Rock Climbing in the Dentelles Montmirails

We started the week with a visit from Mums' cousin. His name is Ruben. His hobby is rock climbing. He came down to Provence to take us rock climbing in the Dentelles aka Sawtooth. The drive was about thirty minutes from Mormoiron. On the road into the place where we would climb we encountered many holes and bumps. We were thrown around in the car a lot!

When we arrived, Ruben showed us how to use the equipment and how to climb properly. He then climbed up the slope and attached a rope to a strong tree. We changed into our climbing harnesses. We were ready to go! When it was my turn to climb, I looked up to see the challenge that lay ahead. There was a thirty metre slope with quite a few hand holes and a "chimney" at the end with no hand holes to climb up! At points in time, I was relying on small indentations in the rock!

After fifteen minutes of hair-raising climbing, I arrived at the chimney. There were no hand holes through this part of the climb and I had to use my feet to lever myself up to the final point of the climb. The first slope that I climbed was rated 4a and the second I climbed was rated 4c. The difficulty of the rocks are rated from 1a being very easy to 10c being almost impossible. When we packed up I saw all of Rubens' gear. He had a lot of harnesses and clips. He had a belt that he climbs with in case he gets into a sticky spot and it weighed a tonne!

We had a barbecue that night with Pascal, the girls, Christine, Serge, Isabelle, Raphael and Elisa. Ruben was also present. We hung out in the gym down stairs, listened to music and swam in the pool. The pool was very cold!

We woke up late the next day to go to Banon with Ruben which is well known for its goat's cheese and a large bookshop. We arrived and walked through the markets which were very interesting. The book shop is huge! It's three stories high and full of English and French books. I found a book and had a read for an hour whilst the others browsed. We finished our day in Banon by climbing up the hill to the top of the village. We got a view of all the villages and mountains around us.

On Wednesday I went to Aqualand with my school! It's a water park near Cassis which is a harbour on the Mediterranean Sea. We arrived at ten o'clock and were let into the park. There were lots of slides and pools. My favourite ride was called 'the wave'. If you've been to Wet 'n' Wild, it's like the cyclone. It's a big U shape and you sit on the edge and you get pushed down. I liked the slides because you flew out of the chute into the water at high speed.

Today is Friday and it was my last day of school, before two months off for the summer holidays. I will move on to 'cinquieme' grade when I return.

Au Revoir

Le Mans race week.

I had been waiting for this day to come for weeks! We were leaving Mormoiron to go to Le Mans. Le Mans is a huge race where they drive around a track for twenty four hours and try to go around the track more times then the other competitors. From Mormoiron we drove to the AIRBUS factory in Toulouse which is half way to Le Mans.

We were given a tour of the plant and the construction facility. We started at the shop and were taken into a room in which they showed us the first launch of the A380 plane. The tour was in English but the launch video was in French. The pilots were very relaxed because they had spent one thousand hours in the simulator each, prior to the first flight. There were three people in the cockpit and three engineers in the main body of the plain making notes and sending information to ground control. From there we took a bus to the plant where they build the planes. On the ground level they gave us a presentation about the factory and where they get their parts from. They have 1200 suppliers.

We then went upstairs and saw them preparing the planes. After we did that we walked outside and looked at the planes sitting on the tarmac ready to be delivered. There were two QANTAS planes and one Singapore airlines plane. The final part of the tour was an inspection of the main body of the A380.

We then drove for a couple of hours to a small town called Mauriac in the Bordeaux wine region. We checked in to our quaint bed and breakfast and Dad asked if there were any wine tasting places around. The woman said 'yes' and gestured for us to follow her. We hopped in the car and followed her to a château only five minutes away called Château Gaury Balette. We were greeted by the owner Geomme.

We went over to the grapevines where he explained about the different types of grapes he grows. They included Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. From there we went inside to the huge vats where he showed us how they produce their best wines. We were shown how they pack the boxes and how they put on labels. We went outside and saw a Lamborghini tractor! I got lots of photos. Lamborghini were a tractor company before they made super cars! After the tour we went to have dinner in the village. We had a nice pizza followed by a strawberry mousse!

