Chateau des Baux de Provence

Hi again!

This week's adventure led to exploring the Chateau de Baux. The chateau is perched on a rocky outcrop with an amazing view of vineyards and olive groves. There was a theme, the medieval times. They were also reenacting the storming of the Chateau de Baux.

As the village of Le Baux de Provence was alive and busy in the morning, we parked down below and walked up through the streets to reach the Chateau. On the way up, we stopped in a few shops selling swords and armour. Unfortunately, none of the chain-mail items fitted me!

The first show we went to was about a troop of medieval singers. Mum was picked out of the crowd as one of the volunteers. The volunteers had to dance, it was very funny.

The next show was an equestrian and bird show. A lady rode a beautiful horse. She had such good control that she could make the horse do any manouvres she wanted! She could make it step backwards, side-ways and make it kneel, bow and dance! A man then entered the ring and pretended to attack the horse from the front. The horse kicked out his front feet as if to hit the man. Also if the man went behind the horse he would kick backwards. He was a very smart horse!

The second part of the show was about birds of prey. There were hawks, eagles, owls and baby birds! The bird handlers smacked meat onto their hand and the birds would fly down to sit on their hands. The birds had leather straps tied to their legs so that when they sat on the bird handler's hand the people could hold on to the bird. My favourite bird was an owl, he had a little white face with a beige coloured body.

The biggest show of the day was about to start; the attack on the Chateau! As the show started, about five men walked up the stairs to the chateau. Everybody thought they were religious visitors because they were wearing black capes over their armour. Suddenly the men pulled off the capes and started fighting with the good guards of the castle. Lots of other warriors from the bad army ran out to help. We were sitting in a grandstand and down below us the good team were firing canons and catapults! Don't worry, the rocks from the catapult weren't real! The bad team took over the castle but the good warriors' leader was challenged to a dual, one on one with the other leader. They fought and the good leader won! So the good warriors reclaimed their castle.

When the show was finished, we walked around the medieval camps and there was a big battering-ram. Sean and I went inside the triangle roof structure that the ram hung off and we sat on it.

On the way back into town there was a man and he was letting children try on all his armour and chain-mail. Sean tried on the heavy chain mail coat! It looked very heavy! I just lifted a very long sword. It weighed a ton!!

I had an awesome day!

An Australian Feel

The new school year has just begun and I am in a new class with a new teacher. She is very nice and I am sitting next to a friend in class. Her name is Chloe. When Mum and I went to buy stationary for school, it was really fun but very hard because everything was in French. It took us a while to figure out exactly what we needed to buy! Luckily I love looking at so much stationery. All my friends, but one, are in the other class in the same grade this year. That's okay because I get to stay with one of them, Claire, for a week! Mum and Dad are going away for a week. That's why I am staying with Claire. I can't wait because she is really nice.

Our friend, Pascal, had suggested to come to see the Australian 'spectacle' in a gorgeous village, Les Baux de Provence. They project pictures of Australia onto the walls. Pascal invited us to go along with him, Cristine, Raphaelle, Charlotte and Constance yesterday. The theatre for this show is an old quarry where they cut out blocks of rock 500 years ago to use for building castles and other large buildings. Inside where they had removed the blocks were now huge empty galleries, with high ceilings. They had big projectors projecting pictures and videos of Australia on each and every wall! Even the floor had moving art shown on it. We were surrounded in full by the feel of Australia. There were pictures of the tropics, the sea, the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour bridge, pictures of Uluru and Aboriginal people and art. Australian music played along with the movie. It was quite something.

After we left the theatre, we walked up through the town of Les Baux. Les Baux de Provence is one of the 'plus beaux villages' of France. The cobbled streets and the old shops and houses are romantic and lovely to see. The gardens were pretty and there were lots of things to look at. We later sat at a restaurant with a great view to eat dinner and just across the road there was a square with lots of little kittens. They were so cute with their big blue eyes. Charlotte, Raphaelle, Constance and I spent ages trying to catch them, but it was too hard. We didn't even get to touch one! The kittens were too wild.

Walking back to the car there was a big big lollie shop that smelled of vanilla cake and fudge. We stopped to have a look inside. The lollies looked delicious. We arrived home very late.

Au Revoir!