Avignon

We went to Avignon which is the capital city of where we are staying.  We went on an excursion and had to write about it after.  Here are some of the things I found out about in Avignon.

There used to be a bridge across the river - it is the Rhone river.  A long time ago the river flooded and washed away some of the bridge.  Part of it is still there and we went on it.  It is called the Pont d'Avignon (Pont is french for bridge) but used to be called Pont St Benezet.

The wall around the city is over 4 kms long and surrounds the whole city.  inside the wall is a palace for the Popes.  The Pope is the leader of the catholic church.  Popes live in Italy now in the Vatican but they used to live in Avignon, 9 popes lived there in the 1300s.

In the second world war Avignon was taken over by the Germans who invaded france, luckily they didn't destroy the city.

I liked Avignon there was lots to see and learn about.

Pernes les Fontaines and L'Isle sur la sorgue

These are two villages very near our house.  The first one is really old and used to have a stone wall around it.  There is only a bit of the wall still left and an old draw bridge and some of the fort buildings. the town has 40 fountains in it and water that runs under it to the fountains.

The second one is really pretty, it has lots of canals, mum says its like Venice in Italy - I don't know I haven't been there, but I like this one.  It had a huge market with lots of food.  We ate really yummy chicken and potatoes and ice cream.  There were lots of vegetables and fruit and olives everywhere. I don't think I like olives but mum says I should try one while we are here.  The restaurants have tables and chairs on the bridges over the canals, i think it would be fun to eat there.

Our house in Provence

Here are some photos of the house we are staying in for 2 weeks in Provence.  It is a house in the country like our last one but is much nicer.  I am happy in this house, there is a really big garden with a soccer field and goals and swings and a table tennis table.  we have a soccer ball and a rugby ball which we use to play footy.  The house is really thick stone and it stays really warm.

A birthday party for Noah's dad

We had a party at our house for Noah's dad, Jeremy. Instead of a barbecue, they cooked the sausages on a  grill plate over some burnt wine vines.  They dry the vines out then make a fire and wait for them to burn to coals and smoke a bit then they put the sausages on.  They were really yummy.  Jeremy's friend Tino is from a French island and he performed a special ceremony for Jeremy and ll the grown ups drank a special drink called Kava.
The kids had a grape war, throwing grapes at each over, it made a big mess and mum was mad, but it was fun!!

Tour de Roy St Emillion

On Thursday we went to St Emilion with our friends, Monique and Philippe.  We went on a train ride around the town.  We saw a lot of wine grapes. The town used to have a big wall around it but only some is left.
After the train we climbed up the Tour de Roy which means the Tower it was very high and there were lots of steps to climb. The view was great from the top, you could see all over the town.
Then we had an ice cream (glacé in French) I had passionfuit it was yummy.  Philippe bought macarons in all different flavours for us to try, my favourite was chocolate.
On Friday we went to Libourne, we had a picnic in the park, it was fun.

Bilbao - Guggenheim museum in Spain

On Tuesday we drove in to Spain from St Jean de Luz, it was only about 8 minutes and we went through a pay place then we were in Spain! The road was steep and windy with big mountains and really low valleys out my window.
Bilbao is a nice city, with lots of gardens and a tram.  it has a really good playground with climbing nets and slides, we played there and had fun.  It has a big climbing bridge.
The museum was really big and outside it looked great. Inside the building was really good and it had a glass lift.  But the art work wasn't that great, I was a bit bored.
Outside there is water all around the museum and three are sculptures.  There is a really big spider, some tulips and sometimes smoke comes out across the water it looks good. it was a long drive home.

St jean de Luz

Today we went to a place thats in France but really close to Spain called St Jean de Luz, we are going to Spain tomorrow to go to the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao.
The best thing about today was that there was a real beach and we could go for a swim in the Atlantic Ocean. It was so good to go to a real beach again, we had fun.
After a walk around the town, we had dinner at a pizzeria in town, it was good, it was next door to a pirate loll shop. we bought some lollies which were in huge barrels.
its really warm here and we had a really good day.

some photos of the beach and Lily and I swimming

My dad and I at dinner - you can just see one of the barrels full of lollies behind my dad's shoulder!!