The next day, we woke up early and travelled to Malucorne, a small town south of Le Mans. This was to be our base for the Le Mans 24 hour race. We left our bags at the hotel and went to the race track. It was about thirty minutes to the track but we were kept amused by watching all the super cars parked and driving on the road. We saw Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis and a McLaren F1. We arrived to a race track with people everywhere! We walked down to the pits where we were allowed to see the cars and the drivers. We were at the very end when we saw one of the Audi drivers sitting in the pits having an interview. From there we drove to the drivers parade which was being held in the streets of Le Mans. This was my favourite part of the trip because we saw all the drivers and cool cars and because I got lots of signatures and they were throwing freebies into the crowd.

The next day was exciting because the twenty four hour race began. We arrived at the track at eight o'clock to see the lead up races before the main event began. At twelve o'clock we went over to the little amusement park that was set up for the weekend. I got on a ride called the bungee thriller! I was strapped into a ball. My tummy started to turn backlips as the ropes tightened. A mechanical voice started to count down. When it reached zero I was flung up into the air. I was so scared. When the ride slowed down and I got off, I had wobbly legs! After that we returned to the stands to watch the start of the race.

The Peugeot team were favourites and the Audi team were second favourites. There was an electric build up to the start and the competitors took of with a lot of revving which received much approval from the crowd. When we left at ten o'clock, the standings were 1st, 2nd, 3rd to Peugeot and 4th, 5th and 6th to Audi.

The next morning when we arrived at the track, I was amazed to hear that only half the cars remained in the race. The rankings were Audi, Peugeot, Audi, Peugeot, Audi and Peugeot! Throughout the day, one by one all the Peugeot cars blew up and had to retire from the race! I wasn't very happy seeing this because I was supporting them. Ivy and Dad were going for Audi so they were extremely happy! The race finished with all the three Audis coming 1st, 2nd and 3rd. They received wreaths, and they did the traditional thing of spraying champagne all over each other. After the race we walked on the track and then caught the bus home.

We drove from the hotel we were staying to the town of Malucorne. We had a fantastic dinner of crab terrine, scallops in a cream sauce and mango and rhubarb pie with Marzipan ice-cream.

The next day, we drove to Vichy which is famous for its thermal medicinal waters. We went to the park and took a small train around the city. We saw all the old buildings and spa baths. We went across to a spa facility next to the hotel we were staying in, to see if we could swim, but it was for medical purposes only.

The next morning we hit the road again to make the final stretch to home. We went to a spa along the way called Royatonic. It was very nice with hot baths, warm baths and freezing cold baths. There was a big pool and an outside pool, too. There were lots of showers and a sauna. We relaxed in the pools for an hour and a half before we headed home. We arrived at six o'clock that night.

Au Revoir

Party!

We started school again that week. I had a bit to catch up on because I had been away for the previous 3. My French is improving dramatically and I can express myself quite well.

On Saturday afternoon, we had Pascal's birthday party. It was huge, with friends from around the country coming to see him. It went for all Saturday night and again Sunday until very late. The banquette was huge and we bounced on the trampoline a lot with all the other children. I learned how to play a rift on the drums by one of Pascal's friends. I also had my first taste of Escargot. Escargot is cooked snails. I didn't like it. The dessert was great because we had strawberries and whipped cream.
The water in the pool was too cold to swim in because it was soooo windy. The Mistral wind, the wind we get here, lasts for three days, six days or nine days. Strange huh? Pascal's brother has three sons. They were older than me but I enjoyed their company. One of them could do Jackie Chan flips! There was also a very funny man at the party. He had wide rimmed glasses which he made use of by spraying whipped cream in between his eyes and his glasses. He also got champagne glasses and put them over his ears.

That week on Monday we had Christine's brother's birthday party! Yes, there are a lot of parties here at the moment. He had a huge platter of cakes and tarts that could feed an army! Yum yum.... Yesterday we went to the Bedoin markets to buy some fresh produce. From there we went to Gordes which is the biggest hilltop village and has been voted one of the most beautiful villages in France. Gordes was an amazing village because of the view from the other side of the road because of the sheer cliffs all the way down through the village.

