Dordogne

During these holidays, we visited the Dordogne, where we stayed with friends for 4 nights. We drove two and a half hours to get to the village of Roquefort, where we had a tour of the "Papillon" Roquefort cheese cellars. We first watched a movie on how Roquefort cheese was originally made, then we went on a tour of the caves. Roquefort cheese is made by "salting" the sheep's milk with penicillin, causing the cheese to develop green/blue mold. The cheese is matured in the caves, which stay at 10degC all year round, for a period of 90 to 260 days. There are only 7 manufactures who can call their cheese "Roquefort", and they fall within a zone of 2 km long and 300 meters wide within the village boundaries. When we finished the tour, we got to taste all the different Roquefort cheeses. We bought the best cheese and drove to the nearest park to eat it with some bread and butter.

We kept driving for half an hour until we reached the biggest bridge in France, The Millau Bridge! We drove across the bridge before stopping at a view point, and information centre. The bridge is 2460 meters long and the tallest column is 245m high.

That afternoon we arrived at the house of friends where we were staying, in the town of Thenon, in the Dordogne Valley.

The next morning we left for the markets at Sarlat. They were quite big and we saw a man, he had a little snake toy twirling around his hands so it looked like magic. They looked so cool so Sean and I bought one each. We felt them but they had nothing in them at all! There is a secret to how they work, maybe I will show you one day!! After the markets we drove to the Dordogne river where we had a boat ride that passed five chateaux, all within 1km of each other.

The next day we went to La Roque de St Christophe. La Roque de St Christophe is a cliff face 1km long and 80 meters high. It is made up of 5 terraces, which were first hollowed out 60 million years ago. The cliff was first a shelter for hunters 55 000 years ago and it was continually inhabited until the sight was destroyed during the Wars of Religion in the late 1500s. It had a couple of examples of how the cave men lived. The site was mostly occupied in the middle ages. We saw a demonstration where there was a big wheel, like in a hamsters cage, a man hopped into the wheel and walked. This machine was used as a winch to hoist up and down loads of food, water and other supplies.

That afternoon we went to the Gardens of Marqueyssac. The owners have hand-shaped the 150 000 box trees into lots of imaginative shapes. There was even a kids' maze that Sean and I raced through. I won. A part of the garden is even used for rock climbing.

We went to the Gouffre de Padirac. The Gouffre de Padirac is a giant cave where there are lots of stalagmites and stalactites. We walked through the cave and got into a boat and rode 1 kilometre into the cave. From there, we had a tour guide through the rest of the cave. We had to climb 465 big steps. The cave system has been mapped for 19 kilometres more into the cave, and at 9km remains of cave men, mammoth and cave bears were discovered. My favourite formations were the ones that looked like there was a stack of pancakes with maple syrup on top!! We also saw a 60 meter column. A column is when a stalagmite and a stalactite meet, so then they become a column. When we had the boat ride back the man who was paddling would always rock the boat scaring us all as we thoughrt we were going to tip out. It was one of the most amazing caves I have ever seen.

I had lots of fun in the Dordogne!

Camargue and Marseille

We had great fun in the Camargue! The Camargue is a coastal region in the south of Provence, covered in wetlands. When we first arrived we went to a bird park, called the Pont de Gau bird sanctuary. It holds all different types of birds, including flamingos. We walked around the whole zoo studying all the different birds they had. My favourite was the flamingo. I especially liked the flamingos that were fluoro pink with a black outline around the wings.

After the zoo we went to the nearby seaside town of St Maries de la Mer. We walked around the town and climbed to the roof of the church where we had a fantastic view of the surrounding countryside. After looking at all the little shops, we walked to the town's beach where we had a quick swim.

We drove along the road passing lots of different pony clubs, we stopped at one and went on a horse ride for an hour and a half! We learned to trot and also rode the horses into waist deep water, it was sooo much fun!!

We drove to the town of Salin de Giraud, a salt mining area, because this part of the Camargue is well known for its salt production. Salt is made by filling sea water into small bays, and letting the sun evaporate all the water, leaving you with a layer of salt. The salt is then scraped up and placed on large conveyor belts and sent for processing.

Later in the week we went to Marseille. Marseille is the oldest inhabited city in France. It has been inhabited for 2600 years! We walked around the old city and into an amazing church called Cathedral de la Major. It was very big and built out of marble.

We then caught a boat to the Chateau d'If, on a small island off the coast of Marseille. Until the 16th century it was a barren island, only visited by local fisherman. On a trip to Marseille in 1516, King Francois I decided to make it a fortress. It was turned into a prison in 1540, and remained a prison until World War I. Two of its legendary inmates were the Count of Monte Cristo and the Man in the Iron Mask.

On the weekend I went to my friends' house to have a sleepover! We swam in the pool lots, jumped on the trampoline and watched Avatar! I had great fun!!

Au Revoir :-)

Tarascon and Dolium

On Sunday, my Oma and Opa arrived. They have been traveling around Europe for 2 months and they dropped in to stay with us. They had bought us some very fancy Swiss chocolates and so we sat down and devoured some with a cup of tea.

In the morning we left for Tarascon, a big town to visit the chateau of, well, Tarascon. We walked around the chateau rooms. There were many winding staircases and when you walked into the rich rooms where the kings and queens probably slept, in the corner there were tiny rooms where there was a hole, where they obviously went to the toilet, and it dropped around 60 meters!! After we had looked around the castle we went to a cafe to go and eat. I had ham and wedges.

That afternoon we drove to Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. We stopped at a cafe and had a milkshake and ice-cream.

Oma and Opa took us out to a restaurant called Dolium. It is a restaurant as well as as a cooking school. Dolium is a very fancy restaurant that is even in the Michelin guide! The Michelin guide is a guide where all of the best restaurant in France get listed. I had never been to Dolium before. For entree I had a spicy eggplant mousse that tasted like guacamole. For main I had the fish. And for dessert I had an apricot nectar and ice-cream dessert. It was sooo good! Next door there is a big wine cellar and when you go in you stand on glass and can look down into a wine cellar!

:-) YUMMY!! Au Revoir.