Hello everyone,
I just spent a couple of days visiting the Gorge Du Verdon. The Gorge Du Verdon is the second biggest gorge in the world!

There is a town just before the start of the gorge, called Moustier. In Moustier, there is a big waterfall. There is a hotel right next to the waterfall and I have a feeling that those rooms are a little noisy! While exploring the village, we walked up over 500 steps to an old church overlooking the village. While we were walking up to the top, I saw some wild, stinky mountain goats standing on top of a 20 meter cliff drop.

The church at the top of the hill was very beautiful with lots of carvings on the walls. From the cliff face above the church, to the the top of the cliff on the opposite side of the valley, there hangs a large metal chain above the village. Hanging from the center of the chain is a large golden star. This was placed by a knight in the 13th century after returning from a successful crusade. It's still there today.

We went to a pizza restaurant for dinner. The pizzas were very good. The hotel we stayed in was nice because there was a good view of the gorge.

In the morning we headed off for the actual gorge. We stopped at all the lookout points whilst driving the windy road, and at one, there were some men doing rock climbing and absailing down into the gorge! The cliff face that they were absailing down was a sheer drop of over 300 meters. On one stop we walked down a path for an hour to the very bottom of the gorge, ate morning tea by the river and the walked up again! It was great fun.

At the top of the gorge we continued to drive until we reached the most eastern end and a village called Trigance.

When we arrived I was really surprised because our hotel was actually a medieval castle!! Inside there were a lot of swords and armour hanging up on the walls, and our room was decorated with medieval furniture and tapestries. The castle was built in 1220.

For dinner we ate at the castle restaurant and I had chicken and chips. Dad had pigeon and foie gras!

The next day we headed back to Moustiers via the road on the other side of the gorge. We stopped at at town called Aiguines. It is a beautiful town overlooking a big lake. We had an ice-cream and lay in the grass in the park whilst reading books.

The Gorge du Verdon is a magnificent natural wonder of France!

Au Revoir :-)

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!

The Mediterranean Sea

Another beautiful day in France, perfect for a day trip to the beach! We drove along the Riviera looking out towards the crystal blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. We started the day at Cassis, a nice little town just next to the Calanques. We stopped at a lookout over the sea and watched the water sparkle under the sun, while eating morning tea.

We kept driving along the coast until we arrived at Sanury-sur-Mur. We ate a picnic lunch sitting on some rocks at the beach, while watching the boats come and go. All the boats were covered in fishing nets. We watched as all the seagulls milled around the nets, picking out any old fish pieces. We walked through town looking at the shops, and afterwards we bought an ice cream.

We kept driving and stopped at Cavalaire-sur-Mer where we had a swim. It was quite cold, but very refreshing. There was a small pontoon 100 meters off the beach, where you could get out of the water and use it for diving off!

St Tropez is an old town, with a large port, where many celebrities and wealthy people dock their luxury boats. We had fun watching them dock, and trying to see who was on them. There were many workers on the boats, as they are so large that they require many people just to maintain them.

The boats looked very beautiful with their lights and candles lit up.

We sat at a seafood restaurant across the road from the boats to eat dinner. For entree I had mozzarella and tomatoes. For my main meal I enjoyed a steak, salad and chips.

Dessert was definitely my favourite part as I devoured fresh raspberries and cream. We also shared a St Tropezienne - a caky top and bottom, filled with a very thick layer of cream! Bad....

Mum and Dad drove home whilst Sean and I slept for the 3 hour journey back to Mormoiron :-)

Au Revoir,

Ivy x

More Paris!

Our friends Isabelle, Serge, Elisa and Raphael were staying half an hour east of Paris in a little town called Montceaux les Meaux. We went to stay with with them for a few days in August. The house was so big and so was the garden! We were all so excited to see Paris again, we went into the city the same evening of our arrival.

Our first stop was the bead shop in Rue de Temple, le Marais. Mum had been telling me about this store since June. I have a love for making my own bracelets. We went inside the shop and chose lots of beads and strings so we could make the bracelets when we got home.

Last time we came to Paris we went to Mariage Freres, the tea shop. We loved it so much we went back again. There was a type of tea, called 'Wedding Imperial', a chocolate and caramel tea. It smelled so nice we bought some! Our friends also bought some cherry tea.

