Christmas has arrived!

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I haven't gotten a blog to you in along time but time flies and all of a sudden it's three weeks after your last blog and you need to do another!

We went to Carpentras the other day to look at the decorations and attractions of the village. There was a big Christmas Tree with decoration and lights in it. A Christmas tree in French is called a Sapin. There were three men in boxes with heads on top and mesh as the mouth so that they could see. On the mouths uneven teeth were painted and when they popped out of their boxes they actually had the uneven teeth. It was funny because they kept picking on people. Once they got a lady and trapped her between the three boxes and made faces and sounds at her. It was funny because it didn't sway her, she just looked at them and smiled and eventually gave up because she wasn't being affected.

We also went ice-skating at the outdoor ice-skating rink. It was fantastic. We skated around and at the end we were going quite fast! The only disadvantage was that the boots were really uncomfortable!

That night I went to Raphael's house and stayed the night. We played on Grand Turismo 5 on his PS3. It's brand new and it's fantastic! We used his virtual racing wheel to tear around the corners. But if you were to buy the games, buy a wheel. It's useless with the controller. We played that for the afternoon and then some of his sister's friends came over and we watched Public Enemies with Jonny Depp in it. It's about the gangsters in America and the most wanted Jonny Nillinger. The next morning we played Call of Duty: Black Ops, zombies mode. It's so funny!

The next day we drove to Richerenches to do truffe (truffle) hunting! We drove to the guide's farm where she searches for truffes daily. It was in the middle of nowhere! It was freezing cold as we headed out but the sun came out at the end. The four of us were joined by our friend, Serge. Together we got to keep some truffles. We've put ours into a Camembert cheese, for the flavour of the truffle to infuse into the cheese. I'll let you know how it tastes!

Au Revoir!

Sean

Luging again

Hello everyone! This week has had a little bit of drama but along the way we have managed to have fun.

We went to Mt Serin where I tobogganed with Raphael and Elisa in February, but this time it was just our family. On the way up to Mt Serin it started to get colder and colder until in dropped in to the minuses and kept descending! When we arrived at the top it was minus eight and a half degrees C! Along the way the road started to get snowy and when we arrived at the top there was a thin layer of snow. Down to the car park Dad lost control of the car. The car slowly started to slide and we slipped and then smashed into another car! Nobody was hurt and luckily the air-bags didn't go off! We got out and looked at the damage but there was hardly any on our very big and strong Opel Astra. The Mercedes Benz however didn't come off so lightly with its door caved in. It in turn slid into the next car and gave it a decent dent, also!! Oh, yes, it was a good job...

Dad and Mum then went to sort things out with the drivers whilste Ivy and I went luging.

It was really fun on the slopes because they had smoothed out all the lumps from last time so you went a lot faster down the slopes this time. We rode down a few times on our own but that got boring so we connected our luges together and went down the hill together. We had a blast! We kept stacking and rolling over each other and throwing snow at each other. It was great fun. We then went back to the cafe and waited for Dad to come back. Wow what a day!

That evening we all were invited for dinner at Ivy's friend's house. While the girls played upstairs, I played a game of Call of Duty: World at War on the wii.

For entrée we ate salmon and herbs with witlof and a sauce on top. For main we had duck with mashed potato, salad and truffles with a vinaigrette. Then for dessert we had Toblerone Mousse. It was so good! After when we got into the car at 1am, it was minus five degrees!

Au Revoir!

Karting, parties and snow!!

Hello everyone! It's been quite miserable here in Mormoiron with rain and cold weather. The forcasts say that it may snow today! It's raining a bit but I don't think it's cold enough for snow.

It's been quite an exciting few weeks. Mum was in Holland last week. Dad, Ivy and I went to Monteux to race go-carts again! It was absolutely fantastic because you didn't have to brake a lot around the corners so you were always going quick. I was old enough to get the 200cc go-cart and Ivy got the 120cc go-cart. We tore around the track for 2 sessions of 10 minutes. It was so cold; we wrapped ourselves up in our coats on the second session. After Ivy and I stood on the podium and had photos taken of us. On the last corner I cut in front of Dad to get over the line first and he spun out! I was still laughing when he arrived in the pits.

