Traveling!

I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to write to you in the past few weeks. I've been in Paris with my friend so things have been hectic.

We left early in the morning for the Avignon T.G.V. station and left for Paris. After three hours we arrived and were greeted by our friends, Serge and Isabelle. We were driven twenty minutes to their house. It was really big! They had a small house and a big house on the same property. The main house was called the "Captainerie" and was built in the 15th century as the house for the captain of the guard for the nearby chateau. The chateau belonged to a mistress of Louis XIV, but was destroyed during the Revolution. This is what it now looks like:

Everyone was staying in the main house, while Raphael and I stayed in the small house. They had two gardens out in front of their house. I put my luggage in my bedroom, and Raphael and I went on a tour of the local town. It was a cosy town with big houses in it and numerous dogs on walks with their owners. In their backyard, Raphael had set up an archery target. It was my first time using a bow and arrow, and after an hour I wasn't hitting trees and statues in their garden, but was actually hitting the target.

We went sight seeing in Paris, over the next three days. A few of the highlights being a river boat cruise on the Seine river from the Eiffel tower to the Ile St Louis, and on this island enjoying a Paris favourite, "Berthillon" ice-cream.
My favourite shops in Paris were the "Warhammer" shop. I love the intricate detail of the Warhammer figures, and the numerous colours of the paints.
We saw these beautiful stained glass windows in the church of Sainte-Chapelle:

And we played with sail boats in the Jardin de Luxembourg:

I was supposed to leave Paris together with my parents on Saturday, but we made arrangements for me to stay with my friend Raphael for another week, and I drove home to Provence with him on the following Thursday. The day after Mum, Dad and Ivy left, Raphael's uncle Pascal came to the house and let us use one of his four PS3s for the time that I was there. Lucky for us; it was quite rainy and miserable for a few days so we got to stay inside and play for hours.

On the last afternoon we went to Pascal's eye laboratory where we had a look at his work, which is the manufacture of resin eyes. He was making some fake eyes when we arrived and the whole place stunk of glue! I got to hold one of the eyes and it was so cool! I also was able to try on a contact lens with stripes. It was funny. Raphael and I also played on his PS3 at the workshop.

On Thursday we drove eight hours to get home. I was so exhausted that night.

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A few days after arriving home from Paris, Mum, Dad and Ivy and I drove down to the south coast of France, to the Riviera. We started at Cassis. We drove up to the top of Cassis and admired the crystal blue waters of the Mediterranean.

From there we drove to Sanary sur Mer which is a small fishing village about an hour away from Cassis. We strode along the esplanade and watched the seagulls pick all the remains of the fish out of the nets strewn along the docks. I had a coffee ice-cream with grains. In France, they have a drink called 'Orangina' which is like fizzy orange juice. We ate salami and bread for lunch, and drank a cup of Orangina.
From Sanary sur Mer we drove to Cavalaire sur Mer, where we had a swim in the clear water. I enjoyed swimming down to the bottom of the ocean and sitting there. I swam to a pontoon on the water and jumped off it. I also played touch rugby with some French people. There were some jellyfish bobbing around in the water so we all steered clear of that spot.

Our final destination, St Tropez, was definitely the best part of my day. We looked at the posh people and expensive shops and walked down to the docks where we saw about a hundred boats docked. But the special thing about them was that they were all mega luxury boats. They each had two or three floors with couches out on the decks and glass revolving doors into the lounge. The walkway from the boats to the docks extended out hydraulically, and touched the dock. On one of the boats, one of the crew members opened the back, to reveal a jet-ski and a small tender inside!

We enjoyed dinner at a seafood restaurant, over-looking the port. From here, we could see the 'beautiful' people getting on and off their boats.

I'm going to school again on Thursday so we will be getting back into everyday life of learning French and playing with friends.

Au Revoir!