Classe Verte

This past Sunday my school left for the Classe Verte, a trip to the town of Angers. We were going to stay for a week in the Abbey St. Maur which is an abbey from the Middle Ages. We took a high speed train to get there. When we got to the station in Angers we took a bus to the Zoo de Doue. We ate at a restaurant and got into groups to tour the zoo. Our group took a trail that passed by almost every animal in the zoo. The animals had really big enclosures. My favorites were the vultures, the bats, and the leopards. The vulture cage wasn't exactly a cage. There was a big fence around an enormous area. You could go in behind the fence. You could watch them eat and after they ate they would sometimes wipe their beaks on your pants. After the zoo we took long bus ride to the Abbey St. Maur which is where we stayed the whole week. All the boys from my class - there were nine of us - stayed in one big room with bunk beds. At night it took hours to get to sleep because it was light until literally 12 o'clock, and it was so hot that we laid on top of the beds instead of in them.

The next day, Monday, we went to the Castle of Angers. People had inhabited this site for thousands of years. We saw tiny models of how the castle was through the ages. We went to the tallest tower of the castle. They used to have a windmill there so that they could make flour. We saw a tapestry called The Apocolypse which is over 100 feet long and not to mention is the longest tapestry in the World. The tapestry was begun in 1373. We had a nice picnic there by a fountain. I had a really fun time because we played army tag. Then we took a guided tour around the old town of Angers. On the tour I didn't learn much except that there must be many definitions of the words "treasure hunt", and that Gothic style flamboyant doors are really boring. When we got back we played soccer for a long time and had a snack of donuts filled with Nutella and mint syrup. After dinner back at the Abbey we had a thing called "veiller" where we did a bunch of dancing games and they tested us on our knowledge of all kinds of songs.

On Tuesday we visited another Abbey from the Middle Ages and don't ask me the name because I forget. I saw little room that had pictures of the story of Jesus. Then we saw the gardens which were fairly small but looked very nice. We saw the dining room which was huge, but all the table had been sold during the French revolution. The kitchen was awesome because it used to have 22 chimneys but now they have 12. The tops of the chimneys were domed shaped. They used these for hanging fish to smoke. Priests and nuns weren't allowed to leave the abbey for their whole life. They had a big wall surrounding the abbey so that they couldn't leave. Inside the walls they had a big garden and a lot of the things you would have on the outside, so that they wouldn't want to leave. That day when we got back we went to a humongous orchard by the Abbey that was filled with rose bushes. We played for a long time. We were playing tag and I was going through a small hole and hedge to get away form someone who was "it". I ran into someone else who was trying to go through the hole at the same time and I tripped and fell. My legs and head got all cut up, and I didn't even notice until we go to the place where we were having goutter (snack) . For goutter we had chocolate croissants.

On Wednesday we went to the Chateau de Breze. The outside was really small but the underground area seemed like the size of two castles put together. There were tunnels and caves where they lived and underground stables. There were bakeries and wine making shops. If an enemy attacked they would be trapped in a big holes where they would have hot oil and rocks thrown on them from holes in the ceiling above them. They also had holes in the sides for shooting at people. It was possible to take the castle but very hard.

On Thursday we went to the Cadre Noir de Saumur, which is one of the three best horse schools in the world. We saw a show and got a guided tour of the stables. The three famous jumps are the cabriole, the courbette, and the croubade . The horses were really awesome. There were two horses there who couldn't eat the food there and were only fed newspapers from England that have a particular kind of ink which is edible. On Thursday night, our last night there, we had a "boume" which is basically a disco party. There we had lots of candy which we brought for the train but hadn't finished. Pretty much everyone dance with a really lot of girls - I mean a lot. I danced with about 8 or 9 girls. But don't worry it wasn't slow dancing.

Friday we visited the Moulin or mill. This was a water mill which was used to grind flour. We made bread there that was actually pretty good and we got to take it home. After the mill we took the train and went home. All in all, it was a really, really fun week.

Montmartre

The other night we went to Montmartre. Montmartre is probably the tallest hill in Paris. It took a pretty long time to get there since we had to take the metro, then walk to the funicular, then my Dad and I walked up the hill, but my Mom and little brother took the funicular.

Montmartre is so famous because there is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and because there are lots of artists there. We spent a bit of time watching the view. Then we walked into the village.







We walked through the Place du Tertre which is really famous because a lot of artists work there. Then we found a nice restaurant and had dinner there. It was really just a little courtyard, and it took forever for the food to come, but when it did it was really good!

My cousins from America!

Last Sunday we had a really really big brunch: my Dad invited all of his friends over and all of my cousins and uncles and aunts on my Dad's side. Then, right before the last people had left, my cousins from America John and Kristin arrived and came to stay for a few days.