We walked into the back streets of the Bastille district. We came across a street full of life and restaurants and cafes. We chose a restaurant and sat down. I chose a steak, salad and chips. For dessert I had a chocolate crepe with fruit sauce. That night I was so very tired.

The next day, we visited the Musee d'Orsay. The Musee d'Orsay is a museum filled with paintings and sculptures. They have a lot of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. This a painting by him of himself:

My favourite Van Gogh painting was where it was just a landscape with some bails of hay. The museum was very big and on the ceiling there were lots of carvings. It was a train station many years ago. The old huge clock was still there.

We were walking back from the museum when we saw a sushi restaurant. So we decided to stop for lunch. I had avocado and salmon sushi and cucumber sushi! My favourite!

After lunch, we moved on to the Rodin Museum. The Rodin Museum is a museum that shows all the statues made by Augustus Rodin. My favourite statue was 'The Thinker' of a man sitting with his head leaning on his hands.

Do you know Desigual? The Spanish clothes' brand? It is a very creative and colourful brand of clothing that is very popular here in France. We went to a Desigual concept store and it was giant! I chose some jean tights. We went over to a lady in the shop and she sewed a patch on my tights and stitched the word Paris next to the patch! Now my tights are unique.

One of our days in Paris was just spent shopping with our friends. The boys went one direction and us girls another. We all met at 'Laduree', a salon famous for the best macaroons, since 1862. I had some sandwiches with all types of vegetables and chicken. They were great, though not as fabulous as the macaroons which we ate when we arrived back at the house!

Near the Eiffel tower there is the River Seine. We hopped onto a boat to go cruising down the river. We saw all the monuments and turned back around at the Island of St Louis and returned.

The Luxembourg Garden is a big park on the Left Bank with some activities for children. There was a big pond and fountain in the middle of the park. A man was hiring out some miniature sailing boats. The man gave us a boat and a long stick. We put our boats in the water and pushed them out towards the fountain with the stick. Then we ran around the other side of the pond, ready to catch the boat for when it approached the edge of the pond.

We also walked past the Pantheon. I thought it was very beautiful, but we didn't get to go inside. We walked through the Latin quarter all the way to the church, Sainte Chapelle. It's a church within the Palace of Justice, which actually used to be the City's Palace. King Louis IX lived in this palace and had the church built within its confines. We went inside and the glass stained windows were amazingly beautiful! The windows were so big and the pictures depict the stories of the Bible. The church even has the actual crown of thorns that Jesus wore on the cross as well as a bit of the cross within the upper chapel! They said that the acquisition of the crown of thorns greatly exceeded the cost of building the actual church itself.

In Paris, Berthillon ice-cream is well loved by tourists and Parisians. I got 3 balls of Berthillon glace; white chocolate, fig, and blackberry! We sat next to the river while we ate our ice-creams and they were delicious.

We're home again now and all unpacked. This is how I am going with the bracelets:

Au revoir!

Haribo

In France there is a lolly brand called Haribo. It is originally German but it is also quite popular in France and Italy. Dad, Sean, Mum and I all drove to Uzes where the Haribo museum is. At the beginning of the museum there was a giant store where they were selling all the Haribo lollies! The store was so crowded, it was amazing and people were stocking up on bags and bags of lollies! My favourite lolly sort was the Sour Straps. A man at the front desk gave us some tokens. He said that we were to use them in the tasting room. He also gave us a couple of mini bags of lollies.

Hans Riegel was the inventor of Haribo. He lived in Bonn which explains why he called Haribo, Haribo. If you circle Ha, Ri and Bo, it makes, Haribo! The first sweet Haribo invented was the dancing bear, which later became the Goldbear.

There was a room with all the posters and old advertisement posters that Haribo used to use. My favourite poster was one which had a picture of a man with a strawberry on his nose!

There was another room with lots of little desks. On the desks there were some touch screens and a little hole to put your hand through. First you stuck your hand in the hole and felt a lolly, then you listened, I know weird huh? and then you smelt, and figured out which lolly it was.