It was Ivy's birthday on the 23rd of November so we all went to a restaurant in Avignon to celebrate with Pascal and his family and Ivy's friend. It was a buffet of Chinese, Indian and Japanese food. Then for dessert there were cakes, ice-creams and different sauces to mix with it all. At the end I was so full! Ivy got a sushi kit for her birthday so I can expect some yummy food to arrive, non?

On Wednesday afternoon I went to Monteux again to play Handball with my school team in the premiership. I didn't score any goals but I did assist a few. There is a boy on my team who is really big and in the first game the end result was 6-2 to us. I was amazed because he scored all the goals in the game!

I really hope it snows here. But as it is so early I can not see this happening.

A bientot! Au Revoir

Sean

Ferrari, go carts and bowling!

The last week has been fantastic. I have been to many places and I can't wait to tell you about it.

I went with Dad to the Circuit de Lenon. That is a race track about forty minutes drive from our house. We arrived and Dad was immediately put into the briefing room with the other drivers. Dad had the opportunity to drive a Ferrari F430 for six laps. It really was a beautiful car. I took photos as he raced around the track. He then jumped into an old Ferrari which was fitted out to race with a roll-cage, racing tires and a huge spoiler on the back. I also saw a Ferrari Scudera in matt black. It was beautiful. I was looking at Dad's car when a man asked me if I wanted to sit in the passenger seat and be driven around the track! It was fantastic because the man went very fast. I hardly had the chance to think about anything before we we pulled into the pits again.

After that Dad and I walked over to the smaller track and we raced go-carts together! The carts were really powerful. We went at about thirty to forty kilometres an hour! There were quite a lot of turns and my favourite was the hairpin bend. I went a little bit too fast on some sections and may have hum.. lost control?

That Thursday was a public holiday so we went to a friends' house. We stayed until quite late. The next morning I was exhausted and sick so I stayed at home for the day. So it turned into a four day weekend! That's what every-one does in France. They 'jump the bridge' from the Thursday public holiday into the weekend. Almost every-one stayed home from school for the day, most of all the my teachers!

On Sunday we all went bowling at Le Pontet, just before Avignon. It's a large 'commercial centre' which is a huge group of shopping centres and warehouses. We went bowling at a big arcade in the middle of Le Pontet. It was fantastic fun. I got two strikes and three spares. My first score was sixty three and my second was ninety-four. The record was two hundred and thirty four!

That's all over here!

Au Revoir!

Gorge du Verdon

Hello Everyone!

This blog entry is about our holiday in the beautiful Verdon Gorge.

We left for the gorge with great expectations and excitement. The depth of the gorge in places is 500 metres deep and the deepest gorge in the world, second only to the Grand Canyon. We started a walk at Chalet de la Maline which is 893 meters high and descended to 555 meters at the river were we ate afternoon tea. It was amazing to be walking through all the wildlife. There were quite a few hills of just gravel! From the top of the gorge it looked like an awfully long way down to the river and when we arrived at the bottom it look just as long to climb to the top! In total it took us two and a half hours to walk the whole track.

As we drove along the gorge, we stopped at numerous look-outs to look at the views. At one we saw quite a few rock climbers who where abseiling down the cliff and then climbing back up. Even though there were safety bars on all the cliffs I still didn't feel safe! It was such a long way down.

On one of the nights we stayed in a castle in Trigance which overlooked the tiny village below. I enjoyed sitting in front of the fire and reading my favourite book. In the rooms there were small beds because in the 13th century people always slept sitting up.They were scared that their lungs would drown.

We climbed up to a church over Moustiers, which is another town we stayed in. There was a gold star hanging between two cliff faces, over the village. A 13th century crusader put it there after he did something that the royal family approved of. he won a battle and promised he would hang a gold star above his village if he should return alive.

