! We finished the weekend off by watching the soccer world cup final with my parents and other friends whilst enjoying pizza and lemonade.

See you next week!

Sean :-)

Opa and Oma's Visit and Aix en Provence with Sam

We started the week with a visit from my Oma and Opa. They arrived in the afternoon with a huge camper van. It was so cool! There were two plush seats in the front and two behind it for relaxing. In the back there was also a bed, toilet and cooking facilities!

The next day was quite exciting with a visit to Château de Tarascon. It's a grand fort with the Rhone river flowing beside it. When you walk in, there is a moat. A few thousand years ago the river was directed into the moat. It was really scary up top because there was a one way path leading around the top of the roof and on either side there was a forty centimetre grill and then the wall. The gargoyles were quite scary! At one point two people came around the other way and we started joking about who would go on the grill. The funniest part was the toilet. It was a small hole on the the second floor of the château. It dropped down at least sixty metres! We also went to Isle-sur-la-Sorgue where we saw a lot of antiques.

We went to Sault the next day which is famous for its fields of lavender. We stopped in a patch and took lots of photos. We went to Gordes after which is voted as one of the most beautiful villages in France and the largest village that cascades off a mountain. We stopped at the lookout and saw all of the houses slanting down the hill.

Just down the hill from Gordes, there is an Abbey called Abbeye de Senanque. Whenever you see a postcard with an abbey and bright purple lavender, the chance is high that it's this abbey. There, the monks are not allowed to talk unless they are in the chapter-house. Here they would gather around the main abbot to listen to him reading the benedictine rule.

Oma and Opa took us all to a local restaurant called Dolium. My starter was a spiced aubergine guacamole with dried basil and bread. My main was duck and epeautre. My dessert was a lemongrass mousse with raspberries and raspberry sauce. It was all delicious.

On Saturday we went to Aix-en-Provence to see my friend from Australia's sister sing with the S Margaret's Anglican Girls' School choir. Before the concert we met with my friend, Sam and his parents and had dinner at Les Deux Garcons. This restaurant has been in Aix en Provence since 1792. I had my first taste of Escargot. Escargot is very common in France and are large snails, presented on a plate as oysters would be, usually drizzled in a butter, garlic and parsley sauce. It was really nice. After dinner we went to the Cathedral S. Sauveur to see the choir performance. They were fantastic. My favourite song was 'True Colours' by Cindy Lauper.

On Sunday I went to the Paul Ricard Car Racing Circuit to see the GT1 World Championship. It was so hot! We went in our Porsche because it was just Dad and I. When we arrived everyone was being directed to a car park but we were directed to a different car park. We were unsure why but just followed the men's directions. When we arrived we were stunned! There were about a hundred fancy cars. We were in the VIP parking lot! We spent an hour walking around and checking out the other cars.

There were four races on that day. There were the GT4's, the GT3's, the GT1's and the Lamborghini Cup. My favourite was the Lamborghini cup. There was an orange Lamborghini who a little too enthusiastic! On the final lap, about a hundred metres away from the finish line, he ran out of fuel!

That's it for my week. See you again soon :-)

Au Revoir!