Today is Monday and there is no school because of a bank holiday. Mum is going for a cooking class with her friends tonight. On Wednesday afternoon we are going to Pascal's house again for Constance, Raphaelle and Charlotte's birthday party. They are combining it because their birthdays are close.

I'll see you next week :-)
Au Revoir, Sean

Tripping through country France

We travelled for six hours from our chateau in the Loire to the north-east of France, just east of Troyes. Our next hotel was a hunting lodge in a small town called Lesmont. On our first day we had Dads' birthday to celebrate! We went for a huge bike ride through the surrounding towns. By the end of the day we were extremely exhausted after the forty kilometer bike ride. That night was very nice with a big meal in a fancy French restaurant to settle our rumbling tummies.

We drove five hundred kilometres the next day to Belgium to meet my Mum's cousin and her family. Her name is Ria and her husband Peter. They have three children, Stephie, Florien and Tristan. We jumped on the trampoline a lot of the time. That evening was quite exciting with more cousins and children coming over to their house. I got on very well with a boy called Wouter. He was the same age as me and had the same interest as me. He is my second cousin.

We drove up from Belgium to Holland and met my great-aunty and great-uncle. They are very nice and are very energetic. We went on a bike ride with them around a local village which was very nice but my favourite part of the ride was when we stopped at a paddock with many different animals including deer, goats, sheep, chickens and a big, proud turkey. He was doing a funny dance to show off to his girlfriend! At that time there were a lot of tulips blooming. We stopped along the way to pick some of them and to take photos. The day after that was exciting with a trip to a monkey zoo called Apenheul. We saw little monkeys and huge apes, all running freely throughout the zoo.

That weekend was one of the highlights of the trip because I was able to meet my second cousins called Lisa and Thijs and Lise and Tein. Thijs was very good at table-tennis and table soccer. The reason we were at a hotel was because it was my great-grandfather's 90th birthday. We celebrated there with all the family. My favourite part of the weekend was when we went to a nearby zoo. My favourite animal was Fred the shark because he was staring intently at us as we walked past.

We drove three hours, the next day to Germany or more specifically the Nurburg Ring! Dad hired a Renault sport R26R which had been enhanced and took it for a spin around the ring. We also had a look around the shops and Dad bought some clothes and a mug.

We drove a few hours from there to a village called Villeferry, which is back in France. The hotel that we stayed in was a 14th century house which had been renovated. From there we drove to a nearby village called Flavigny which is the village where the film "Chocolat" was filmed. Flavigny is also famous for its aniseed lollies. We were given a tour of the lolly factory and bought some lollies. Just down the road from Flavigny there is the Fontenay Abbey. It was founded in 1118 by Saint Bernard. He was the son of a rich family but then was sick of wealth, built a huge abbey with his money and became a monk.

After a month on the road we finally arrived home safe and well, but extremely tired it was great to be back to the comforts of home.

Au revoir

Trip through France

We went to the Pont de Gard which is an aquaduct which was built in 200 AD by the Romans to take water from Uzes to Nimes. This was built so that the people could live more luxuriously water wise. The aquaduct enabled the people to have more baths and showers every day. The people of Nimes on average used three times as much water as we use now!


With the holidays coming quickly, Mum and Dad have decided to go on a road trip with Ivy and I through France, Holland and Germany and then home again. We left home bright and early for the six hour drive to the Central Massif which is a region of high volcanics south of Limoges. We arrived late in the afternoon at our motel where we threw our bags into the room and raced out to Murat which is the town nearest to our motel. Murat was a nice town with little brick houses and a big church. My favourite building in the town was a house occupied by the Knights Templar at the time of the crusades! There was a stone tile above the door showing their symbol of the eight pointed cross.


