The FESTOYADE and markets

Last week we woke up to unfortunate grey skies and a gale of 35km/hr. But there was a giant party to be held that day!!!! That evening we got into our Blue, White and Shiny themed costumes and left the house. We drove to Pascal's house where the giant, all-night-long party, the Festoyade was being held, Pascal had been preparing this party for weeks! and finally it was time! The theme colour was blue and white. I was wearing a white dress and bright blue earrings! Here is a picture of me and my friend, Constance.

We had a great time and nearly stayed up all night. Near the end of the night Pascal handed out glow sticks and all the children jumped on the trampoline, no one knew who was who so it was just a bunch of glowing children laughing on the trampoline. Then we went in side and Pascal gave every person a glowing straw but unfortunately I went to put on my shoes and I accidentally bumped the straw and it pushed into the top of my mouth and scraped the skin! It hurt so much! I was going to sleep at Pascal's house with all the other children but I chose to go home so we could go back to their house and finish the party while I was not sore and tired!

The next day we stayed at Pascal's house until dinner. A friend of Pascal's was very funny. A lady asked Pascal's friend to put some whipped cream on her strawberries and so the man started to put the cream on, but he didn't stop! The lady laughed and said that's a little too much cream on my plate so the man just dunked his head in the plate of mostly cream! Everyone was cracking up and then, he took off his glasses and sprayed two circles of cream on the lenses and put the glasses back on!! It was soooo funny! That night we had dinner and then left. It was a great Festoyade!

Yesterday Sean, Mum and I drove to Gordes. Gordes is one of the plus beaux (most beautiful) hilltop villages in France. We ate lunch in a cafe called Le Jardin Cafe (The Garden Cafe). We walked around town and looked in shops, the town was so much more alive than it was in winter! We ate an ice-cream and then went home.

This morning we woke up to sunny skies and shorts wearing weather! The perfect day to visit the Bedoin markets, a village close by ours. We walked through the markets and bought some vegetables, a hammock for summer and took some photos. We sat in a coffee shop and ate and drank some things, then we drove home.

It has been a great week!
See you again soon, Ivy x

Tripping through France and the Benelux, Germany and back to France

We woke in Lesmont to a breakfast of croissants and home made jams, then we grabbed our bikes and set off for a long bike ride around the area of Lacs d'Orients. We pushed ourselves up every hill to see Lesmont and it's beautiful paddocks of grazing cattle and canola. We rode to the three lakes and rode around them. By the time we got home it was 5 o'clock - We rode 40 km all together! It was really fun. That night we drove to a close by town to go to dinner. I chose salmon salad for starters and then salmon with saffron sauce. Salmon is my new favourite. We had a cheese platter and a chocolate dessert. Very Yum!

In Holland, we drove to a big hotel with our whole family and I mean our whole family! We were going there because my great grandfather was turning 90!! They had rented out a hotel for about 40 people - all in my family!!

I played with my cousins, Lisa and Thijs. They are older than us, and Tein and Lise, they are younger than us. All together, we went to a zoo. We got split up into groups, I went with Thijs and Lisa. The first animals we saw were the penguins. They were very cute. We walked to the desert section and the bush section and the ocean section, then it started raining! So we ran to the cafeteria, ate lunch and headed back to the main entrance for 3 o'clock.
The next day we hopped on a horse and cart and headed towards and olden day museum. We had morning tea and looked at the museum and then played outside. We hopped on the horse and cart again and rode back to the hotel.

After the weekend, we arrived in Nurburg, Germany and signed into our hotel. The next morning we drove to Nurburg Ring. The Nurburg Ring is a famous racing car track. We went to the shop and then looked in the museum! We dropped Dad off at the race way but sadly, we were not allowed to watch him race. We came back and picked Dad up, he showed us the place where all the cars start on the race track. There were a lot of Porsches there, and we saw a big truck come in with PORSCHE written on it. We really wanted to see what was inside the truck but the men weren't opening the back.

The next day we drove back into France and stayed in a very small village, Villeferry and unpacked. Only 38 people live in Villeferry. The next morning we drove to Flavigny, a town where a movie called 'Chocolat' was filmed! It was a very sweet village and we went to see a sugar aniseed factory. We saw how they turn the aniseed in a barrel and how the sugar sprays the aniseed and after it turns in to a little sugar lolly with a little aniseed inside the sugar coating!

After we drove to an old abbey, it was called Abbey Fontaney. The Abbey was built by a very rich man who wanted to give up this rich life to live in poverty. We walked around the gardens and rooms. My favourite part was the dormetry. Nothing was fancy but it was very big. Apparently it had 200 monks living in it once upon a time!

The next day we drove home to Mormoiron which is where I am now.

The trip was great!

Au revoir!