While we were up there we saw two mountain goats looking over the church and when we tried to leave a bunch of goats were standing in a cave and stopped us from leaving! So we had to leave via another path! It was a great few days.

Au Revoir

Sean

Friends and Caves

Hello everyone!

Winter is definitely here. The top of Mt Ventoux now has snow!

We started last weekend with a trip to Isle sur la Sorgue where I ate a cafe liegois from Isabelle's. That's the name of the ice-cream. It's a huge ice-cream with two scoops of coffee ice-cream, coffee sauce, coffee and whipped cream. It was so huge! We also had a look at the antique markets. I find it amusing that you are always guaranteed to find antique keys from doors in France. It was so cold that when we climbed back into the car that there was frost all over the windows!

We then drove to the Thouzon Cave. We entered into a small corridor which snaked it's way down into the ground. It was surprisingly warmer inside the cave then outside! Outside it was 10 degrees and inside it was 13 degrees! It was discovered in 1902 by two men excavating for a quarry. Inside there are numerous stalactites and stalicmites. While we were walking we saw them everywhere. They looked like macaroni entering and leaving the earth. We also saw tree roots from where trees have reached down from the earth above searching for water. We also passed small deposits of water from where it had gathered up over time.

On Wednesday I had Corentin, my friend, come over and play at my house. We raced cars on my electric car track and went to the local skate park with our bikes. We ate pasta for lunch and ate crepes in front of the "I Robot" movie.

On Saturday I went to Corentin's house in Malemort du Comtat. We kicked a soccer ball around at the oval near his house and played Soul Excalibur 4 on the Xbox 360. We rode on the bikes to the skate park near his house and went on the jumps too.

On Sunday we went to the Vide Grenier in Mazan. I bought Star Wars Battlefront 2, Brothers in Arms 4 and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on the PS2 for 9 euros and I bought a cool skateboard for 3 euros!

Serge, Isabelle and Raphael came over to our house to play Risk in the afternoon. I won after a two hours of battling. We also ate "Gauffres" or waffles in French with cream, ice-cream and chocolate sauce.

Au Revoir!

Les Baux de Provence

Hey everyone,

Saturday was one of the best days I've had out in France so I am very excited to tell you about it. We went to Les Baux de Provence on Saturday which is a village about an hour and a half away from home in Mormoiron. We were going there because there was a medieval battle on in which two sides fought a mock battle on the ruins of an old chateau called Chateau les Baux.

We arrived and parked at the bottom of the hill. There were so many cars! Luckily there were buses running up and down the hill otherwise it would have taken us ages to walk up! When we arrived at the top we stepped off the bus and were greeted by the sound of swords clashing, swords being taken in and out of their sheaths and people laughing.

We walked around and looked at the numerous swords, axes, maces, and mauls all shining brightly in the stalls. We also saw helms, body plates, gauntlets and chain mail that almost dropped me flat on the ground from the weight of it!

We walked up to the stands and sat down. The stand overlooked the castle and it was magnificent. There was still a watchtower where archers could fire their bows and arrows from and from were they could pour boiling oil or water on the attackers.

We watched a bird-of-prey show before the main battle, which was fantastic. There were various owls and also eagles which flew around. The men picked up a piece of meat connected to a rope and swung it around. The hawk then flew in and stole the meat. They said that it can go a maximum speed of 250 kilometres per hour!

After that we got to watch the battle! This creepy music started playing and cloaked people walked up to a guarded castle. They then dropped their cloaks and started attacking! More people then came in and together they stormed the castle and won it. The king of the people who stormed the castle then came and demanded to have it back but they said 'no'. The people who lost the castle then came back with reinforcements and stormed it also. The king of the people who lost the castle demanded for a fight, one on one. The good king won the dual and sent the opposing king to jail.

We strolled home to the bus and drove home. We were so exhausted that night that we didn't change out of our pyjamas the next morning.

I'll talk to you next week

Bye!