We left our motel at eight thirty the next day because we only had one day here before we moved on to Limoges. Because the region where we were staying in is famous for its cheeses, we were enthusiastic to get out and taste the cheeses of the region. The nearest farm was approximately 20 minutes away in a little hamlet. We were given a fully guided tour by one of the workers of the whole factory and the cold rooms were they keep the cheese. We had the oppotunity to try a variety of cheeses. The two cheese varieties famous here are Salers and Cantal. We bought a chunk of each for lunch that day. Yummmmm........


We then drove to Salers which has been voted as one of the most beautiful villages in France. Most of the buildings were built in the 17th century. All of the buildings are black with thick grapevines draping on the walls and around the window sills.


We moved on the next day to Limoges. We arrived in Limoges and decided that it was too late to go and explore the town. The next day was a huge day with a trip to a Porcelain museum. Limoges is famous for its porcelain, so we had to go and see it. We went to the Royal Limoges factory where we walked through the museum and had the opportunity to explore the inside of one of the huge ovens built in the 1800's called a Kiln. We also got to see a movie on the evolution of porcelain from its commencement in the region to today.


The sight after was quite sad and disturbing. We went to Oradour sur Glare which is a town near Limoges. On the 10th of June 1944, the whole town was stormed by German soldiers. The Germans were being pushed back by the Allied forces on the coast line, when Aldof Hitler declared a crack down on all the towns who were stirred at the sound at the fact that the Germans might be losing the war. To inspire fear in other people's hearts they came into the town and killed 642 people who were in the town that day. It certainly was a solumn end to our day, but I felt it was a significant part of history, that today I was a part of.


I enjoyed the best Tandoori chicken and rice dinner, and ended the day with a game of cards with the family.


The next day was a fun day for the whole family as we went to the theme park Vulcania. Vulcania is a park which is outside of Limoges. The purpose of the park is to tell you all about the history of volcanoes in the region called the Central Massif. My favourite thing was the simulator of a real live volcano explosion.


The next day was a road trip to Chateau Razay, which is in the heart of the Loire Valley, two hours north of Limoges. The chateau was very grand and beautiful with rich carpets and furniture. We are staying in the grounds of the chateau in a cabin which gives you a great view over the grounds and of the chateau itself.


The first day of our stay was a big one with a trip to the local markets with Mum, Dad, Ivy and I. I bought a few movies for very cheap prices. There were a lot of stalls with very old objects.


We visited a chateau after that called Chateau Chambord. The young king, Francois I, was twenty five years old in 1519 when he decided to build the chateau. He made his decision to build the chateau after the taking of Milan, which had been lost to Italy by the previous King Louis XII. My favourite part of the chateau was the helical staircase, designed by Leonardo Da Vinci. It was made so that the people going up and down would never meet. Ivy got stuck on a different staircase than us which was quite funny. Suprisingly, in Francois I's whole reign he spent only six weeks in the chateau.


The second chateau that we went to was called Chateau de Chenonceau. There originally was an old castle on the land until the owners demolished it and built a new chateau. They only left the well and one of the watch towers standing in place. The castle was very granduose, but my favourite part was the maze outside which had been designed by Catherine de Medici.


Today was spent with a relaxing morning around the chateau. This afternoon was exciting with a trip to the Troglodytique caves. The Troglodytique caves were an labythrinth of old underground quarries which were quarried for the tuffa in the 1500s. Tuffa is a stone which was used to build chateaux. The caves were closed at the end of the 15th century, because the quaries were too far into the ground to allow the tuffa to be extracted, and because the age of building the elaborate chateaus had passed. The quarries were reopened in the eighteen hundreds because the use of machines allowed the extraction of the Tuffa deeper into the mountain. Once all the good quality stone had been mined, they used the caves as mushroom growing facilities in the nineteen hundreds. The conditions were just right for mushrooms, as it was cool and damp. Eventually large scale commercial mushroom growing, made the business of growing mushrooms in the caves unprofitable, so it was discontinued.


Tomorrow we are leaving to Holland for the second part of our trip. I'll look forward to writing to you next week.
Au Revoir

Race Day

Last Sunday was a huge day for Dad and I with a trip to the Grand Sambuc car race track. We left home early in the morning for the two hour drive to the track, near Aix-en-Provence. Dad had packed us a big lunch, so we stopped for a couple of breaks due to the windy roads. We still arrived at the track with slightly green faces after the curvy roads!


