End of School and Start of Festivals

On the last day of school I was sad to say goodbye to all my friends but a little excited to be going home to Australia in only a short time!

We have just been truffle hunting, with dogs! It was fun because when the dog had found a truffle, I would kneel down and look at the hole in the ground with the hunting lady. If she had missed a truffle I would pick it out for her. If it was a big truffle she would keep it but if it was small one she would give it to me. So by the end I had 2 or 3 truffles! I had a fantastic time!

Around Provence all the Christmas festivals are starting, so one morning we all got up and it was a nice sunny day so we decided to go to Carpentras to see the festivals. First there was some jack-in-the-box clowns that had a big box with leg holes so that they could walk around with a big box on their shoulders. They could also open up the top so that we could see them. They had very weird and freaky face so there was a lady coming out of a shop and there was 3 boxes so they all trapped her in the triangle and started singing creepy songs around her but finally they let her go. I felt so sorry for her!

We also saw the French Santa! He was on this old rickety bike with all these potions on the back. His face was quite old but he wasn't wearing any red or white!

There is an ice-skating rink in Carpentras, so what do we decide to do? of course! skate!!! It's really fun but the boots give you big blisters!! :-)

When we went around and round the course, it was really fun because you feel like you're walking on air!

As part of the Christmas celebrations, there is a big chateau. Inside the chateau, there is a big shop that sells lots of Christmas decorations. There were some very cute ones. We walked into the 'kitchen', a man was doing taste tests with wine and so we had a look around and then I walked past the man who was doing the taste tests and he quickly poured a glass of 'champagne' and offered it to me and said taste, so I did!
It was really yum but he said that it was 0% alcohol and that it was fizzy grape juice. It was in a really fancy bottle and everything! He also said that on Christmas day while all the parents are drinking champagne, the kids could be drinking 'champagne', too!

Remember the truffles I found when I went truffle hunting? Well, we've been saving them for when we had bought a Camembert cheese so we could cut the Camembert in half and then cut the truffles up into little pieces place them on 1 side of the Camembert and the put the 2 halves back together. The flavour of the fresh truffles will penetrate the Camembert cheese. Our friend Isabelle told us to buy a Normandie Camembert made from non-pasteurised milk and one that was bien-fait. That's well done, so that it's creamy in the centre, yet mature as well. Camembert is my favourite cheese. This Camembert will be ready for eating on Christmas day.

Here is how it looks!

See you shortly! ;-)

Luging

Hello Everyone,

Saturday morning was a perfect sunny day and we decided to drive up Mt Ventoux to do some tobogganing. We drove around all the windy roads and finally arrived at the ski hut. There was a very slippery, icy road going down to all the ski slopes and ski shops. We were driving down slowly but our car stopped responding to all of Dad's actions! We started sliding down the ice, out of control and finally crashed into a car!! I was so scared! Luckily no one got hurt. We got out of the car and while Mum and Dad organised everything Sean and I hired some toboggans and tobogganed down a slope.

It was fun because Sean and I tied our sleds together and the back person was the break and the front person was the steerer. It was fun because if the front person even touched the steering, the whole steering would turn into a break and the front would suddenly stop and the back would bump into it. Then we would have to walk back up the hill laughing and falling over.

When we got too cold to go on we went to a cafe and ate a Nutella crepe and had a hot chocolate with marshmallows. We went outside to go home, but all day people were having troubles trying to get up the icy hill. So we dug out our show-7's ('chausettes' - a sock thing that you put over the tyres) and we got up the hill and drove home.

That night we went to my friend Claire's house for dinner. For dinner we had a raw salmon entree, a duck main and a Toblerone mousse for desert. It was very yum. Claire and I played in her bedroom and on the wii console. Claire also has a cat called Scarlette, so we also played with her. I had great fun!
Au Revoir!

My Birthday and Friends

My birthday has just passed. I had a lot of fun. I had a birthday party at an Indian/Japanese restaurant. The restaurant was an 'all you can eat' buffet. YUMMY!! I also made a cake and brought it in to school! The cake is French and is called Chocolat Saucisson, which means chocolate sausage! Don't worry there is no actual sausage in it!

For my birthday Mum, Dad and Sean gave me a big 'Little Marcel' suitcase and some very cool shoes! I wear them every day!

A couple of days before my birthday, I went to Charlotte, Raphaelle and Constance's house for a sleepover. The night I arrived we were told to get ready for bed and then we all stayed up until 1 o'clock in the morning and painted old t-shirts and played on roller skates! It was fun.

Tonight all our friends are coming over to eat a big Thai feast! It will be great fun!

I want to share with you my Chocolate Saussicon Recipe:

Ingredients:

200g milk chocolate

100g butter

100 icing sugar

1 egg

1 packet of Arnott's plain tea biscuits

15 marshmallows

Procedure:

Cut the marshmallows into 4 pieces each and put them in a bowl.

Crush the biscuits and put them into another bowl.

Melt chocolate until most lumps are gone and the put in the butter to melt with the chocolate.

Put in the icing sugar and stir until smooth.

Put in the biscuit crumbs the egg and mix them in.

Put in the marshmallow bits and stir.

Cut 3 squares of aluminium foil.

Grab the mix with your hands and put it on the aluminium foil in the shape of a sausage.

Roll the aluminium foil around the sausage like a sushi roll. Squeeze the ends of the aluminium foil so you cant see the sausage any more.

Put it in the fridge for minimum 4 hours.

Bon Apetit!

Grottes de Thouzon

After just coming home from the Gorge Du Verdon, we have visited Les Grottes de Thouzon. The Thouzon Cave was discovered in 1902 while excavating for a quarry. Many years before they discovered the cave, there was a river called the Sorgue running through the ground making the cave. The water escaped via 'chimneys' in the cave. Eventually the water ran out so now it's a cave. But it is still in perfect condition.
It is an amazing cave because of it's localization: in the outer part of an old limestone massif. The sight inside was amazing. I liked the hollow stalectites. The longest one was 1m20! There were also some mini "pools" - a mini dam with water in it. At one point on the tour the tour-guide turned off the lights in the cave and we had a light show with music. It was very beautiful.

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!