The last room was the tasting room. You put you token in to the machine and it gave you four bags of a liquorice or strawberry candy. I chose liquorice. I tasted and the lollies were so yum! At the end we walked through the museum store again. All the lollies looked soo good.

Out in the parking lot of Haribo there was a mini fun park. Sean and I chose to go on this jumping castle. It had a big blow up lion that every minute it closed its mouth. It also had a platform a zebra, a lion and an elephant. We sat on the animals while the platform tipped back and forward. I also went on these mini go carts. I lapped the other girl two times and and only crashed once!

Au Revoir

Friends and Family

Hello Everyone,

My Uncle Terry and Auntie Jean came to stay with us here in France. Once we had picked them up from the airport we drove to Fontaine de Vaucluse. We walked up to the top of a hill and in front of us there was a big cliff, cut in it there was a giant cave. The bottom of the cave was like a swimming pool. But there was still enough room for Sean and I to crawl onto a rock into the cave and look into the water. It was very blue, like chewing gum blue. Dad said that the last time he had been there, that the water had been gushing out of the cave and that it had covered the cave so you couldn't even see the cave!

When we were walking back down the hill we stopped at a paper museum where they had lots of examples of how they used to make paper. The people used to make paper by chopping wood and then squishing it into pulp. Then they would put it into a tub when it was white to dry it out a little and then they would squeeze it so it comes out in sheets and then puts it in cloths to dry and then, there you go, paper.

There was a door from the paper museum that led you into the towns mini-mall. We walked into a glass blowing shop and there was a man who was glass blowing a dragon.

We followed the Sorgue River down to Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to have an ice-cream. We went to a cafe and I ordered a banana split. It came in a giant bowl with lots of smarties and butterflies on top!! It was sooo yum!

Before walking back to the car we walked around the antique markets and looked at all the knives and things on sale. My favourite object was a chair that had sprite and coke bottle lids stuck all over it!

With Auntie Jean and Uncle Terry we looked at the lavender fields in Sault. We stopped on the side of the road to look at the purple fields and my uncle found a pair of new sunnies that fit me! They were just lying there, by the side of the road! There was one lavender field that was very well kept and tidy. It looked like it was used for postcards.

We drove to Roussillon, a town well known for it's ochre mining. We walked up the hill to the top of the town to have lunch. From the view point you could see all around. As we walked back down through the village we stopped at an art gallery. The lady had some very pretty paintings. My favourite one was a painting of Sault with lots of cows grazing in the fields.

I went to my friends' house for a sleepover. We went to the public swimming pool in Baumes de Venise. We swam a lot and then we were called over to eat lunch. Constance and I had ham, cheese, and tomato toasties. We lay on the grass and found a tree with blackberries so we ate them and had races in the swimming pool. It was really fun.

At home here in Provence we have had many visitors come to see us during the last 2 months. The last family that came had kids our age with them, our friends from the sunshine Coast, Jack and Georgie. Jack, Georgie, Sean and I walked to the lake together, here in Mormoiron. There we climbed over the railing and then jumped into the lake from a little ledge. After a while the water got very cold as it started to get windy, but it was still fun. We swam into the reeds and Sean found a big clam. He was playing around with Jack and accidently dropped it, the clam cracked and there was a big mussel inside!

That afternoon we drove to the big adventure park just outside Mormoiron. This park is filled with flying foxes and challenging climbing and obstacle courses to get around. A harness allows you to clip yourself onto safety wires and gloves protected our hands from rope burn. Joined from tree to tree there are ropes and wires. There is 6 courses all up with various difficulty levels. They are green, blue, black, blue, red and double black. It takes about 2 and a half hours to complete them all. I did all the courses and so did Jack and Mark. The others didn't finish the entire course. We were all exhausted by the end.

There is a Fete in Mormoiron right now. Jack and Georgia came to the fete with us. I went on the trampolines first. It was so cool. I jumped really high and did lots of flips, I nearly did a double flip!! We kept walking around and I had ago at throwing hoops around these boxes. I tried to get a big teddy bear but it was very hard because it didn't count if the hoop just sat on top, it had to go the whole way round the box so I didn't win anything.

Thanks for visiting and I will see you next time :-)