We went with them to the Jardin des Tuileries. We played some soccer. My brother and I went to play on the trampoline. Then John and Kristin went for a walk to the Arc de Triomphe. My Dad cooked some French food for all of us for dinner. The next day I had to go to school, but, when I came back, we went out to dinner with them to a fondue place where we had some really good food. I got a goat cheese fondue. My brother got a plain cheese fondue., John and Kristin shared a beer and cheese fondue. My parents had a meat fondue, which is where they give you a bunch of raw meat, and the pot is boiling hot with oil where you cook the meat and it takes about 30 seconds to cook it.

Next day I also had school but when I got back I met with John and Kristin at the Luxembourg Gardens. We played some ping pong. Then, on the way back, we stopped at a restaurant and I ate dinner with my cousins. The next day unfortunately they had to leave. I saw them in the morning but when I got back from school they were gone:(

That week was the week of our final tests for the year, and, actually, I did pretty well. I was first in the class in math, and I was close to the top in French. In English I was also close to the top. In history I think I was first.

Hedges for Landing Strips

Last week we went to the Chateau de Versailles. The line took about 45 minutes, so my Mom, my brother and I played around for a bit while my Dad and my babysitter waited in line. When we went in, instead of going into the castle, we went into the gardens that were absolutely ENORMOUS, and when I say ENORMOUS, I mean ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS. All over there were statues and nice fountains. There were all kinds of different plants everywhere.

We saw these little karts that you could drive around the gardens, except that there were only 2 left, and not many coming back, and the line had maybe 10 people ahead of us. My parents said that if we got one I could drive it, but unfortunately we never got one.

When we were walking down some nice steps to go into the main part of the garden, my brother fell off the steps and onto the top of the hedge. I don't mean into the hedge, I mean onto the hedge, because instead of falling through the hedge like he normally should have, he stayed on top of the hedge. Then I found out that even I could walk on top of the hedge!

Then we walked through a sort of maze that took us a long way further into the garden, and when we came out of it we kept walking forward we found out that we could take rowboats out on the water. So we bought some sandwiches at a little food stand, rented a boat, and had a picnic on the boat in the water. On the way back, we had some really good ice cream. I got mango.

Then we went into the castle. We saw a lot of it, but compared to the size of the castle we saw pretty much nothing. The king who built it was Louis XIV. Louis XIV apparently had, if I remember correctly, 11 drawing rooms, which, for those of you who don't know, are rooms for people to stay in while waiting for the king. There were also lots of sun symbols everywhere, probably because Louis XIV was called the Sun King (Le Roi Soleil).

We also saw the king's bedroom and the queen's bedroom. I think the queen's bedroom was a lot nicer than the king's bedroom even though the King's bedroom was a lot bigger, because he really had 6 rooms. Both rooms were off the famous Gallerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors). The Gallerie had hundreds of mirrors. As a matter of fact, the whole room except for the ceiling was mirrors. After that we left and went home.

Overall I think that it was a very good trip except for the fact that I could not drive any of the karts.

Le Champs de Mars

The other day we went to the Champs de Mars for a school picnic.

The Champs de Mars is the big park that's right in front of the Eiffel Tower. Everybody brought something to eat and we all shared. We brought brownies and sandwiches. Then we played some soccer. After that we played some football (American football), and then we played three flies up. Then we did a bunch of games of sharks and minnows. I won every game except the last game.

I really liked the place and we had a lot of fun. My dad thought that it was really cool to have a picnic under the Eiffel Tower and I thought it was too but still, considering the facts, we could probably go there any time we want. All in all, I think that it was a really good picnic.

The Black Rooster

In the morning yesterday, we were going to drop my Dad in Naples, but my Mom had neck cramps, so she could not drive. So we decided not to drop him off, and we kept on driving towards Rome to our new hotel. We stopped on the way at a town called Alatri, where we ate lunch at a restaurant called the Gaio Nero. We had a really good lunch, and the people there were really nice and gave us a lot of candy.

There were lots of medieval houses there. The town is famous for its huge Greek Acropolis, which means "the high city", at the very top of the hill. We went to a park there and played a bit, and my brother got three bloody noses there.

Then we drove to our hotel in Rome. We weren't really hungry so we went to sleep without dinner. In the morning, we drove to the airport really early and took a flight back to Paris.

The Perfect Day

Today we went to an island called Capri. We rent a small motor boat for the whole day. First we drove the boat to Capri and got off at a small harbor called Marina Piccola, which means, you guessed it, "the small harbor". Then we walked around and took a taxi convertible up the hill. Then we walked some more, Then we went to a restaurant and had an excellent lunch where I had the best pizza that I ever had in Italy.

After lunch, we walked back to the boat, then boated all around Capri. In the end, when we were waiting for some friends to come back, my Dad and I went swimming into the water next to our boat. It took me a whole 10 minutes to decide to go in since the water was freezing cold, but eventually I did. Then we sailed back to Nerano.

In the evening we had another wonderful dinner at Charlot the restaurant. They cooked us a special dinner that was not on the menu just for us, that was made of typical dishes from the region.