Once at the track, we were ushered into the briefing room, before Dad was to drive the Audi R8. It was all in French but we managed to understand quite a lot of the words that were spoken. We were driven a few kilometres in a minibus out to the massive race track. Dad had bought 12 laps in the Audi R8 and I was given 2 hot laps with a racing car driver in a Ferrari F430 Scuderia. (Woohoo!)


Dad started off steadily, but by the end he was going amazingly fast. Dad told me that his instructor was impressed by his driving skills. My driving instructor is a famous race car driver here in France and was very nice to me. He went over 200 kilometres down the main straight. I was yelling in fear all the way. The adrenaline rush that I got was amazing. Dad and I were both exhausted after the big day out.

Yesterday we went to Arles with Talia and the rest of the family. Arles is an ancient Roman city about an hour and a half drive, south from here. Easter weekend in Arles sees a huge celebration called the "Feria Arles". It is celebrating the long history of bullfighting in the city. We arrived to a sea of white clothing, red scarves and bandannas of the excited crowds. There were many markets throughout the city streets and squares. I bought a T-shirt with a picture of a bull and the word Sorteo printed on the front. Sorteo is Spanish. Arles had many restaurants selling many varieties of Paella. The street was filled with the delicious scents, which were too good to refuse, so we enjoyed a plate each.

We walked along the streets for the day looking at the sights around the town. It seemed like everywhere we looked we saw something representing "the bull". We went to numerous displays of artwork and sculptures all with the bull theme. My favourite was a piece of art with tickets glued to a canvas shaped like bulls. Of the numerous Roman sights, the highlight was the colosseum like arena (used for the bull fighting spectaculars). The whole of Arles was in a party mood and as we left the town that night, the street bands were in full swing and looked as though they would party long into the night.

See you next week!

What a Week!

My week started with a whopping eighteen out of twenty for a project in "arts plastiques". I was overjoyed, as this was the highest mark in my class. I'm not exactly topping the class in French! For art, we all were given a small book, too old to read. We folded each and every page with the corners pointing inwards. The book then started to resemble a body of an animal. We had to decorate the book further with anything we wanted. I pasted crepe paper 'leaves' as well as real bay leaves from our garden onto the pages of the book. It looked great and looked like an echidna.

Our school lunch times were getting gradually more and more dull as I'm not good at standing around and chatting in French for 2 hours each day. So, I introduced my friends to handball. Now they are amazingly good at it. At some times it feels like the whole school is in the reserve line.

On Tuesday I had the best sport session ever! The teacher announced a free for all gymnastics session. We brought out the trampolines and the high mats. I thought it was a bit crazy but oh well. We did the superman, flips and jumps. We climbed to the roof like monkeys, climbed along the roof and had a push-up competition! The highest number was 35. It was great fun.

After school, I played tennis which was good, followed by Soccer training, at which we played a game against the older boys. Unfortunately, we were beaten. None of us cared as we had learnt some new tricks from them. With another training session on Friday, I am sure getting enough exercise. That night, for dinner, we had stir fried rice. It was a nice change to have an Asian style meal.


On Saturday, Dad and I went for a walk up the mountain with our neighbours' dog, Tristan. Tristan is a Flat Haired Retriever. He is red and shaggy with a large head. We hacked our way through the bush which was fun. It is so quiet high up in the mountains.


That night was a party at Serge and Isabelle's house with Pascal, Christine and his girls and Lugdevine, Giaullemme and their children Valentine, Matthis and Maele. We partied until one o'clock, when the adults decided to go home. We almost fell asleep in front of the PS3. We had a big sleep-in on Sunday morning because of the late night. We sat around all morning and played computer. At twelve o'clock, I ventured outside, to try and find my friends, who are usually out and about in the village. Unfortunately, there was nobody to be found. Sadly the afternoon weather had turned to showers leaving me to watch I-Robot with Dad. It was a fantastic movie starring Will Smith.

See you!