Castles and Eurodisney

Bonjour.

This week we drove down to the Loire Valley where there are so many chateaux (castles and really big houses). We saw so many beautiful chateaux. One chateau had 440 rooms. It was huge. It also had a staircase that was two spiral staircases wrapped together going opposite ways (like DNA). Matthew went up one side and I went the other, and you couldn't see each other. It was amazing. (Leonardo Da Vinci designed the staircase).

Leonardo was a famous Italian man that lived a long time ago, (nearly 500 years ago). He painted the Mona Lisa and many other paintings, but he also invented many things. One of the chateaux we visited had many of his inventions, both in little models to look at, and life size ones in the gardens. He invented different types of bridges, early machine guns and an armoured tank, and even designed flying machines, like a glider and an air balloon.

After we had seen lots of chateaux, we went to a museum of magic, where there were magic tricks, puppets and a stage show, and dragons that came out of the windows every hour. These chess pieces were huge. When you looked through a special window at the pieces, your face appeared on the black square on the chess pieces. Very cool.

But the best part of our week was going back to Paris and visiting Eurodisney. Disneyland in Paris. We had heaps of rides and went up a huge tree house. We also saw a stunt car show where the cars and motorbikes drove up ramps and went into the air. Lightning McQueen came on stage and did some car tricks too.

We had a great week. We are now going to Germany, where they speak German. I have to start learning some German words now.

So au revoir. Have a great holiday, and you can hear more of our trip when you come back to school.

Pebble Beaches

Bonjour

We have now been to Yport and Etretat in the north of France, and walked on the beach. These beaches don't have white sand on it like ours. They are covered in pebbles (the little round rocks that some people put on their garden). They are incredible, and when you walk on them they make a scrunching noise.

Also on the beach they have little buildings that look like tents. People get changed in to their bathers in these buildings. Sometimes you can even get donkey rides on the beach, but we didn't see any donkeys. We thought it was too cold to go swimming, but some people were in the water.

Along the north coast of France are huge white cliffs. The waves crash up against the cliffs and you can see arches and caves in the cliffs. It really is beautiful.

We walked around the town and found an icecream shop. I had a waffle cone with two scoops (1 blueberry and 1 rose). Matthew had chocolate mint. They were delicious. We didn't give Kev any icecream.

We also visited Mont St Michel, a large building that was built on a small rocky island. The building is so big, it covers the whole island. It has walls all around the outside like a castle. We walked around the walls and all through the building. The weather was really warm too, I wished I'd worn shorts.

Now we're going down to the middle of Loire valley to see all the chateaux. Leonardo  Da Vinci lived at one of the chateaux that we are visiting. There is a display of his inventions there. I'll post some more photos soon.

Have a great week. Not long until holidays now.

Paris

Bonjour/Hello

We are in France. In France, people speak French instead of English, so we are learning to speak a little French.
These are our most used words.
Merci -Thank you
Sil vous plais - please
Parlez vous anglaise - Do you speak English?

We stayed in Paris, the capital of France, and ate croissants for breakfast, and jambon et fromage baguettes (ham and cheese rolls) for lunch. Some French people eat special snails for dinner (we saw some one eat them, but we didn't. We had beef bourginon (beef with onions and mushrooms in a special sauce).

Some famous buildings that we have seen are:

 The Eiffel tower

 The Arc de Triomphe (we climbed the stairs inside and looked at Paris from the top)

Awesome.

 The Palace of Versaille

 This room in the palace has mirrors all way down the hall and heaps of chandeliers. All the walls and ceilings are painted with beautiful paintings. There was also an art display in the palace. There was a huge shoe made out of cooking pots, and a pink helicopter.

We don't have a car in Paris, so we are using trains to travel around. Some of the trains run underground through tunnels and some run above the ground. They travel very fast. We are hiring another motor home and travelling around the north of France and down to the Loire Valley (where there are lots of chateaux (French castles).

Have a great week.
Au revoir.

England

Hello again, we're back in England and have met some British friends. This is Rick and Charlie.

We stayed in Bristol with them for a week. While we were there we went to Stonehenge;

Now we're in London, where the queen lives.

Buckingham Palace

There are lots of famous buildings here in London. We're travelled on the London Tube (trains that travel underground) to see lots of them. We saw: 

 The London Eye

Westminster Abbey

and Big Ben

We also went to the most famous shop in London. 

Harrods

It was huge and even had an icecream parlour inside the shop. 

Look at Kev's new friends. They were in Harrods too.

London is awesome!!! There is so much to see and do here.

On Wednesday we are catching a train that goes from England to France (through a tunnel under the sea). It's called the Eurostar.

Tell you all about it next week.

Au revoir!!

Ireland

Hi, we're in Ireland.

We came to Ireland on a ferry (a big ship that carries cars, trucks and people). The ferry went very fast and only took 1 hour.

We drove along the coast all the way to the top of Ireland and saw the Giant's Causeway. It is an amazing place with lots of  rocks. Irish legend says that a giant named Finn made a big path of rocks from Ireland to Scotland to fight a Scottish giant. One of the rocks looks like the giant's shoe.

We also walked across a very high rope bridge that went over the water. It was very windy and very scarey. 

Then we drove down the bottom of Ireland and saw some houses with thatched roofs. They reminded me of the three little pigs.

We saw another castle and a factory that made bowls, ornaments and vases out of crystal.

Now it's back on the ferry and off to England again. Bye

Scotland

Kev says "Hello" from Scotland.

We travelled to Scotland in a motorhome and went to Edinburgh, which is the capital of Scotland. We climbed a huge tower called the Scott Monument, which had 265 steps. The view was very nice.

Scotland has lots of old buildings and castles. It also has lots of hills. Matthew enjoyed climbing the hills.

Kev met a new friend in Scotland. His name is Tavish McDougal. He wears a kilt and plays the bagpipes.

We will talk to you again in Ireland. 

The Airplane

We travelled from Perth, all the way to Manchester in England. It took so long, 18 hours, (from before you were out of bed in the morning, until after you go to bed at night). It was a very long day, but we had lots of food on the airplane and watched movies all day.

When we got to Manchester, we went straight to bed.